You are quite right! To my knowledge she is almost exactly four and was born at Monterey Bay Aquarium, she debuted when I first started volunteering there in 2020.
@Local_Shark Oh wow, I had no idea MBA was breeding them, I thought they had all Females. That's cool to learn, I wonder if she'll head back there once she's bigger. I can't think of any other Aquariums with a tank big enough for the species, she's very cute
@Northwest_FIsh_Keeping I am not actually sure she was an intentional breed! AOP got a pair, that I believe were sent from MBA (I recall that being said when they first told us about them) but I think they also mentioned that their mom was pregnant when MBA acquired her. The second of the two sadly has passed on from an illness I am told.
I also have long wondered if she will be sent to a new institution when she’s full size! She can’t be in a touch pool forever, they need room to move. Blue Cavern is probably too narrow and Tropical Reef is maybe a bit too warm (though her species is present all over the world, including the tropics like Indonesia). It’s possible she could be placed in a new Shark Lagoon remodel/replacement someday, especially if they go with a somewhat subtropical Australian temperature for that. I have seen pelagics exhibited in smallish tanks - they had one in the current Shark Lagoon a decade ago. I believe he may have been moved to the Birch Aquarium and a sub-100,000 gallon tank there, as their individual looked to be very similar. But both of those were deeper and roomier than AOP’s touch pool.
@Northwest_FIsh_Keeping, @Local_Shark I had a summer school teacher a few years ago mention that she fed some pups or juveniles when she worked at the aquarium, though I'm not sure if those were from adults in the aquarium.
@splendens If you mean at Monterey, that may well be right. I did find the original email sent to us education volunteers talking about them, and it reads as follows: "They were born at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and are about two years old". That was sent in 2020, so in actuality she would be close to 6 now. Doesn't necessarily answer the question of whether she and her sibling(s) were born on purpose or came from a mother who was caught while pregnant.
