Until recently, the room that this tank is in (also containing three other similar tanks and a cylindrical seahorse display) was known as British Oceans and was mostly devoted to native saltwater species. Recently, it has been re-themed to 'Coral Sea,' and thus the inhabitants have changed. I am torn on this development, as on one hand, displays to show how surprisingly lovely and colourful our native fish and marine species in fact are seem to be somewhat rare in zoos, but on the other hand, the tanks seem so much more lively now that they are filled with some of the museum's live anemones and corals (the Horniman participates in Project Coral, which is one of the largest polyp breeding programmes in the country, and is very impressive for such a small aquarium), so it is very nice to have more of those onshow.
One feature that I certainly miss of the original 'British Oceans' is the wave machine in this particular tank. Every ten to fifteen minutes, a wave would be produced. I cannot recall what fish species were in the tank, but the wave always seemed to be somewhat loud and powerful, so I was always surprised by the fact that there were any!
