devilfish
Well-Known Member
The Horniman museum in South London houses a fascinating range of artefacts from around the world. One of the highlights for me was the Natural History gallery; their amazing collection is rather dated but includes a wide variety of specimens from around the world, the centrepiece being the infamous ‘over-stuffed walrus’ (the story being that the taxidermists who received the skin had no idea what a walrus should look like, and so just stuffed it to resemble a brown balloon). As well as natural history, they have various anthropological, religious and musical collections - and they have an aquarium in the basement.
Though very small, I rate this aquarium as one of the best I’ve ever seen. The way I like to break it down is by thinking of it as a series of four main rooms, interconnected by either a smaller room or by a single tank. On entry, there’s a small foyer, which has a victorian-style tank containing rock pool animals (shrimps, gobies, anemones etc.) and a tank focussing on anemones. The first ‘room’ is based on British pond life, with a tank for fish and another for frogs, toads and newts at various stages in their life cycles. The first ‘connecting room’ has a suspended model from the ceiling of a sea turtle eating a jellyfish, as well as a tank of moon jellies. This is the best jellyfish display I have ever seen, a spacious tank holds several huge jellies (most of them about a foot in diameter) which are genuinely quite mesmerising. I have never found anywhere before that manages to make jellyfish so entertaining.
The next main area contains a series of tanks with life from British seashores, three of them connected to a wave generator, sending crashing waves into the tanks; the noise they make resonates throughout the aquarium. One of the tanks contains small, rockpool life such as anemones, shrimps and gobies. Another contains slightly larger shrimps and fish, small crabs and some juvenile dogfish. The other connected tank contains a large blue lobster (with a very old, dull exoskeleton) as well as shanny and some cleaner shrimp. The final tank in this area, opposite the others, displayed larger crabs and larger fish, namely mullet and various species of wrasse. A lush cylindrical tank on the corner as you leave this area contains a couple of seahorses.
The next area is the Fijian reef, which contains three tanks; the main one is a large coral reef display with various Indo-pacific fish, including scalefin anthias, various tangs, angelfish, butterflyfish, wrasses, hawkfish and some chromis. On either side of the main tank are two smaller tanks, one containing two giant frogfish and various corals, the other containing an intimate display of two clownfish with large bubble-tip anemones. The ‘connecting display’ here is quite a large Caribbean mangrove swamp tank, containing a wide range of species, including several anableps, sally lightfoot crabs (which I didn’t see), upside-down jellfyfish and live red mangroves.
The final zone is the Iwokrama rainforest, the main display of which has terrestrial plants and an underwater viewing section containing many fish, as well as Surinam toads in a separate corner – I was pleased to see them, as I had never seen a live one before. A couple of vivaria in this zone showcase a variety of poison dart frogs, and a separate vivarium displays small monkey lemur frogs. Follow the path and you reach the foyer again.
All in all, a fantastic aquarium, with brilliant displays and an amazing variety of life, which includes some outstanding specimens. Though perhaps not large enough to merit a trip just for the aquarium, anyone in the area with an interest in anthropology, music, robotics, textiles, natural history, Chinese or African artefacts (the list goes on...) cannot afford to miss out on this museum.
Though very small, I rate this aquarium as one of the best I’ve ever seen. The way I like to break it down is by thinking of it as a series of four main rooms, interconnected by either a smaller room or by a single tank. On entry, there’s a small foyer, which has a victorian-style tank containing rock pool animals (shrimps, gobies, anemones etc.) and a tank focussing on anemones. The first ‘room’ is based on British pond life, with a tank for fish and another for frogs, toads and newts at various stages in their life cycles. The first ‘connecting room’ has a suspended model from the ceiling of a sea turtle eating a jellyfish, as well as a tank of moon jellies. This is the best jellyfish display I have ever seen, a spacious tank holds several huge jellies (most of them about a foot in diameter) which are genuinely quite mesmerising. I have never found anywhere before that manages to make jellyfish so entertaining.
The next main area contains a series of tanks with life from British seashores, three of them connected to a wave generator, sending crashing waves into the tanks; the noise they make resonates throughout the aquarium. One of the tanks contains small, rockpool life such as anemones, shrimps and gobies. Another contains slightly larger shrimps and fish, small crabs and some juvenile dogfish. The other connected tank contains a large blue lobster (with a very old, dull exoskeleton) as well as shanny and some cleaner shrimp. The final tank in this area, opposite the others, displayed larger crabs and larger fish, namely mullet and various species of wrasse. A lush cylindrical tank on the corner as you leave this area contains a couple of seahorses.
The next area is the Fijian reef, which contains three tanks; the main one is a large coral reef display with various Indo-pacific fish, including scalefin anthias, various tangs, angelfish, butterflyfish, wrasses, hawkfish and some chromis. On either side of the main tank are two smaller tanks, one containing two giant frogfish and various corals, the other containing an intimate display of two clownfish with large bubble-tip anemones. The ‘connecting display’ here is quite a large Caribbean mangrove swamp tank, containing a wide range of species, including several anableps, sally lightfoot crabs (which I didn’t see), upside-down jellfyfish and live red mangroves.
The final zone is the Iwokrama rainforest, the main display of which has terrestrial plants and an underwater viewing section containing many fish, as well as Surinam toads in a separate corner – I was pleased to see them, as I had never seen a live one before. A couple of vivaria in this zone showcase a variety of poison dart frogs, and a separate vivarium displays small monkey lemur frogs. Follow the path and you reach the foyer again.
All in all, a fantastic aquarium, with brilliant displays and an amazing variety of life, which includes some outstanding specimens. Though perhaps not large enough to merit a trip just for the aquarium, anyone in the area with an interest in anthropology, music, robotics, textiles, natural history, Chinese or African artefacts (the list goes on...) cannot afford to miss out on this museum.