The huge tank in Palma aquarium is amazing to me, this is what the site says about it -
33 metres long, 25 metres wide and 8.5 metres deep, ‘The Big Blue’ is the deepest shark tank in Europe and holds 3.5 million litres of salt water.
This immense aquarium tank takes us down into the depths of the Ocean to reveal a habitat with over 200 common species from coastal areas and from further out to sea. However, the stars of the show in ‘The Big Blue’ are the sharks: Palma Aquarium has 20 specimens of 4 different species.
What sorts of sharks are there in Palma Aquarium?
Lesser Spotted Dogfish - Scyliorhinus canícula
Smooth Hound - Mustelus mustelus
Sand Tiger Shark - Carcharias taurus
Sandbar Shark - Carcharhinus plumbeus
Blacktip Reef Shark - Carcharhinus melanopterus
It has bean bags set down to view it and me and my then 5 year old just sat for half an hour in awe, amaaazing.
Other than that, I've never been but would love to go to Georgia aquarium, their Manta Ray tank looks epic, even better than the Mallorca one.
33 metres long, 25 metres wide and 8.5 metres deep, ‘The Big Blue’ is the deepest shark tank in Europe and holds 3.5 million litres of salt water.
This immense aquarium tank takes us down into the depths of the Ocean to reveal a habitat with over 200 common species from coastal areas and from further out to sea. However, the stars of the show in ‘The Big Blue’ are the sharks: Palma Aquarium has 20 specimens of 4 different species.
What sorts of sharks are there in Palma Aquarium?
Lesser Spotted Dogfish - Scyliorhinus canícula
Smooth Hound - Mustelus mustelus
Sand Tiger Shark - Carcharias taurus
Sandbar Shark - Carcharhinus plumbeus
Blacktip Reef Shark - Carcharhinus melanopterus
It has bean bags set down to view it and me and my then 5 year old just sat for half an hour in awe, amaaazing.
Other than that, I've never been but would love to go to Georgia aquarium, their Manta Ray tank looks epic, even better than the Mallorca one.
It would be hard to top the 'Ocean Voyager' exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium: 4 whale sharks, 3 great hammerhead sharks, 2 manta rays - plus several sawfish & many smaller fish species. It has to be a contender for the world's most impressive zoological exhibit.
Zooplantman
Well-Known Member
Has anyone seen the aquarium in Okinawa, Japan?
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium - The Mysteries of Okinawa Revealed -
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium - The Mysteries of Okinawa Revealed -
Devi, Okinawa is a group of islands in the far south of Japan and the main reason tourists visit is because it is warm and tropical with nice beaches and good swimming and diving possibilities. Many tourist facilities there. The aquarium is amazing but I can't help but think it is a bit strange when you place an aquarium with emphasis on tropical sealife right next to some of the best tropical diving and swimming possibilities in the world. Okinawa (the wild, outside the aquarium) has coral reefs filled with tropical fish and also sea turtles and sharks including whale shark. If I remember right the whale sharks in their aquarium were also caught nearby. A bit like a zoo having a rainforest hall in a place with real tropical rainforest.
Much smaller but for some reason I think they are more amazing or at least just as amazing as the huge Ocean Voyager in Atlanta or the shark tank in Okinawa.
- Kelp Forest in Monterey Bay Aquarium: The lush kelp forest with many fishes of all sizes is perhaps the nearest I have ever seen to a real ecosystem being created in an aquarium. The kelp is huge and there are seastars and other invertebrates. Fishes include leopard shark, california sheephead, yellowtail, giant sea bass, garibaldi damsel, senorita, giant kelpfish, wolf eel, different species of rockfishes, surfperches, greenlings and more. It's almost 10 m tall and holds around 1,25 million liters. The homepage doesn't work right now but when they fixed it you can see http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/kelp.aspx
- Tropical Diver in Georgia Aquarium: It is much smaller than their Ocean Voyager tank but still a large aquarium at 14.9 x 14.3 x 5.5 m and around 620 thousand liters. Probably the best recreation of a tropical coral reef I have ever seen in an aquarium anywhere. A list of the around 75 coral species and around 90 fish species in the Tropical Diver aqarium is found near the end of this page but it is probably not totally up to date because the article is from 2008 The Tropical Diver Exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium: Recreating Nature on a Grander Scale. Some are in big groups like more than 550 yellow tangs, 60 regal tangs and 130 lyretail anthias.
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jenjen
Well-Known Member
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Tig
Well-Known Member
The Shark exhibit at the Coney Island Aquarium is stunning... 90k gallons, with several Sand Tiger Sharks, a Whitetip Reef Shark, 2 Nurse Sharks, a large Roughtail Stingray, a school of Permit, and several Green and Loggerhead Sea Turtles. It used to house a large Horn Shark as well. The low lighting where the public walks and the subtle blueish lighting of the exhibit makes it look completely natural, as if it's on the deeper side of a coral reef where light just starts to get dim. Stunning.
The CI Aquarium also has the Glover's Reef exhibit, which is around 70k gallons, housing reef fish. They have Grouper, Snapper, Hogfish, Cownose Rays, Damsels, Angels, Tang, 3 large Moray Eels that never fail to make visitors stare in awe, and more I can't remember.
They have a big native saltwater exhibit, housing Striped Bass, Tautog, Black Seabass, and a MAMMOTH Porgy, along with a Bluefish. Their salt marsh pond is great as well... it houses Sheepshead Minnows, Silversides, Mullet, and Killifish. They have a huge cylindrical reef biotope, with a huge Porcupine Puffer, a Flagtail Grouper, Wrasses, a big Clown Trigger, and several reef fish. The kids at their camp get to feed these fish with brine shrimp behind the scenes, and they routinely warn the kids at the camp to keep their hands out of the water for fear of being clipped by the Trigger or slashed at by one of the Tang.
The Staten Island Zoo, my favorite place in the world, has a big (8x3 maybe?) tank with a few White Spotted Bamboo Sharks, a Pennant Butterflyfish, a Chevron (?) Tang, and a Halfmoon Angelfish. The Sharks routinely produce eggs, some of which hatched and the offspring are in the ajascent tank. They also have a very cool and mellow native freshwater tank, with 3 large Bluegill (2 males and a female) which occasionally spawn. The aquascaping is so awesome, with Java Fern, moss, a 3-D rockwork background, and sand.
The CI Aquarium also has the Glover's Reef exhibit, which is around 70k gallons, housing reef fish. They have Grouper, Snapper, Hogfish, Cownose Rays, Damsels, Angels, Tang, 3 large Moray Eels that never fail to make visitors stare in awe, and more I can't remember.
They have a big native saltwater exhibit, housing Striped Bass, Tautog, Black Seabass, and a MAMMOTH Porgy, along with a Bluefish. Their salt marsh pond is great as well... it houses Sheepshead Minnows, Silversides, Mullet, and Killifish. They have a huge cylindrical reef biotope, with a huge Porcupine Puffer, a Flagtail Grouper, Wrasses, a big Clown Trigger, and several reef fish. The kids at their camp get to feed these fish with brine shrimp behind the scenes, and they routinely warn the kids at the camp to keep their hands out of the water for fear of being clipped by the Trigger or slashed at by one of the Tang.
The Staten Island Zoo, my favorite place in the world, has a big (8x3 maybe?) tank with a few White Spotted Bamboo Sharks, a Pennant Butterflyfish, a Chevron (?) Tang, and a Halfmoon Angelfish. The Sharks routinely produce eggs, some of which hatched and the offspring are in the ajascent tank. They also have a very cool and mellow native freshwater tank, with 3 large Bluegill (2 males and a female) which occasionally spawn. The aquascaping is so awesome, with Java Fern, moss, a 3-D rockwork background, and sand.
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National Aquarium in Baltimore - Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes
National Aquarium in Baltimore – Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes
Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes is the largest, and one of the only depictions of a river gorge in the Northern Territory of Australia. This huge glass building if 120 feet high and is 4,500 square feet. 150+ plants, 1,800 different Australian animals, including birds, fish, reptiles, invertebrates, and mammals, and 60,000 gallons of fresh water circulate throughout the seven exhibits. This exhibit is quite spectacular. Unlike most exhibits where visitors only look straight ahead, visitors can look all the way up to see flying foxes, at eye level to see freshwater crocodiles, and on the ground to experience free roaming lizards. Another great aspect of this exhibit is that 95% of the animals are free roaming and there are no barriers between you and them. Species include:
Mammals- Flying foxes
Birds: Kookaburra, rainbow lorikeets, zebra finch, emerald dove, imperial pigeon, crested pigeon, northern rosella, eastern rosella, lapwing, tawny frogmouth, galah cockatoo, cockatiel, king parrot, and vast array of other birds.
Reptiles: Freshwater crocodiles, frilled lizards, bearded dragon, carpet python, black headed python, death adder, pig-nose turtle, snake neck turtle, water monitor, red eared slider, and many other turtle species.
Fish: Barramundi, freshwater stingray, lungfish, archer fish, gudgeon, rainbow fish, gulf saratoga, and vast array of other fish.
Invertebrates: yabby (a blue crayfish), trilobites.
A majority of these animals are only found in Australia, which makes this exhibit even more special. This exhibit won The Best Exhibit Award by the AZA in 2007. This exhibit just has a huge "wow" factor when you enter the exhibit.
National Aquarium in Baltimore – Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes
Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes is the largest, and one of the only depictions of a river gorge in the Northern Territory of Australia. This huge glass building if 120 feet high and is 4,500 square feet. 150+ plants, 1,800 different Australian animals, including birds, fish, reptiles, invertebrates, and mammals, and 60,000 gallons of fresh water circulate throughout the seven exhibits. This exhibit is quite spectacular. Unlike most exhibits where visitors only look straight ahead, visitors can look all the way up to see flying foxes, at eye level to see freshwater crocodiles, and on the ground to experience free roaming lizards. Another great aspect of this exhibit is that 95% of the animals are free roaming and there are no barriers between you and them. Species include:
Mammals- Flying foxes
Birds: Kookaburra, rainbow lorikeets, zebra finch, emerald dove, imperial pigeon, crested pigeon, northern rosella, eastern rosella, lapwing, tawny frogmouth, galah cockatoo, cockatiel, king parrot, and vast array of other birds.
Reptiles: Freshwater crocodiles, frilled lizards, bearded dragon, carpet python, black headed python, death adder, pig-nose turtle, snake neck turtle, water monitor, red eared slider, and many other turtle species.
Fish: Barramundi, freshwater stingray, lungfish, archer fish, gudgeon, rainbow fish, gulf saratoga, and vast array of other fish.
Invertebrates: yabby (a blue crayfish), trilobites.
A majority of these animals are only found in Australia, which makes this exhibit even more special. This exhibit won The Best Exhibit Award by the AZA in 2007. This exhibit just has a huge "wow" factor when you enter the exhibit.