Palais de la Porte Dorée Aquarium Aquarium de la Porte Doree

lintworm

lintworm

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Near the Parc Zoologique de Paris lies a palace that houses a number of attractions, including a rather curious aquarium. It was completely renovated in 2021 and is an aquarium that is of interest to any zoochatter with an interest in fish. There are no large tanks and apart from albino alligators no obvious large crowd-pleasers, but what is there is very thoughfully done. In total there are about 50 tanks, of which the majority focuses on tropical freshwater, but there is a sizeable section with a focus on coral reefs from around the world too.

What makes this aquarium so interesting is the collection it harbours. The coral reef fish already include some rarities, but where it really shines is their freshwater fish collection. In the vast majority of aquariums most tanks are devoted to SE-Asia and the Amazon, with often one New Guinea/Australia tank for rainbow fish + pig-nosed turtle and a display of African Great Lake Cichlids. All these tanks are present here too, but the shining stars are the African freshwater fish. From tropical rainforest fish to more unknown cichlids, this aquarium really shows what diversity other aquaria are mostly missing. The obvious highlight for me was the large selection of Mormyrids, the family including the elephantnose fish. Normally that would be the only Mormyrid on display, but this aquarium has a small section with 8 completely different and rarely seen species of Mormyrid on show to highlight what a curious and broad adaptive radiation this actually is. Apart from the mormyrids there are many more rarities on show here and this really is a place to see when in Paris.

There are quite some pictures in the gallery:
Palais de la Porte Dorée Aquarium - ZooChat
 
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According to ZTL, the aquarium is one of 5 ZTL collections with the mountain crystal tetra, rainbow goodeid, sargassum trigger and drape fin barb
It is one of 4 ZTL collections with the threelined pencilfish, spoon face whiptail, wahrindi, spotfin butterflyfish and horseman and dwarf corydoras
It is one of 3 ZTL collections with the reticulate knifefish, similar damsel, bellybarred, spotted damba, Shukoray, West African dwarf and red spotted cichlids, badis, Chizumulu bluegray mbuna, Salvador molly, fingered dragonet, pygmy glass danio, pygmy gourami, snow pleco, peppermint bass, violet goby, marbed swordtail, tropical gar, golden panchax and threespot leporinus
It is one of 2 ZTL collections with the lantern bass, fourline and black leopard wrasses, mangrove rivulus, blue dwarf snakehead, Ansorge's neolabias, dusky jawfish, blackbarred limia, Cendweawasih longnose butterflyfish, Lake Leopold Congo and phoenix tetras, blackgullet, stone-mover and spangled cichlids, elephant trunkfish, corsula, mormyrid (Brevimyrus niger), wormjawed mormyrid, emerald green lampeye, redlip blenny, painted anthias, spotted buldog pleco, oriental weatherloach, blackaxle chromis, mural goby, rock kribensis and blue tilapia
It is the only ZTL collection with the Annie's dwarf, Rio Atrato and West African freshwater and flame gobies, Cornish jack, blue ribbon, tail-spot ctemopoma, glowtail pipefish, Regan's mouthbrooder, Hori's Tanganyika, Myers' basketmouth, Rio Tapajos rheophilic, dark-spotted, Matumbi and orange hunter and Neochromis rufocadalis Victoria and Chiriqui cichlids, Vanderbilt's chromis, blue-tailed, purplelined, deepwater and Kaboute's wrasses, poor man's tropheus, Sierra Leone dwarf characin, xenocherax spilurus, ferox betta, mormyrid (Mercusenius mento), pindu, forest snakehead, Roho labeo, Candens barb, Rio Formiga tetra, Tholoni's tilapia, Lake Tanganyika shelldweller, redbelly tilapia, sixray corydoras and spotted shovelnose
 
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