There's a new species at Melbourne Aquarium for those that like 'the only ones in captivity' species. Melbourne Aquarium is, as of today, now displaying three juvenile elephant sharks, Callorhinchus milii. An Aquarium staff-member told me they are the only ones on public display in the world, though of course I am willing to stand corrected on that. Despite the common name, the species is actually a type of chimaera, and adds a whole new order of cartilaginous fish to the Aquarium's collection.
One of the elephant sharks is approximately twelve months old and is perhaps 30cm long. The other two are only about three weeks old and were hatched at the Aquarium. They are each perhaps 10cm long. The fish came from a research project at Monash University which the Aquarium is supporting.
Other minor updates:
The Aquarium's experiment with exhibiting calamari squid has come to a premature halt. The largest squid ate all of its co-inhabitants, and is now off-display.
The Aquarium's old reef tank (a pretty shabby thing based around pretty boring soft-bodied corals) has been replaced by a new reef tank. The new tank consists of three pillar-like formations of rock moderately covered with corals. I think most are still soft-bodies but there might be a few stony corals as well. I don't really know corals at all. The main feature of this new tank, however, is that it is presented under blacklights so that the corals appear fluorescent. It's kinda cool.
One of the elephant sharks is approximately twelve months old and is perhaps 30cm long. The other two are only about three weeks old and were hatched at the Aquarium. They are each perhaps 10cm long. The fish came from a research project at Monash University which the Aquarium is supporting.
Other minor updates:
The Aquarium's experiment with exhibiting calamari squid has come to a premature halt. The largest squid ate all of its co-inhabitants, and is now off-display.
The Aquarium's old reef tank (a pretty shabby thing based around pretty boring soft-bodied corals) has been replaced by a new reef tank. The new tank consists of three pillar-like formations of rock moderately covered with corals. I think most are still soft-bodies but there might be a few stony corals as well. I don't really know corals at all. The main feature of this new tank, however, is that it is presented under blacklights so that the corals appear fluorescent. It's kinda cool.
