Melbourne Aquarium Elephant Sharks

[CGSwans]

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The Aquarium's old reef tank (a pretty shabby thing based around pretty boring soft-bodied corals) has been replaced by a new reef tank.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.

 

[Electus Parrot]

I remember them having quite a few elephant sharks back some years ago, definitely in 2006. I have a photo of them somewhere. A very interesting and weird looking species.

 

[CGSwans]

The aquarist I spoke to did say they had had them before, but definitely not in the last 4 years. Perhaps they left the collection the first time around 2006.

 

[Electus Parrot]

Yeah, my brother said they were not there when he went two years ago. From what I remember they were in an exhibit across from some touch pools, and it was somewhere near a kiosk or cafe.

 

[Chlidonias]

I remember the elephantfish (as we call them in NZ) at Melbourne Aquarium back in 2007. There were a lot of them in a low-walled mangrove exhibit with rays and so forth which later became a very bland general tank (can't remember what species replaced the elephantfish). They are a great species, not hard to keep or acquire (they're fished commercially here and I expect in Australia also), so I'd actually be surprised if the Melbourne ones really were the only ones in captivity.

 

[Chlidonias]

I just had a look in the gallery and the tank the elephantfish were in in 2007 was the one that is now (still?) the Southeast Asia lagoon with the crashed plane. The species in there aren't as ordinary as I thought, including as they do sawfish and speartooth sharks.

 

[Johnny]

Melbourne aquarium really has a great collection. What they lack in attractions, is really made up by their astonishing inhabitants. But then aqain, i'm a fishfan, for the 'mammalians' melbourne would probably be not worth the entrance fee, which is way too high.