Tennessee Aquarium List of Species On Exhibit 10/4/18

BigNate · 6 Jan 2019

TZDugong said:
I was within driving distance of this Aquarium on the US road trip but unfortunately had no idea where it was in the state and so didn’t really consider it, so you can imagine my dismay when I found out where it was located! But as usual I’m enjoying these species lists!

It’s in Chattanooga. I’m planning on visiting at least a couple time because the college I plan on attending is only 30 minutes away

geomorph · 10 Jan 2019

snowleopard said:
Thanks for your usual dedication to details and Tennessee Aquarium having almost 70 reptile/amphibian species is more than can be said for many major American zoos! I personally love the aquarium and it is easily amidst the 5 best I've ever visited of the 90 or so different aquariums that I've toured in my lifetime.

I'm glad you enjoyed the list, it can be a chore to read through, much easier to skim! Before visiting, I did not realize what a turtle powerhouse this facility is; it certainly helped me log many species for the 2018 North American Zoochat Challenge. I had a great visit and it was everything others had described, including yourself!

snowleopard · 10 Jan 2019

geomorph said:
Before visiting, I did not realize what a turtle powerhouse this facility is; it certainly helped me log many species for the 2018 North American Zoochat Challenge. I had a great visit and it was everything others had described, including yourself!

Tennessee Aquarium certainly has a lot of turtles but the most I've ever seen was when I visited the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium on my summer 2014 road trip and there was a special exhibit gallery (temporary) devoted to turtles and tortoises and throughout the aquarium I saw an absolutely staggering 74 different species.

Turtles: Secrets of the Shell – Here are the 74 species: African Dwarf Mud Turtle, African Forest Turtle, African Pancake Tortoise, Alligator Snapping Turtle*, American Red-Bellied Turtle, Annam Leaf Turtle, Asian Brown Tortoise, Asian Softshell Turtle, Asian Yellow Pond Turtle, Aubry’s Flapshell Turtle, Australian Snake-Necked Turtle, Black Greek Tortoise, Barbour’s Map Turtle*, Caspian Pond Turtle, Central American Painted Turtle, Chaco Tortoise, Chinese Big-Headed Turtle, Chinese Three-Keeled Pond Turtle, Common Helmeted Tortoise, Diamondback Terrapin, East African Serrated Mud Turtle, Eastern Box Turtle, Eastern Pond Turtle, Elongated Tortoise, Fly River Turtle, Four-Eyed Turtle, Geoffrey’s Side-Necked Turtle, Giant Asian Pond Turtle, Giant South American River Turtle, Golden Thread Turtle, Gopher Tortoise, Hamilton’s (Spotted) Pond Turtle, Hieroglyphic River Cooter, Japanese Pond Turtle, Leopard Tortoise, Malaysian Pond Turtle, Mata Mata, Murray River Turtle*, New Guinea Snapping Turtle, Nile Softshell Turtle, Northern Australia Snapping Turtle, Ouchita Map Turtle*, Pacific Pond Turtle, Peninsula Cooter, Razorback Musk Turtle*, Red-Bellied Short-Neck Turtle, Red-Checked Mud Turtle, Red-Eared Slider, Red-Headed Amazon River Turtle, Reimann’s Snake-Neck Turtle, Savanna Side-Necked Turtle, Saw-Shelled Turtle, Schultze’s Side-Neck Turtle*, Scorpion Mud Turtle, Short-Necked Turtle, Smooth Softshell Turtle*, Spiny Hill Turtle, Spiny Softshell Turtle*, Southeast Asian Box Turtle, Spot-Bellied Side-Necked Turtle, Spotted Turtle, Star Tortoise, Stinkpot Turtle*, Striped Mud Turtle, Texas Tortoise, Tuberculate Toad-Headed Turtle, West African Mud Turtle, Western Toad-Headed Turtle, Wood Turtle, Yellow-Bellied Slider, Yellow-Blotched Map Turtle, Yellow-Headed Temple Turtle, Yellow Mud Turtle* and Yellow-Spotted Amazon River Turtle.

• * These species are found elsewhere in the aquarium.

geomorph · 13 Jan 2019

DavidBrown said:
Was the River Giants tank impressive? Does the freshwater theme of the original aquarium hold up well as an exhibit theme?

This aquarium is high on my list of aquariums to visit.

River Giants is a nice exhibit, with a good variety of large inhabitants that seem to occupy different depths. For some reason there are a few sunken fence elements, I did not really understand the point of that.

The freshwater theme is very clearly expressed throughout and is cohesive. Definitely keep this facility on your wish list!

geomorph · 13 Jan 2019

ThylacineAlive said:
I'm thinking about visiting this aquarium later in the year so this species list will definitely be of help to me! I take it the aquarium no longer keeps Cape Speckled Padloper, Alabama Red-Bellied Cooter, or Tennessee Cave Salamander?

~Thylo

Definitely no signs for those species, although I wouldn't be surprised if the cooter is somewhere in there unsigned (not that I saw any evidence of sloppy signage).

ThylacineAlive · 13 Jan 2019

geomorph said:
Definitely no signs for those species, although I wouldn't be surprised if the cooter is somewhere in there unsigned (not that I saw any evidence of sloppy signage).

Damn all are species I've always wanted to see at the aquarium since I first heard about its existence. Obviously that was at least a decade ago, though, so not surprised some oddities have gone now.

Still probably in my top 5 aquariums I want to visit along with Georgia, Monterey Bay, Shedd, and Lisbon in Portugal.

~Thylo

geomorph · 24 Jan 2019

nczoofan said:
This list is amazing. I have always wanted to visit this aquarium and lookinh at that turtle collection makes me even more anxious to do it. I often see this place compared to the National Aquarium. How do you think they compare?

I think National is a fine facility and very comparable to Tennessee. I think of National as the design precursor to Tennessee, they are similar in their forms with glazed top atriums and having multiple buildings. National does not have the turtle collection that Tennessee has but National does have a more extensive Australian fauna. Tennessee does not have the cetacean exhibit and arena, but has superior big exhibits of 'River Giants' and the natives wonderland of 'Nickajack Lake'.

ThylacineAlive · 24 Jan 2019

geomorph said:
I think National is a fine facility and very comparable to Tennessee. I think of National as the design precursor to Tennessee, they are similar in their forms with glazed top atriums and having multiple buildings. National does not have the turtle collection that Tennessee has but National does have a more extensive Australian fauna. Tennessee does not have the cetacean exhibit and arena, but has superior big exhibits of 'River Giants' and the natives wonderland of 'Nickajack Lake'.

NAiB still has a pretty impressive turtle collection, particularly from Australia as you said.

~Thylo

jayjds2 · 24 Jan 2019

Tennessee blows any other facility out of the water (heh) when it comes to turtles, especially in the US. It’s in a tier all it’s own. Right below it, I would place collections such as NAIB, Tulsa Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta which all have superb collections but really can’t be placed in the same league.

geomorph · 27 Jan 2019

I have uploaded my photos into the gallery, here are some highlights from each of the zones in the Ocean Journey building:

Ocean Journey - Exterior: