Moody Gardens Moody Gardens Species List (April 2022)

[David Peden]

Hey all, I have a backlog of species lists for zoos and aquariums in the Houston area from when I was there in late April of this year. They might be a bit out of date, but hopefully they should be pretty accurate still. This list is for Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX, and includes both the aquarium and rainforest pyramids. I tried to make the list as comprehensive as possible, but I had to leave out at least a few species of fish due to lack of signage. Other than that, it should be mostly complete. I was able to ID 102 species at the aquarium pyramid, and 94 species at the rainforest pyramid for a total of at least 196 species for both.


AQUARIUM

Gulf of Mexico
Lookdown
Palomito
Atlantic sergeant-major
Spotfin butterflyfish
French angelfish
Highhat
Rock beauty
Four eyed butterflyfish
Cocoa damselfish

North Pacific
California sea lion
Harbor seal
Smoothhound shark
Swellshark
Gopher rockfish
Monkeyface prickleback
Kelp surfperch
Plumose anemone
Giant green anemone
Painted anemone
Bat star
Purple sea star
Garibaldi
Giant Pacific octopus
Flag rockfish
Black rockfish
Copper rockfish

South Pacific
Yellow tang
Orbiculate batfish
Emperor angelfish
Laced moray eel
Spotted wobbegong
Whitespotted bamboo shark
Raccoon butterfyfish
Powder blue tang
Longnose rabbitfish
Shortspine unicornfish
Blacktip reef shark
Convict tang
Palette tang
Sailfish tang
Eye-stripe surgeon
Halfmoon angelfish
Copperband butterflyfish
Bignose unicornfish
Bluespine unicornfish
Japan surgeonfish
Magpie perch
Blue-green chromis
Ocellaris anemonefish
Threeband anemonefish
Plainhead filefish
Blueside wrasse
Red lionfish
Leaf scorpionfish
Pacific spotted scorpionfish
Banana wrasse
Flame angelfish
Pajama cardinalfish
Sunburst butterflyfish
Threadfin butterflyfish
Bird wrasse
Sixline wrasse
Reef triggerfish
Lined seahorse
Bay pipefish

South Atlantic
King penguin
Gentoo penguin
Chinstrap penguin
Macaroni penguin
Humboldt penguin
Chain catshark
Giant isopod


Caribbean
Atlantic stingray
Cownose ray
French grunt
Bluehead wrasse
Clown wrasse
Queen angelfish
Yellow hooded wrasse
Spanish hogfish
Yellow headed jawfish
Chocolate chip sea star
Pencil urchin
Cleaner wrasse
Cleaner shrimp
Slipper lobster
Atlantic tarpon
Crevalle jack
Common snook
Ocean surgeonfish
Sandbar shark
Atlantic spadefish
Gray angelfish
Lookdown
Atlantic sergeant major
Nurse shark
Roughtail stingray
Green moray eel

Jellies
Moon jelly
Pacific sea nettle
Cannonball jelly
Warty comb jelly


RAINFOREST

Rainforest Symphony
Giant river otter
Humphead cichlid
Bornean eared frog
Skunk gecko
Meller’s chameleon
Tomato frog
Amazon milky frog
Solomon Islands skink
Prevost’s squirrel

Nightfall Gallery
Blue poison frog
Yellow striped poison frog
Golden mantella
Common basilisk
Panamanian golden frog
Mandarin rat snake
Jackson’s chameleon
Eyelash viper
Brazilian porcupine
Pygmy slow loris

Main Pyramid exhibits and free flying birds
Linneaus’ two toed sloth
White faced saki
Cotton top tamarin
Scarlet ibis
Great blue turaco
Pied imperial pigeon
Venezuelan troupial
Hadada ibis
Bali myna
Bernier’s teal
Blue gray tanager
Guira cuckoo
Montezuma oropendola
Blue bellied roller
Rodrigues fruit bat
Chestnut breasted malkoha
Henkel’s leaf tailed gecko
Trinidad chevron tarantula
Spotted scat
Seven spot archerfish
African mono
Green naped pheasant pigeon
Gray headed swamphen
Mandarin duck
Madagascar teal
Komodo dragon
Baikal teal
Laysan teal
Falcated duck
Asian clown knifefish
Asian arowana
Giant gourami
Fly River turtle
Western crowned pigeon
Bruce’s green pigeon
Crested partridge
Diamond dove
Violet turaco
Scarlet macaw
Sulawesi ground dove
Green imperial pigeon
Nicobar pigeon
Rose crowned fruit dove
Freshwater prawn
Red Devil cichlid
Ocelot
Yellow rumped cacique
Chestnut headed oropendola
Bearded barbet
Luzon bleeding heart
Blue faced honeyeater
Egyptian fruit bat
Black pacu
Ripsaw catfish
Arapaima
Silver arowana
Scarlet macaw
Xingu River ray
White faced Amazon turtle
Black spot piranha
Four eyed fish
Green anaconda
Banded leporinus
Red bellied piranha
Vampire bat
Von der Decken’s hornbill
Wrinkled hornbill
Blue duiker
Hissing cockroach
Nile perch
Marbled lungfish
Rock kribensis
Lake Victoria squeaker
Obliquidens zebra
Mbiri

 

[TinoPup]

Thanks for sharing this! Do you feel the place is worth the high cost?

 

[David Peden]

Thanks for sharing this! Do you feel the place is worth the high cost?

I think the experience is worth it, especially if you haven’t been before. Their collection, while smaller than some, is still impressive in my eyes. I’m a huge sucker for birds, and I really like their free flight collection in the rainforest. I think they also just recently redid the rainforest pyramid after I went in April, so there are probably new species and exhibits that I haven’t seen. I’d compare it to the Dallas World Aquarium in some ways if that helps at all. I’ve been to Moody Gardens a few times and have enjoyed my visit everytime

 

[Coelacanth18]

Thanks for the list @David Peden! A couple quick questions:

Common basilisk

White faced Amazon turtle

Did you happen to note what exact species these were? Or if not, do you recall if the basilisk was bright green or brownish-green?

 

[David Peden]

Thanks for the list @David Peden! A couple quick questions:




Did you happen to note what exact species these were? Or if not, do you recall if the basilisk was bright green or brownish-green?

The basilisk was Basiliscus basiliscus and the turtle was Podocnemis unifilis I believe. I just copied the common name directly from the sign

 

[Batto]

The final section also includes several invertebrates as well as Atheris squamigera, Bitis nasicornis, Bothrops moojeni and Lachesis muta. I did not see any Giant Gourami on my visit last Wednesday.

 

[Coelacanth18]

Chestnut headed oropendola

An inquiry for anyone who has visited: this is a similar species to Crested Oropendola - a decently common species for which I've found multiple sources showing Moody Gardens should have - while Chestnut-headed would be a possibly/likely unique captive holding. Has anyone actually seen and/or photographed this bird? I suspect it is a misidentification based on faulty signage, but I wanted to double-check.

 

[oropendola]

I'm thinking the same thing. I haven't been to Moody Gardens since 2023, but on my last visit I saw crested oropendolas and I would have definitely noticed if they had chestnut-headed oropendolas as I was looking specifically for oropendola . I could be wrong or things could've changed in the time before or since that visit. Also for what its worth I just went to the Dallas World Aquarium and they had a completely unlisted free flight Chestnut-Headed Oropendola. It flew away so I never got a photo and then I couldn't find it again, but I'm like 99% sure it was a chestnut-headed.