My new fantasy aquarium

1

1 and only Drew

Well-Known Member
Well, I've made two or three fantasy aquariums on here before, the last one was far higher in quality than the first ones - the shark concept aquarium. I didn't like it too much, mostly because all of the tanks were shark tanks. It was fun to create, but not a great design. Well, here's a much better one.

This mega-aquarium is split up into various galleries - 10 major ones, plus a large display at the entrance to the aquarium and two tanks large enough to be considered galleries of their own (these are not included in the 10 galleries quoted above). This post will detail the first gallery.

Florida Native Gallery

This gallery is one of the larger of the ten, and is divided up into three locations. First is the inland section, which has 28 displays (by my count). Those are:

  1. Common snapping turtle, bluegill
  2. Alligator snapping turtle, black crappie, golden shiner
  3. American bullfrog
  4. Florida scarlet snake
  5. American alligator, red eared slider
  6. Red swamp crayfish
  7. American green tree frog
  8. Wood duck
  9. Copperhead
  10. Spring peeper, northern cricket frog
  11. Lesser siren
  12. Marbled salamander, northern leopard frog, cope's gray tree frog
  13. Slimy salamander, four-toed salamander
  14. Gulf coast waterdog
  15. Tiger salamander
  16. Stinkpot turtle
  17. Bowfin
  18. Yellow perch
  19. Shortnose sturgeon (in a touch tank)
  20. Chain pickerel
  21. Alligator gar
  22. Largemouth bass
  23. Bullseye snakehead
  24. Shoal bass, brown bullhead, florida gar, green sunfish, warmouth
  25. Okaloosa darter
  26. Pumpkinseed sunfish
  27. Channel catfish, american shad
  28. Tadpole madtom, speckled madtom, black madtom, banded sunfish, blackbanded sunfish, bluespotted sunfish, russetfin topminnow, blackspotted topminnow, eastern starhead topminnow, golden topminnow, lined topminnow, red faced topminnow
The tanks are all spacious and very naturalistic, and unless it would be detrimental to the health of the animals, there will be multiples of each species in each display. The largest of these exhibits is the american alligator exhibit, which has a pool that gets down to 9 feet deep - however that point in the pool is somewhere around 6 feet underneath the ground, maybe even closer to 7 or 8. Other large exhibits include the alligator gar tank, sturgeon touch tank, and duck aviary.

The next section in this gallery is the nearshore area, which has the second most exhibits in the entire gallery - however it probably has the least number of gallons of water in it in the entire gallery as well. Its 9 exhibits house
  1. Yellow stingrays (in a touch tank)
  2. Brown shrimp
  3. Horseshoe crab, longnose spider crab, common spider crab, orange starfish, left handed whelk, pear whelk (in a touch tank)
  4. Southern flounder
  5. Lookdown, atlantic guitarfish
  6. Fiddler crab, mummichog, sheepshead minnow, marsh periwinkle, striped hermit crab, yellowfin mojarra, spot
  7. Blue crab
  8. Diamondback terrapin, atlantic silverside, mummichog, striped killifish
  9. Hawksbill sea turtle, florida pompano, palometa, southern kingfish, atlantic needlefish, striped hermit crab
The largest tank in this section of the gallery is likely the hawksbill turtle tank. The stingray touch tank and the guitarfish tank are the runners-up.

The final section in this gallery is the offshore section. This one has just 6 exhibits, but one of them is the largest fully aquatic exhibit in the entire gallery (another is probably a very close second). These tanks house
  1. Volitan lionfish
  2. Web burrfish
  3. Spiny lobster
  4. Great barracuda, blackbar soldierfish, green moray eel
  5. Red drum, ladyfish, permit, speckled seatrout
  6. Atlantic reef tank:
    1. Angelfish: blue angelfish, french angelfish, gray angelfish, queen angelfish
    2. Bottom Dwellers: yellow goatfish, spotted goatfish, sand tilefish
    3. Butterflyfish: banded butterflyfish, foureye butterflyfish, longsnout butterflyfish, reef butterflyfish, spotfin butterflyfish
    4. Chisel-Toothed Fish: balloonfish, black durgon triggerfish, sargassum triggerfish, scrawled cowfish, white spotted filefish
    5. Grunts & Snappers: blackfin snapper, yellowtail snapper, porkfish, bluestriped grunt, smallmouth grunt
    6. Parrotfish: blue parrotfish, princess parrotfish, striped parrotfish
    7. Silvery Fish: atlantic spadefish, bigeye scad, mackerel scad, boga, lookdown, redear sardine, saucereye porgy
    8. Small Fish: barred hamlet, black hamlet, butter hamlet, shy hamlet, brown chromis, tobacco fish
    9. Squirrelfish: blackbar soldierfish, common squirrelfish, glasseye snapper, longspine squirrelfish
    10. Tangs: atlantic blue tang, doctorfish, ocean surgeonfish
    11. Wrasses: bluehead wrasse, creole wrasse, puddingwife, rooster hogfish, spanish hogfish, yellowhead wrasse
The sixth exhibit is one of the largest in the gallery, probably only second to the alligator enclosure (although it is not fully aquatic). The fourth and fifth tanks are pretty large as well, but probably not quite the size of the large reef tank - but pretty close.

This concludes the first post, and the entire Floridian Gallery of the aquarium. Phew, one down, 9 (and three more singular exhibits) to go!
 
Indo-Pacific Tropical Gallery

This gallery houses all of the tropical creatures hailing from the Indian and Pacific oceans, and believe me when I say there are a lot of them. This is one of the "big three" galleries in the aquarium - the other two being the Florida Gallery and the Amazon Gallery. This isn't really split up into any specific sections, everything is sort of evenly distributed throughout the entire gallery. Since this is probably the largest gallery there is, I will individually describe each tank briefly so that you don't have to read through a 3+ page long species list (hopefully this will help to break it up a bit). Here goes:

First, there is a small wall tank with a deep sand bed, decent amount of rockwork, and lots of macroalgae species. This tank houses:
  • Blue damselfish, peacock mantis shrimp
  • Feather duster, duncan coral, mushroom corals, zoanthids, leather corals
Next up is a long but thin tank housing a singular fish (for the reason that if this fish were to die it would release all of its toxins into the water, killing all the other fish in our tanks)
  • Longhorn cowfish
Next is a tall tank with minimal rockwork and a good amount of sand in the bottom, housing:
  • Spotted garden eel, splendid garden eel, cockatoo waspfish, pyjama cardinalfish, zebra barred dartfish
  • Devil's hand leather coral, cabbage leather coral, toadstool leather coral, mushroom corals, xenia
Next up is sort of a mini-gallery, housing 11 different species of cephalopods in their own tanks. These are cylindrical wall tanks, with the front half of the tank jutting out of the wall - the size of the tank is proportional to the size of the animals inside, obviously. To break it up, a few of the tanks are cylindrical columns in the middle of the room. The species kept here are:
  • Broadclub cuttlefish, flamboyant cuttlefish, common cuttlefish, stumpy cuttlefish, striped pyjama squid
  • Mimic octopus, common octopus, greater blue ringed octopus, day octopus
  • Bigfin reef squid
  • Chambered nautilus
Next up is a large wall tank for live corals, this is the biggest live reef tank in the aquarium (I think). It houses:
  • Hi fin red banded goby, zebra barred dartfish, red firefish, green reef chromis, banggai cardinalfish, red honey damselfish, mandarin dragonet, clarkii clownfish, splendid leopard wrasse, yellow coris wrasse
  • Tibicen angelfish, flame angelfish, copperband butterflyfish, raccoon butterflyfish, desjardini sailfin tang, blue tang, purple tang, powder blue tang
  • Blue carpet anemone, red bubble tip anemone
  • Acropora, stylophora, seriatopora, pocillopora, montipora, millepora, alveopora, goniopora, euphyllia, catalaphyllia, cyanaria, blastomussa
  • Yellow fiji leather coral, green star polyps, gorgonians, xenia, carnation tree coral, flower tree coral, zoanthids
The next tank is designed to look like part of a sunken ship, and is a predatory tank housing
  • Tesselata moray eel, blue and yellow grouper, miniatus grouper, peacock grouper, panther grouper
Next is one of the larger tanks in this gallery, housing a bunch of fish that can't exactly be kept with live corals - so this tank is a large artificial reef tank. It houses:
  • Naso tang, clown tang, dussumieri tang, vlamingi tang, regal tang, sohal tang, sailfin tang, chocolate tang, purple tang, blue spine unicorn tang, powder blue tang
  • Spotted knifejaw, barred flagtail, lemonpeel angelfish, clown grouper, mono argentus, raccoon butterflyfish, bicolor angelfish, koran angelfish, sailfin snapper, two banded clownfish, bluestreak cleaner wrasse, gold spotted rabbitfish
The next tank is a tank with toxic species of fish, which are
  • Volitan lionfish, antennata lionfish, leaf scorpionfish, stonefish
Next is a round seahorse tank, which houses
  • Lined seahorse, red scooter dragonet, yellow clown goby, yellow watchman goby
  • Flame shrimp, cleaner shrimp, tiger pistol shrimp, emerald crab, peppermint shrimp, chocolate chip starfish, feather duster, serpent starfish
  • Kenya tree leather coral, mushroom corals, gorgonians
Next is another larger tank, which is a touch tank for various shark species
  • Coral catshark, epaulette shark, brown banded bamboo shark, white spotted bamboo shark
Next is a tank which will have 'seasonal inhabitants' which are:
  • Egg cases from the sharks in the touch tank
  • Pyjama cardinalfish (permanent residents)
Next is another medium-sized tank with some live corals, which will house:
  • Mandarin dragonet, banded pipefish
  • Pom pom crabs, nassarius snails, frilly sponges, encrusting sponges, gorgonians
  • Green star polyps, zoanthids, torch coral, wire coral, hammer coral, ricordea, cespitularia, scolymia, goniopora, sympodium
The next tank is about the same size as the one above it, but has a much simpler stock list:
  • Percula clownfish
  • Bubble tip anemones
Next is another round column tank, with lots of seagrasses and housing:
  • Weedy seadragon, leafy seadragon, golden neon goby
  • Green star polyps, cabbage leather coral, mushroom corals, finger leather coral, hammer coral
  • Banded coral shrimp
Next is a simple tank, with the same design as the cephalopod tanks (cylinder, half in-wall and half out), and housing
  • Dogface pufferfish
Next is yet another living reef tank (about the same size as the first major one), which houses
  • Achilles tang, scopas tang, regal angelfish, magnificent foxface, zebra barred dartfish, ocellaris clownfish, lunate fairy wrasse, mccosker's flasher wrasse
  • Blood spot anthias, princess anthias, red saddled anthias, charlene's anthias, red fairy anthias, dispar anthias, ignitus anthias
  • Anthelia, xenia, mushroom corals, zoanthids, acanthastrea, acropora, montipora, birdsnest coral, ricordea, millepora, bubble coral
Next is a very long, kind of wide, very shallow tank designed to look like a lagoon and centered around the clams in the tank. The species in this tank are:
  • Goldflake angelfish, potter's angelfish, multicolor angelfish, blonde naso tang, flame hawkfish, ocellaris/percula clownfish (hybrid), mandarin dragonet, sixline wrasse, radiant wrasse, cleaner wrasse
  • Maxima clam, crocea clam, derasa clam, cleaner shrimp, sexy shrimp
  • Montipora, ricordea, open brain coral, dendronephthya, zoanthids, gorgonians
Next up on the list is a smaller wall tank housing
  • Crown of thorns starfish
  • Valentini pufferfish
The next (second to last) tank is a bit larger, and houses various squirrelfish and moray eels including
  • Metallic squirrelfish, blackbar soldierfish, candy cane squirrelfish, glasseye snapper
  • Snowflake moray eel, zebra moray eel
The final tank is a moderately deep (around 4 foot) lagoon with a curved viewing window on the front. This lagoon is open topped, but it is NOT a touch tank. Species inside are:
  • Blue spotted stingray, blue spotted ribbontail stingray, fiddler ray
  • Bluestreak cleaner wrasse, green reef chromis, clarkii clownfish, mustard tang, foxface, convict tang

That wraps up this gallery. In case you couldn't tell, I'm an aquarist, and I love my corals :P
The next one that I will discuss is the coldwater gallery, which is around half the size of this one. Thanks for anyone who has been reading this!
 
Alright, this is one of the smallest galleries in the entire aquarium. It has just 6 tanks in it, one of which is a walk-through tunnel of decent size. There is a conveyor belt in the middle of it and a stationary platform on either side, so guests can choose to move at their own pace or be moved through by the conveyor belt. This large tank is the kelp forest tank, and it houses:
  • Barred sand bass, kelp bass, gopher rockfish, vermillion rockfish, copper rockfish, tiger rockfish, flag rockfish
  • California sheephead, opaleye, striped seaperch, striped surfperch, black surfperch, C-O sole, garibaldi, rainbow surfperch, pile surfperch, ocean whitefish, lingcod
  • Wolf eel, panamic green moray eel, california moray eel
  • Leopard shark, california horn shark, swell shark, california bat ray
  • Crimson anemone, giant green anemone, strawberry anemone, red abalone, giant pink starfish, bat starfish
The next largest tank in this gallery is a wall tank, which houses a somewhat deep-sea species of crustacean that is becoming somewhat more popular over the years:
  • Orange roughy, longspine snipefish
  • Japanese giant spider crab, japanese spiny lobster, leather sea star, tube anemone
Next is a tank housing something that nearly every aquarium has - a giant pacific octopus. However, the difference between our tank and (almost) everyone elses? Ours is a mixed-species display for one, and secondly ours is much bigger. Our octopus would be able to pretty much completely stretch out in its 15 foot diameter column tank, which is way larger (think over 5,000 gallons) than most, if not all, other tanks for this species. So, what's housed inside:
  • Shiner perch, striped surfperch
  • Purple sea urchin, ochre starfish, giant pacific octopus
  • Tube anemone, strawberry anemone, fish eating anemone, giant plumose anemone, painted anemone
Next up is another round column tank (man, the cost of these are going to add up quickly; then again, it is a mega-aquarium...) for the following species:
  • Blue jack mackerel
  • Northern starfish
Next is a tank that is probably the smallest it could be to still be considered 'large'. It's a wall tank for a deep-sea species that I know of just a few locations exhibiting:
  • Spotted ratfish
  • Giant deep sea isopod, leather sea star, plumose anemone
The final tank is the reason this is the coldwater gallery and not the 'Pacific American Gallery"'. The purpose of this tank is to show that yes, there are coldwater environments in the east too. This tank holds:
  • Chain dogfish, oyster toadfish
  • Ten-ridged whelk

That wraps up the coldwater gallery. I am personally not a huge fan of coldwater tanks, so I felt that keeping it short and simple was the way to go. I feel like I covered a lot of the interesting specimens from this environment though, and designed some exhibits that are rarely if ever seen.
 
I cannot edit my original post anymore, but I would like to make a correction - there are only 9 galleries, plus three separate exhibits - not 10. I just recently got rid of one because I felt that it didn't add anything (it was a reptiles of Mexico gallery, but compared to the size of the others, it seemed to be out of place, so it's gone).

One other edit I have to make is that I forgot to add the Eastern Box Turtle into the copperhead exhibit, and bluegill and golden shiners have been added into the american alligator exhibit.

Finally, the kelp forest tunnel. This is going to have multiple species added to it:
  • Mottled anemone
  • White spotted greenling
  • Brown rockfish
  • Ochre starfish
 
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I can tell already that this is much more thought out than the previous aquariums (at least, it seems that way). Here's my initial feedback:

1. I really like your Florida species choices. I suppose you've had a lot of practice now! :P

2. Cowfish actually can be successfully mixed with other fish species. I know of a few facilities that do so. The National Aquarium in Baltimore recently added one to a mixed-species exhibit. It just requires a beefier filtration system.

3. As for your cephalopod choices: I'd say out with the blue ringed octopus- replace with bobtail squid perhaps? You'd be hard pressed to find a collector that would willingly collect one (as they're so dangerous) and they only live about six months, so that would get redundant quickly. Bobtail squid are much more easily replenishable- raise them on site.

4. A select few aquariums do tend to have giant Pacific octopus mixed species habitats, though ordinarily with anemones and sea slugs. The Dallas World Aquarium has GPO, sea stars, anemones, and a tiger rockfish. However that's certainly an impressive tank size.

5: I like the cold water choices.

6. Yes! Isopods and ratfish! I've only seen them in two locations each.

7. Any plans for sea jellies?

Great work so far :).
 
jayjds2 said:
I can tell already that this is much more thought out than the previous aquariums (at least, it seems that way). Here's my initial feedback:

1. I really like your Florida species choices. I suppose you've had a lot of practice now! :p

2. Cowfish actually can be successfully mixed with other fish species. I know of a few facilities that do so. The National Aquarium in Baltimore recently added one to a mixed-species exhibit. It just requires a beefier filtration system.

3. As for your cephalopod choices: I'd say out with the blue ringed octopus- replace with bobtail squid perhaps? You'd be hard pressed to find a collector that would willingly collect one (as they're so dangerous) and they only live about six months, so that would get redundant quickly. Bobtail squid are much more easily replenishable- raise them on site.

4. A select few aquariums do tend to have giant Pacific octopus mixed species habitats, though ordinarily with anemones and sea slugs. The Dallas World Aquarium has GPO, sea stars, anemones, and a tiger rockfish. However that's certainly an impressive tank size.

5: I like the cold water choices.

6. Yes! Isopods and ratfish! I've only seen them in two locations each.

7. Any plans for sea jellies?

Great work so far :).
Click to expand...
  1. Thanks! I've done a few of these and have found what works and what doesn't, and I'm pretty confident in this one. It's also got freshwater/inland, nearshore, and offshore, which I thought was a nicer touch than just a ton of random animals from mostly freshwater/inland areas of Florida. I've been talking to the curator at Mote Aquarium as well, that has helped me with my species selection
  2. I was looking at this one from an aquarist's perspective. But they're not aggressive to tankmates unless, well, they die. So in that case, that tank is now going to be an Australian reef biotope. The stock list is posted at the very end of my post here :)
  3. I actually know of a private collector that regularly gets blue rings in. But with the lifespan, I guess it would be a nice idea to take them out. If they go, I actually don't think I should replace them with anything - having 10 species would be more rounder-out than having 11.
  4. Hmm, wasn't aware that any aquariums had GPO's in with other species. I was pretty certain that nobody kept theirs in a 5,000+ gallon column tank!
  5. Thanks, short and sweet I know but there is a tunnel in there as well that would take up a decent amount of space
  6. I definitely like the ratfish addition, and thought that isopods would be a nice touch to the display.
  7. You know it, they're going to have a gallery to themselves
Stock list for the Australian Reef in the Tropical Reef Gallery
  • Sailfin blenny, ocellaris clownfish, yellow clown goby, green clown goby, longhorn cowfish, flame angelfish, regal angelfish, emperor angelfish, lemonpeel angelfish, golden angelfish
  • Blue linckia starfish, jewel starfish, peppermint shrimp, coral banded shrimp, red porcelain crab, anemone crab, decorator crab, dwarf blue leg hermit crab, sand sifting sea cucumber, abalone, banded trochus snail, stomatella snail, tiger cowrie, turbo snail, magnificent sea anemone, bubble tip anemone, christmas tree worm, maxima clam
  • Plate coral, favia, maze brain coral, open brain coral, lobed brain coral, elegance coral, acropora, hammer coral, montipora, birdsnest coral, zoanthids, mushroom corals, green star polyps, finger leather corals, carnation tree coral, cyanaria, gorgonians, frogspawn coral
 
Here's the species list for the South American Gallery, which is one of the big three galleries and is probably the largest of them all. This gallery has two parts, on two levels. The bottom level is sort of like your traditional exhibition, with various wall tanks and a few larger ones mixed in. There is a winding path throughout the exhibit, and then you travel up an escalator and into the walk-through rainforest. Species list per exhibit below:

There is a large, long, planted community aquarium housing:
  • Red discus, altum angelfish, bolivian ram cichlid, orinoco eartheater, striped headstander
  • Leopard corydoras, emerald corydoras, panda corydoras, leopard frog pleco, oil driftwood catfish, sailfin catfish
  • Colombian tetra, red eye tetra, firehead tetra, cardinal tetra, rummynose tetra, oneline pencilfish, marbled hatchetfish
Next is a large simulated tree trunk with various small to medium vivariums inside of it, housing:
  1. Giant peruvian cockroach
  2. Peruvian green and gold millipede
  3. Sun tiger tarantula
  4. Goliath bird eater tarantula
  5. Ecuadorian purple pinktoe tarantula
There is a large collection of frogs throughout the gallery. I will go over the absolutely massive (compared to the tiny creatures housed inside) living vivarium's species list first - this thing is probably going to be close to 25 feet long in order to give the inhabitants their proper space. The incredible thing about this list is that there are 9 different species of poison dart frogs living together, something rarely accomplished.
  • Green and black poison dart frog, splashback poison dart frog, bumblebee poison dart frog, dyeing poison dart frog, three-striped poison dart frog, strawberry poison dart frog, pleasing poison dart frog, harlequin poison dart frog, phantasmal poison dart frog
There are a few other vivariums with dart frogs in them, much smaller than the first but nonetheless still impressive:
  • Mimic poison dart frog, blue poison dart frog
  • Black-legged poison dart frog
  • Sky blue poison dart frog
In addition to those displays of amphibians, there are plenty more species displays (including one mixed one):
  • Waxy monkey frog
  • Surinam horned frog
  • Amazon milk frog, tiger legged monkey frog
  • Surinam toad
  • Budgett's frog
  • Smoky jungle frog
  • Rubber caecilian
Obviously with all of the amphibians in this display, there is a great window of opportunity to preach about conservation of the world's amphibians - and there are more throughout the other areas of the aquarium as well.

This part of the aquarium is rich in turtles, with five mixed-species displays on the bottom floor housing:
  • Yellow spotted amazon river turtle, black bar silver dollar, red hook silver dollar, threespot headstander, banded leporinus, agassiz's leporinus, yellow finned chalceus, elongate hatchetfish, false black tetra, blue discus, true parrot cichlid, chocolate cichlid
  • Twist neck turtle, otocinclus, leopard frog pleco, panda corydoras, glowlight tetra, spotfin tetra
  • Red headed sideneck turtle, dwarf green pike cichlid, longnose angelfish, king tiger pleco, green phantom pleco, giant corydoras, rummynose tetra, cardinal tetra, black phantom tetra, black neon tetra, river hatchetfish, marbled hatchetfish
  • Mata mata, black neon tetra
  • Giant amazon river turtle, jaguar catfish, galaxy pleco, leopard frog pleco, threespot geophagus, red hook silver dollar, black bar silver dollar
This level houses a few other displays with reptiles in them. These are:
  • Green anaconda
  • Emerald tree boa
  • Eyelash viper, amazon leaffish
  • Caiman lizard
  • Cuvier's dwarf caiman
There is a large perch complex here (watched over by a staff member) for a few species of macaw, namely
  • Scarlet macaw, greenwing macaw, blue and yellow macaw, military macaw
There are three naturalistic glass-fronted displays on this level, which will house:
  • Goeldi's marmoset
  • Pygmy marmoset
  • Squirrel monkey
There is a mini-path on this exhibit that's got tanks full of "deadly" fish in them. These are:
  • Electric eel, cardinal tetra
  • Electric catfish
  • Red belly piranha
  • Violet lined piranha, butterfly splitfin
  • Bucktooth tetra
There is a large freshwater stingray display tank, which houses
  • Leopoldi stingray, blue hook silver dollar, tropical gar, black arowana
The final exhibit on the first floor is a massive aquarium for the typical "monster fish" of the Amazon. These focus on catfish, but the entire list is composed of multiple other fish, including one of the largest freshwater stingray species in the world and a school of 2 foot long scavenging catfish:
  • Arapaima, silver arowana, black pacu, red bellied pacu, short tailed river stingray, monoculus peacock bass
  • Polka dot lyretail pleco, common pleco, niger catfish, redtail catfish, firewood catfish, tiger shovelnose catfish, achara catfish, vulture catfish

On the second floor, there is the walk-through rainforest. I would consider this exhibit to be the best of its kind - for one, it's a massive glass dome (this has been done multiple times before, yes). There isn't a set path in this exhibit - it splits off into a few different paths, so that you are able to view the entire exhibit. This exhibit is around 3 stories high at the very center, meaning some very tall trees can be grown in here. There is a very large waterfall which flows down into two separate streams; one of these flows into a large glass-fronted pond, which then waterfalls over into another of these ponds (discussed later). The second wraps around and leads into a large pool where the birds can swim/soak/drink. The waterfall can be accessed from the top to give a birds-eye-view of the entire exhibit (no pun intended) via a rope bridge, and there are a series of wooden stairs/paths with rope railings around the exhibit. There are misters, fog machines, speaker systems, and more to give a simulated natural environment (things like rain, thunder, fog in the early morning, etc) throughout the exhibit. Tons of live plants are found in this dome, in fact there are no fake plants anywhere to be found. Nest boxes are cleverly hidden around the entire area for all of the birds. Enough of my description, I'm sure you get the point. The fun part is the species list:
  • Spectacled owl, king vulture, hyacinth macaw (all housed in their own large, natural aviaries that are separated off from the free-flight species)
  • Tiger stingray, henlei stingray, royal panaque, banded leporinus, jurupari eartheater (housed in one of the glass-fronted ponds)
  • Hilaire's sideneck turtle, jaguar cichlid, jack dempsey cichlid (housed in the other glass-fronted pond)
  • Red footed tortoise (housed in a cleverly disguised pen between two of the paths)
  • The following species are all free-range in the dome:
    • Two toed sloth, brazilian agouti, golden lion tamarin
    • Green iguana, plumed basilisk
    • Double yellow headed amazon parrot, blue fronted amazon parrot, hawk headed parrot, blue headed pionus, white bellied caique, sun conure, pacific parrotlet
    • Crimson-rumped toucanet, green aracari, keel-billed toucan
    • Scarlet ibis, orinoco goose, white faced whistling duck, ringed teal, sunbittern
    • Pale vented pigeon, variable seedeater, white tailed trogon, blue crowned mot mot, screaming piha, yellow grosbeak, red capped cardinal, black spotted barbet, spangled cotinga, green honeycreeper, saffron finch, venezuelan troupial, yellow-hooded blackbird
    • Blue-gray tanager, white lined tanager, brazilian tanager, scarlet rumped tanager, turquoise tanager, green and gold tanager, paradise tanager, bay headed tanager, silver beaked tanager, blue and yellow tanager, burnished buff tanager, swallow tanager
As you can see, this is one of the larger exhibits in the entire aquarium, and probably the largest gallery if we're going for square footage (the tropical reef gallery might have more species, due to all the corals). Next to come is the Asian Gallery, stay tuned.

Fun fact - I actually looked into getting a/multiple spangled cotinga(s) privately, since they are one of my favorite 'smaller' birds. They are $1,500 for a pair though :(
 
Asian Gallery

There are a total of 24 enclosures in this part of the aquarium, making it one of the smaller galleries. It does, however, have a few larger exhibits in it, so in square footage it is probably just a bit smaller than the bottom floor of the Amazon Gallery (probably anywhere from 5/8 to 7/8 the size of it). Enclosures listed are below:

First, I will detail all of the fish-only aquariums. So we will start off with the large planted tank, which is probably at the beginning of the gallery. This houses lots of small, peaceful fish hailing from the Mekong River (this is the first of two Mekong River tanks in the aquarium). The species housed inside are:
  • Pearl gourami, moonlight gourami, three spot gourami, snakeskin gourami
  • White cloud mountain minnow, zebra danio, harlequin rasbora, golden barb, ticto barb, red tail black shark, dwarf botia loach
Next we can go to the very slightly brackish tank with artificial mangrove roots inside of it. This tank houses:
  • Banded archerfish, blue sheatfish, green spotted pufferfish, asian upside down catfish
There are four more fish-only displays here. So, next is a rocky tank with a select few hardy Asian plants and lots of current. This tank houses:
  • Hillstream loach
  • Blue spotted goby
Next is a medium to large-sized tank, housing the following fish:
  • Giant gourami
  • Black spot barb, t barb, clown barb
Next is a decent-sized tank (probably around 1,000 to 2,500 gallons) housing a very special fish (so special that I would need to get permits to acquire it):
  • Asian arowana
  • Clown knifefish, fire eel, tinfoil barb, clown loach, bala shark, northern thai tiger datnoid
The final tank is comparable in size to the "monster fish" tank in the Amazon Gallery. It houses a fewer variety of species, but most of the fish are larger, so the Amazon tank is probably only a bit larger than this one. Species inside are:
  • Giant freshwater stingray, wallago catfish, paroon shark, thai mahseer
So, there are a few other aquatic or semi-aquatic displays in this gallery, most of them are simple so I will simply list each one out below:
  • Japanese giant salamander (almost fully aquatic, very small haul-out just in case)
  • Iberian newt (semi-aquatic)
  • Fire-bellied toad (semi-aquatic)
  • Fire bellied newt (semi-aquatic)
  • Rhinoceros rat snake, dwarf rasbora (semi aquatic)
  • Tentacled snake, glass goby (almost fully-aquatic, small haul-out for the snakes when they rarely use it)
  • Red eyed crocodile skink (semi aquatic)
  • Anderson's crocodile newt (semi aquatic)
  • Small clawed otter (semi aquatic)
Aside from these exhibits, there are a few small to medium wall terrariums for some herps:
  • Bornean eared frog
  • Vietnamese mossy frog
  • Asian yellow spotted climbing toad, emperor salamander
  • Mountain horned dragon
  • Asian forest scorpion
Then aside from those, there are four spacious exhibits, one of which is clearly far more spacious than the others:
  • Indian crested porcupine
  • Bengal tiger
  • Reticulated python
  • Yellow headed water monitor
That wraps up this section. Note that the bengal tiger exhibit is actually completely outdoors, but it only has indoor viewing. There is a very large viewing window though, and water features near the glass to attract the cats to the visitors. The next section that I'll cover is Jay's favorite, the jellyfish gallery.
 
Jellyfish Gallery

I am not going to go super into detail here, since there isn't much to be said about a jellyfish exhibit (Jay might prove me wrong though :D). There will be some in-wall tanks, and some round column tanks from wall to ceiling. There is also one touch tank in this area (with box jellyfish... jk!). Here's the species list for this gallery (note that there could be more than one tank per species):
  • Upside down jellyfish
  • Moon jellyfish (displayed in tanks and in a touch tank)
  • Lagoon jellyfish
  • Atlantic sea nettle
  • Pacific sea nettle
  • Spotted jellyfish
  • Comb jellyfish
  • Blue jellyfish
  • Crystal jellyfish
  • Cross jellyfish
  • Egg yolk jellyfish
  • Purple striped jellyfish
That's about all I've got for this gallery, nice and simple yet one of the most entertaining parts of the aquarium, IMO. Seeing jellies in captivity is pretty awesome, I want a sea nettle tank one day.
 
Sea Birds and Mammals Gallery

Alright, this one is going to be large in square footage, but not large in the amount of species or exhibits it holds - 16 species over 7 exhibits. Still, this will likely be part of the aquarium that impresses most people (as well as the shark tanks). I will describe each display individually below.

First up is a penguin exhibit. This is a very large exhibit, with a tall back rock wall, a rock platform along the entire back wall, some large rock structures coming out of the water, and a few fake kelp pieces in the ridiculously large water column. At random intervals throughout the week, bird-safe artificial snow will be added to the environment in a fake snowing event. There is also a few large fake nests for some of the flighted birds inside the enclosure, on top of the rock wall (the top of it isn't accessible to the penguins, but it is to the other birds). Species inside here are:
  • Gentoo penguin
  • King penguin
  • Southern rockhopper penguin
  • Inca tern

The second exhibit is another seabird exhibit, much smaller than the penguin one though. It focuses on northeastern North American seabirds, mostly. The exhibit has a large water section, about 6-8 feet deep or so. The back is a sloping artificial rock wall, with grassy plants randomly growing out of it and lots of ledges and spaces for perched birds. There's not much more to say about this exhibit, other than the species housed inside:
  • Atlantic puffin
  • Little auk
  • Common murre
  • Black guillemot
The third exhibit in this gallery is the final one to house birds. It is designed to resemble a native Puget Sound seashore, with various shorebirds from the region roaming the exhibit. There is a large chilled saltwater pool in the middle of the exhibit for the birds to soak in - this isn't much deeper than a foot in the very middle, but it's pretty large in surface area. There is, of course, a large rock wall along the back and side walls of the exhibit, with various plants growing out of it. There is a larger-grain sand along the bottom, with various shells and pebbles scattered throughout. There are also a few large driftwood pieces on the floor of the enclosure, and some 'caves' in the rock wall for the birds to retreat to if they need to. This exhibit isn't as big as I think I am making it sound (correct me if I'm wrong), and it houses the following species:
  • Marbled godwit
  • Long-billed curlew
  • Black oystercatcher
  • Pacific golden plover
The next exhibit is a large exhibit for two species of pinnipeds, the only two pinniped species in the aquarium. This exhibit can be viewed from above or you can get an underwater view of the inhabitants. This exhibit is pretty standard, with a few large rock piles for the inhabitants to haul out onto, and some artificial kelp in the water. There is a fake rock wall surrounding the exhibit, with some hardy temperate plants growing on it. The species inside are the main focal point (especially for an American zoo-goer) and they are:
  • Harbor seal
  • Steller's sea lion
Next is a large aquarium, which houses just one species. Just like the seal/sea lion enclosure above, you can view it from the top or the bottom. Since this is a very cold-water species, its enclosure will be, well, enclosed. Parkas will be distributed before anyone walks into the enclosure to view them from above (sort of like those ice shows, if you've ever been to one of them), to give a real arctic feel (also because it's incredibly cold in there). There are rock ledges with fake snow all over them above the water, and underwater the exhibit is rather plain, to give the inhabitants plenty of open swimming space. Of course, the inhabitants are:
  • Beluga whale
Next up is a more tropical sea mammal exhibit (the only one), and it's quite large. There is sand on the bottom and a few very small piles of rock, but other than that it's pretty bare. The tank is viewed via a large curved acrylic panel, and there is stadium seating around the tank for shows (should be a dead giveaway as to what the species is). Just in case you haven't figured out what's housed in here:
  • Atlantic bottlenose dolphin
The final exhibit in this gallery features a gradually-sloping beach, which gets down to about 4 or 5 feet. The enclosure has a few pieces of driftwood and rocks on the beach, and that classic fake rock wall around it with some fake plants. Nothing too special, there are some large pebbles in the bottom of the water section as well as a few large fake rocks. This exhibit houses:
  • Sea otter

That wraps up this gallery. Next is the African Gallery, then there are the shark tanks, the entrance tank, and the Australian Gallery. Then I will make and post a complete species list for the aquarium :)
 
Ok, still doing good.
-South America: more mammals. I assure you there are plenty to choose from. Also, you could try for a more unique crocodilian than Cuvier's dwarf caiman.
-Asia: pretty good, could also have more mammals but there is less selection. The tiger seems out of place. Good luck as for Asian arowana- last I heard, US government wasn't allowing any imports. However I see them much more frequently in public aquariums than I'd expect, so perhaps the import ban is only conceding private keepers.
-jellies: not much to say, but you could go overboard and add even more species if you wanted.
-northern or southern sea otter?
 
jayjds2 said:
Ok, still doing good.
-South America: more mammals. I assure you there are plenty to choose from. Also, you could try for a more unique crocodilian than Cuvier's dwarf caiman.
-Asia: pretty good, could also have more mammals but there is less selection. The tiger seems out of place. Good luck as for Asian arowana- last I heard, US government wasn't allowing any imports. However I see them much more frequently in public aquariums than I'd expect, so perhaps the import ban is only conceding private keepers.
-jellies: not much to say, but you could go overboard and add even more species if you wanted.
-northern or southern sea otter?
Click to expand...
  1. Like the idea, I'll do some research and see what would fit nicely. I think I've got just the creature if I'm looking for a rare crocodilian ;)
  2. Yeah, getting them privately in the US is next to impossible - unless it's for public display (or possibly breeding to sell to public displays or to release back into the wild). If that's the case, they distribute permits pretty easily. I was thinking take the tiger out too, there's already one pretty large display in the gallery. I'll look for some more mammal ideas as well
  3. I've been looking for some more jelly species, I think I've got a few to add
  4. Well, let's see. The penguins represent the islands within a few hundred miles of Antarctica, the puffins/seabirds represent the northeastern coast of North America, the shorebirds represent Washington/Oregon, the seals/sea lions represent Alaska/Russia, and the whales represent the Arctic Circle in general (of course the dolphins are a worldwide species, pretty much). So I guess to throw some variety in there, the sea otters will be the Southern/Californian Sea Otter to represent, yes, California.
Will post some updated species in a few minutes here
 
First, here's my ranking of the six extant species of caiman, ranked from most common in captivity to least. Those are:
  1. Spectacled caiman (most popular)
  2. Cuvier's dwarf caiman
  3. Yacare caiman
  4. Black caiman
  5. Broad snouted caiman
  6. Smooth fronted caiman
This is my speculation, and might not be 100% accurate - but I would guess it's pretty close. So, I will go ahead and update the species lists for the rest of this post, using this information:

Amazon Gallery
  • Smooth fronted caiman (to replace cuvier's dwarf caiman)
  • Central American ornate wood turtle (with the red footed tortoises in the walk-through rainforest)
  • Monk saki (new species with a new exhibit, it's glass fronted and with the rest of the monkeys - I thought it would be cooler to exhibit these than the much more popular white-faced saki)
  • Bush dog (housed in a glass-fronted exhibit near the monkeys)
  • Giant anteater (in a cleverly sectioned-off part of the walk-through rainforest, basically birds are able to enter but the anteater isn't able to leave)
  • White-nosed coati (housed in a glass-fronted cage right by the monkeys)
Asia Gallery
  • Bengal tigers REMOVED
  • Clouded leopard (to replace the tigers)
  • Blood python (given their own display)
  • Indian muntjac, burmese brown tortoise, and rhinoceros hornbill (given their own display)
Jellyfish Gallery
  • Northern sea nettle (given their own tank)
  • Black sea nettle (given their own tank)
  • Japanese sea nettle (given their own tank)
Can you tell I like sea nettles ;) ?
 
The African Gallery is up next. There are numerous aquariums, here they are listed out:
  • Mbuna cichlid, chambo cichlid, spindle hap cichlid, elegant venustus cichlid, dolphin cichlid, malawi eye-biter cichlid, malawi sandsifter cichlid, malawi christyi cichlid, star cichlid, malawi spotted synodontis catfish
  • Duboisi cichlid, compressiceps cichlid, humphead cichlid, blue julie cichlid, brown julie cichlid, golden julie cichlid, marleer dwarf cichlid, moore's cichlid, shumba shell dweller, blunthead cichlid, fairy cichlid, lemon cichlid, yellow calvus cichlid, brichardi cichlid, leopard synodontis catfish, upside down synodontis catfish
  • Atlantic mudskipper, banded lampeye killifish, mono argentus
  • Long nosed elephant nose fish, steel blue killifish
  • Giraffe catfish, ornate bichir, congo bichir, endlicheri bichir, african tigerfish, goliath tigerfish
  • Cross river pufferfish
  • African freshwater pike, east african lungfish
  • Senegal bichir, delhezi bichir, poll's bichir, reedfish, african brown knifefish, leopard ctenopoma, congo tetra, ocellated synodontis catfish, featherfin synodontis catfish, silver ctenopoma, jewel cichlid, kribensis cichlid, polleni cichild
The first tank represents Lake Malawi, the second represents Lake Tanganyika, and the last tank represents the Congo River. The other tanks just represent random parts and fish of Africa.

Next up is the large exhibit housing the following
  • African spot necked otter
Finally, there are some exhibits for reptiles and amphibians (one of which has fish):
  • West african dwarf crocodile
  • Gaboon viper
  • Panther chameleon, madagascar rainbowfish, golden wonder killifish
  • African clawed frog
  • Brown mantella, green mantella, gold mantella, black eared mantella, blue leg mantella
  • African bullfrog
  • Tomato frog
  • Seychelles day gecko
  • Banded uromastyx
That's all for this gallery - it's probably the smallest of all the galleries, maybe the jellyfish gallery is similar in size but surely there's nothing smaller. Let me know what you think :)
 
1 and only Drew said:
First, here's my ranking of the six extant species of caiman, ranked from most common in captivity to least. Those are:
  1. Spectacled caiman (most popular)
  2. Cuvier's dwarf caiman
  3. Yacare caiman
  4. Black caiman
  5. Broad snouted caiman
  6. Smooth fronted caiman
Click to expand...

I'd say it's more accurately:
1. Cuvier's dwarf caiman
2. Spectacled/common caiman
3. Smooth fronted caiman
4. Yacare caiman
5. Broad snouted caiman
6. Black caiman

At least, that seems to be how it is in the United States. I think I've only seen the last three once each, at a specialist crocodilians facility. I really like black caimans, I wish they were more popular.

I don't think there are any monk saki in the US- if you want an uncommon saki monkey, go for red backed bearded saki, which has had two holders since a 2009(?) import.

I like the new additions to those tree galleries. You could do even more jellies, but it's up to you :p. I think there are plenty as it is now, though you could add some more uncommon species if you wished.

Are there Madagascar rainbowfish in captivity? I wasn't aware of any, but if so, that's great. I could have just missed them somewhere.
 
To start the Australian Gallery, I will describe the two different exhibits. For this, think of the Amazon Gallery - just smaller. Glass displays on the bottom level, and yet another glass dome on the top. This has various free flight species, and some turtle ponds, a few reptile displays inside the rockwork, and a few birds that are caged/have their own aviary, but are regularly taken our by staff to roam parts of the exhibit. The species in here are:
  • Great kookaburra
  • Tawny frogmouth
  • Greater sulphur crested cockatoo
  • Eclectus parrot
  • Prehensile tailed skink
  • Solomon island leaf frog
  • White's tree frog
  • Red faced turtle, notherern snake necked turtle
  • New Guinea snapping turtle
  • Red bellied side necked turtle
  • The following species are all free flight
    • Rainbow lorikeet, scaly breasted lorikeet, scarlet chested parrot, red winged parrot, superb parrot, budgerigar, princess of wales parakeet, king parrot, northern rosella, eastern rosella, galah cockatoo, cockatiel
    • Emerald dove, diamond dove, superb fruit dove, imperial pigeon, crested pigeon, squatter pigeon
    • Zebra finch, double barred finch, star finch, gouldian finch, long-tailed grass finch, plum headed finch, painted finch, blue faced parrotfinch
    • Masked lapwing
The free flight aviary is pretty spacious, with lots of room for the birds inside. All of them are flighted, and can move around the exhibit as they please. There is a decent-sized waterfall with a stream, plus the turtle ponds which all provide water sources for the birds. There are all live plants, but not nearly as many of them as in the Amazon Rainforest exhibit. It's sort of a mix between tropical forest and scrubland, The birds can be fed for a small fee as well.

On the first floor, there are plenty of interesting cold-blooded animal displays. I will just go ahead and list them, they are:
  • Freshwater crocodile
  • Frilled lizard, shingleback skink
  • Central bearded dragon
  • Black headed python, woma python, centralian carpet python
  • Northern death adder
  • Merten's water monitor
  • Hosmer's skink
  • Northern blue tongue skink
  • Spiny tailed monitor
  • Eastern carpet python
  • Water python
  • Eastern water dragon
  • Jardini arowana
  • Barramundi, freshwater whipray, sooty grunter, sleepy cod, giant gudgeon, lesser salmon catfish, australian black catfish, toothless catfish, australian shovelnose catfish
  • Western rainbowfish, boesemani rainbowfish, threadfin rainbowfish, australian lungfish, large-scaled archerfish, fly river turtle, gang gang cockatoo
  • Common yabby
  • Gray-headed flying fox
Let me know what you think. This is actually the last gallery, there are three (sort of) exhibits left over and then this thing is done :)
 
jayjds2 said:
I'd say it's more accurately:
1. Cuvier's dwarf caiman
2. Spectacled/common caiman
3. Smooth fronted caiman
4. Yacare caiman
5. Broad snouted caiman
6. Black caiman

At least, that seems to be how it is in the United States. I think I've only seen the last three once each, at a specialist crocodilians facility. I really like black caimans, I wish they were more popular.

I don't think there are any monk saki in the US- if you want an uncommon saki monkey, go for red backed bearded saki, which has had two holders since a 2009(?) import.

I like the new additions to those tree galleries. You could do even more jellies, but it's up to you :p. I think there are plenty as it is now, though you could add some more uncommon species if you wished.

Are there Madagascar rainbowfish in captivity? I wasn't aware of any, but if so, that's great. I could have just missed them somewhere.
Click to expand...
  • I was thinking yacare caimans might be cooler, let's go with them instead :)
  • There are no Monk Saki in the United States, as far as I know - they are in Mexico or somewhere nearby, I believe. I actually like the look of the white-faced saki better, I think I will have them in there instead.
  • I think I'm good for now on the jellies, but if I see anything else that's cool I will add it to the list
  • Madagascar rainbowfish are common with private hobbyists, so they would be easy to find. I don't know if they're in public aquariums though - but they're very cheap and common in the aquarium hobby
So updates are:
  • Smooth fronted caimans removed, yacare caimans replaced them
  • Monk saki removed, white faced saki replaced them
 
Your Australian exhibit reminds me a lot of that of the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

I'd put gray-headed flying foxes in the rainforest room. It leaves more room for them to be active if they choose to be so. Granted, that's how the six are at NAiB, and I've never seen them, but that's just how the exhibit is laid out.

Thanks for the info on the rainbowfish.
 
Haven't finished the shark tanks yet, but I have a few figures for you:

There is a Hawaiian tank that is 200 feet long, 115 feet wide, and 16 feet deep which totals out to 2.75 million gallons (largest tank in the aquarium)

Next up is a tank for all kinds of rays and peaceful sharks - this is 90 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 10 feet deep which works out to around 336,000 gallons.

The last big shark tank is 45 feet in diameter and 7 feet deep, making it around 84,000 gallons.

These tanks are all tropical, and will probably be run on the same filtration system. That means there's close to 3.2 million gallons being run through that system alone. While I'm at it, I will give the sizes for all the other tanks which have some kind of elasmobranch (shark, ray, or guitarfish - excluding freshwater rays) inside of them:

The touch tank with yellow stingrays is a weird design, there's a shallow section that's elevated for touching them, and then there's a deeper section for them to retreat to if they don't want to. The touching section is 10 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 18 inches deep - while the deeper section is 4 feet deep, 8 feet wide, and 10 feet long. This brings the tank's volume up to 2,400 gallons. I forgot to mention, there are some atlantic fish in the tank - they should stay in the deeper section to avoid contact, but occasionally they may venture into the shallower section. Those fish are rusty goby, saddled blenny, red lip blenny, green razorfish wrasse, and redspotted hawkfish.

Next is the atlantic guitarfish and lookdown tank. This is an acrylic column tank that is 1,900 gallons - 5 feet high and 8 feet in diameter. It's pretty bare, with plenty of space for the inhabitants and just a few rock structures. There are no other fish species in this tank.

The benthic shark touch tank (epaulette shark, coral cat shark, brown banded bamboo shark, white spotted bamboo shark) is a shallow lagoon all around. It is an oval shaped tank, measuring 2 feet deep, 20 feet long, and 8 feet wide. This makes for a 1,900 gallon tank. Oddly enough, this wasn't planned with the last one - they both pretty much have the same gallonage (1,880 to be exact).

Then there is the tank with blue spotted stingrays, blue spotted ribbontail rays, and fiddler rays. This tank is 4 feet high and 12 feet in diameter, making it 3,400 gallons.

There is the large coldwater tunnel, this is a pretty nice-sized tank. The tunnel is 8 feet high at the highest point and 14 feet across (giving a 4 foot wide conveyor belt, say 1 foot on either side of that for the track, and 4 feet outside of that for guests to move at their own path), so the volume of that needs to be factored in. The tank itself (not factoring in the tunnel) is 40 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 10 feet high. After the volume of the tunnel is taken out, the tank works out to be about 48,500 gallons.

The spotted ratfish tank is 6 feet in diameter and 3.5 feet high, making the tank about 750 gallons.

The final tank is for the chain dogfish colony. These sharks only reach about 2 feet long, so their tank is plenty big enough for them - it's, once again, a round tank. It's 6 feet in diameter and 3 feet high, making the tank 640 gallons, the smallest elasmobranch exhibit we've got.

And them's the facts, for now :)
 
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