
22-01-2012
I (Marty) attended todays grandopening and I must say it exceeded my expectations.Bonnie was not able to make it today so no pics yet but we are gonna try to go again on Wenesday.The first couple of tanks feature Ohio game fish such as Largemouth Bass,Catfish,Emerald Shiner,Golden Shiner and Walleye.There are alot of cylinder tanks contaning species like Blacknose Dace,Longear Sun Fish and Orange Spotted sun fish,Bull Head Dollar Sun Fish,Darters,Tetra,Octpus,Goldfish.,Northern Studfish and Roundhead Goby.
There is a small freshwater Amazon River exhibit featuring a couple species of freshwater rays and some other small amazon fish.
Next is the worst alligator exhibit I have ever seen.Its very synthetic with no natural look to it at all.Its literally a tiny pool,a slab of concrete with some logs on top and some strings hanging from the ceiling.The exhibit houses 4 small female American Alligators.
One of the cooler features are that they built some tanks into several original brick tunnels which sorta resemble subway tunnels.
Next is a wall of exhibits of Lizards without any signage yet so I am not sure of the species followed by a nice sized tank for Black Grouper , Green Moray Eel and Bonnethead Shark.
The next room features a large touch tank where divers let visitors touch Starfish and Horseshoe crabs.
Next is the best exhibit at the aquarium a 250 thousand gallon shark tank featuring Sand Tigers,Nurse Sharks,Sand Bars and Blasck nose Sharks.The tank contains a shipwreck a cave and has a 149 foot tunnel running though its center which the longest of its kind in North America.
Overall this is not too bad a start for this facility and many staff informed me that their goal is to double in size by 2014.New exhbits could possibly include Sea Turtles,Penguins and even Dolphins.There is no more available space in the original powerhouse building so any planned expansion would be a additional free standing building.For anyone visiting Cleveland I would have to say its worth a look.
Team Tapir
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