The aquarium did a preview of the new gallery for members this week. The gallery opens for the general public on July 1st. I will start by stating that I expected this to be a sub-par gallery, just a shoe in on a under-utilized space. I could not have been more wrong - this gallery was done really well, if it sets the tone for the new expansions coming the next two years then I think we can easily expect the Florida Aquarium to take a top 10 position in the USA. All of the tank graphics are touch screens where you can get a LOT of information on each creature. Some have interactive games on them as well. All of the above tank species names morphed/rotated from a digital line drawing to the common and scientific name. There are also several interactive games and such aimed at kids. The largest tank is the paddlefish tank, which took up the entirety of one of the walls. The weakest tank was for the freshwater stingrays, which seemed rather small for three rays. The epaulette shark tank had 4 animals, and was right sized for now, but they will outgrow it. The archer fish tank was an open top, so they plan on showing them shoot out of it. Most of the animals were surprises as they were not teased, other than axolotl, paddlefish, and epaulette sharks. Missing were the teased cherry shrimp, so I am not sure what happened there. It was great to see electric eels back, they used to be displayed up in the Madagascar area a long while back. The gallery are all fresh water creatures (excluding the octopus), here is the species list: Arowana Cichlid Mudskipper Freshwater stingray Electric Eeel Electric Catfish Four-eyed Fish Epaulette Shark Mandarinfish Archer fish Paddlefish Blind Cave tetra Octopus (unspecified species, unseen) Axolotle Bird Poop Frog/Pied warty frog Panther Chameleon They have also added a small giftshop/stand outside of the exit, which makes the aquarium have two giftshop areas now, previously it was only the main one on the first floor near the exit and restaurant. More pictures are in the Florida Aquarium gallery.
Thanks for your effort in providing all of us photos and comments. Much appreciated! Hopefully this encourages visitors into the facility and sets the tone for the big upcoming expansion with sea lions, penguins and puffins. It all looks very colourful and appealing, with the paddlefish a real highlight. However, those tanks for the freshwater stingrays and the electric eel are far too tiny.
I am happy to be able to Yeah, what is with aquariums often exhibiting electric eels and lungfish in such small tanks?
To be fair, in the wild, both of those species are fairly sluggish and don't move much. However, I do agree that their tanks should be big enough for them to swim around in.
Fair point. There is about 2 body lengths for the eel here, which is adequate but not great. IIRC most people say a good size is three lengths for similar animals. But the exhibit here is OK, and the whole exhibit, from a design perspective, is fantastic.
Each to their own, but my personal opinion is that the electric eel tank at Florida Aquarium is ridiculously small. If given a large tank, electric eels will move around a lot and be quite active. Vancouver Aquarium has had electric eels in decently-sized exhibits over the years and I've had many memorable visits watching an eel swim around its spacious tank. Perhaps the best I've ever seen was in Sweden at Tropicarium Kolmarden. It is an open-topped exhibit, just in case someone wishes to add a jolt to their experience.
Yeah, around 22 is what I count. It really is a nice aquarium, the one in OdySea is all scratched up, hopefully this one stays un-scratched. Come to think of it the FL Aquarium tanks stay pretty scratch free for whatever reason.
