My new fantasy aquarium

Well, NAiB used to be my local aquarium (for like 10 years), so I wonder where the inspiration came from

Might be a nice idea, they'll surely be active in such a large exhibit. I think at the end of the exhibit (this one has a set path through it, just one) there will be a clear netting separating the flying foxes and the smaller birds - this aviary is entirely a lake, with a wooden bridge for the path, and islands with trees (that cross over the bridge, with feeding stations for the bats right next to the railing). This smaller section focuses on the various waterfowl species of Australia, including freckled duck, australian wood duck, cape barren goose, and chestnut teal. If it were larger I would include other/larger species, but it's not all that massive, so those species are enough I think.

 

Quite a number of interesting exhibits. Well done.

I realize this is in the fantasy section, but a few minor comments:

"Blue damselfish, peacock mantis shrimp"

- damsel doesn't stand a chance and would eventually end up as mantis shrimp food. Sure there are people that have tried it, but it rarely lasts. Mantis really belong in species-only tanks.

"greater blue ringed octopus"

- blue rings are indeed available in the aquarium trade (though they really shouldn't be kept by ordinary aquarists for obvious reasons!) and a well-connected public aquarium shouldn't have any problems getting them. Sure they're short-lived, but that's true for almost all octopus species, incl. all mentioned in this thread. It basically depends on getting breeding going, as done with various species at e.g. Monterey Bay Aquarium. However, their blue rings are barely or not at all visible most of the time. They just look like a tiny ordinary octopus. The blue rings are only really obvious when they're flared up e.g. when scared.

"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."

- Most of the species you listed are entirely reef safe and wouldn't cause problems for live corals. The only exceptions are spotted knifejaw (eats sessile inverts and require subtropical water temperatures), angelfish (pretty much all angelfish species are risky, but it can be done, especially in very large tanks where a small amount of coral grazing isn't a big problem), butterflyfish (same as angelfish, although more problematic for the exclusive corallivores; none of the butterfly you mention are exclusive), sailfin snapper (eats sessile inverts).

"Volitan lionfish, antennata lionfish, leaf scorpionfish, stonefish"

- Stone will definitely eat leaf and antennata. May even try the volitan, although that combination has been done successfully at several aquariums.

"...chocolate chip starfish, feather duster..."

- Chocolate chip love to eat sessile inverts; they'll even have a go at small crustaceans if they can catch them.

"seadragon, golden neon goby"

- The goby is tropical (>72 F), seadragons are subtropical (<66 F, usually kept at 57-63 F). In any case it is currently impossible to source leafy, only weedy can be sourced.

"Blue spotted stingray, blue spotted ribbontail stingray, fiddler ray"

- same issue as above, fiddler is subtropical, others are tropical.

"Wolf eel, panamic green moray eel"

- same problem as above, although even larger difference in temperature requirements; wolf eel is a temperate species that only extends marginally into subtropical (and then typically in deeper sections where water remains cold). Would do fine in two tanks just above ("Barred sand bass..." and "California sheephead...").

"there are 9 different species of poison dart frogs living together, something rarely accomplished"

- With lots of space, it's easy enough to co-inhabit multiple dart frog species. The problem is that they can and often do hybridize. Among species you listed, the problems are: Green and black X bumblebee X dyeing; three-striped X pleasing; strawberry X harlequin. If you don't want hybrids, a good general rules is only 1 from each genus in a terrarium.

"dwarf green pike cichlid"

- Sure it's a dwarf, but they're aggressive and efficient hunters. They would love to be housed with rummynose, neon and similar sized fish! You'd have to accept that they're essentially feeders to the dwarf pike.

"redtail catfish... achara catfish, vulture catfish"

- once the redtail is fully grown, achara and vulture may well become food.

"fish hailing from the Mekong River"

- strictly speaking, a large percentage of those fish aren't found in the Mekong, but aquariums (and zoos) often use very broad geographic definitions (e.g. Mekong = any freshwater fish from southern Asia).

"White cloud mountain minnow"

- require colder water than the rest in that tank, but would do perfectly fine in e.g. hillstream loach tank. Some of the Vietnamese Tanichthys are better able to handle warmer temperatures long-term.

"very slightly brackish... blue sheatfish... asian upside down catfish"

- neither of those can live in brackish water, even if only slightly. However, there are numerous other catfish species that do fine in brackish water.

"Asian yellow spotted climbing toad, emperor salamander"
- although I've seen places mixing these, it really isn't the best choice. During the summer their temperature preferences are roughly a match, but the rest of the year the emperor require colder temperatures.

"polleni cichild"

- goodbye to jewel (unless one of the large species) and kribensis cichlids, and Congo tetra. Risky for reedfish, too. Polleni's actually do well with other large Madagascar cichlids (Paretroplus, Ptychochromis) as long as there's plenty of space, but they also do fine with larger, robust African mainland fish.

"northern rosella, eastern rosella"

- doable, but would need a very large aviary with plenty of vegetation/other structures to limit line of sight. Rosellas can be rather unpleasant towards other rosellas and other parrots.

"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"

- plenty in public aquariums too. However, while private keeper almost only keep Bedotia madagascarensis (often misidentified as B. geayi), a number of rarer relatives are kept in a few public aquariums, sometimes as part of endangered species breeding projects. I posted a longer comment about it here: www.zoochat.com/community/media/madagascar-bedotia-amp-madgascar-pachypanchax-tanks.270972/

 

temp, thank you for the well thought-out reply. I will definitely respond to it when I get a chance, might not be until this weekend though - but I will try and make time before then

For now, here are a few stock lists. Don't mind the large shark tank sizes, they're all wrong. The first tank I'll go over is the atlantic tank, this is approximately 80 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 8 feet high making it 216,000 gallons - a little over half the size I had quoted earlier. There are multiple goals with this exhibit:

1. House the world's largest collection of rays (there are a few other species throughout other exhibits)
2. Represent a native lagoon for various species of Atlantic sharks, rays, and other various fish
3. Design a tank that effectively houses peaceful, relatively harmless species so that visitors can, for a fee, dive in the tank
4. Provide a second tank with a tunnel through it

And the species list for the exhibit is quite comprehensive:

• Atlantic sharpnose shark, blacknose shark, bonnethead shark, finetooth shark
• Atlantic stingray, bluntnose stingray, roughtail stingray, southern stingray
• Atlantic cownose ray, bullnose ray, lesser devil ray, southern eagle ray, spotted eagle ray
• Smooth butterfly ray, spiny butterfly ray
• Green sea turtle
• Atlantic tarpon, scaled herring, blackbar soldierfish, black snook, black seabass, nassau grouper, tiger grouper, rock hind, cobia, jack crevalle, bar jack, lookdown, permit, mangrove snapper, lane snapper, yellowtail snapper, tripletail, porkfish, french grunt, bluestripe grunt, sheepshead, pinfish, red drum, beaugregory, bluehead wrasse, reef butterflyfish, foureyed butterflyfish, neon goby, atlantic spadefish, gulf flounder, bonefish

I will rank the elasmobranch species here:

• Atlantic sharpnose shark, finetooth shark, bluntnose stingray, smooth butterfly ray - I don't know of any public aquariums exhibiting these species
• Roughtail stingray, bullnose ray, lesser devil ray, southern eagle ray, spiny butterfly ray - very rarely exhibited, but there is at least one place that has them on display
• Blacknose shark, spotted eagle ray - pretty easy to find, but not a staple species
• Bonnethead shark, atlantic stingray, southern stingray, atlantic cownose ray - very common

So as you can see, there are some pretty rarely-exhibited species in this tank, which will surely make for a fun display.



Next is the tank with our large sharks. It is another large rectangular (more of an oval) tank, designed on a geographical region specifically known for its sharks - Australia. We're going to have 7 species of sharks, 3 species of rays, and a ton of other fish in the tank. This tank is 210 feet long, 95 feet wide, and 18 feet deep - making it 2.69 million gallons. The species inside are:

• Scalloped hammerhead shark, sandbar shark, sand tiger shark, galapagos shark, grey reef shark, whitetip reef shark, tawny nurse shark
• Bowmouth guitarfish, cowtail stingray, freshwater sawfish
• Loggerhead sea turtle
• Red mangrove snapper, giant moray eel, great barracuda, african pompano, giant trevally, bigeye trevally, silver trevally, bumblebee grouper, leopard grouper, crimson soldierfish, azure damselfish, clown tang, yellowtail tang, orange shoulder tang, convict tang, scribbled angelfish, bicolor angelfish, spangled emperor, red emperor snapper, fiveline snapper, checkered snapper, mono argentus, black durgon triggerfish, orbicularis batfish, threespot damselfish, scissortail sergeant, humphead wrasse, yellowbanded sweetlips

Inspiration for the sharks and rays in this tank came from Shark Reef Aquarium @ Mandalay Bay.



The next tank is the large (48 foot diameter and 9 feet deep, making it 122,000 gallons) artificial reef tank, for a few indo-pacific shark/ray species plus TONS of reef fish. The incredibly long stock list consists of:

• Blacktip reef shark, zebra shark, black blotched fantail ray, reticulate whipray
• Green sea turtle
• Angelfish and Butterflyfish: bicolor angelfish, coral beauty angelfish, flame angelfish, japanese swallowtail angelfish, lamarck's angelfish, lemonpeel angelfish, pyramid butterflyfish, raccoon butterflyfish
• Anthias: bimaculatus anthias, huchtii anthias, lyretail anthias, pictilis anthias, squareback anthias, stocky anthias
• Cardinalfish: amboina cardinalfish, bandfin cardinalfish, flame cardinalfish, ochre-striped cardinalfish, orange-striped cardinalfish, orbicular cardinalfish
• Clownfish and Damselfish: blue damselfish, four stripe damselfish, green reef chromis, lemon damselfish, ocellaris clownfish, three stripe damselfish
• Hawkfish: arc-eye hawkfish, freckled hawkfish, longnose hawkfish, soaring hawkfish
• Miscellaneous Fish: harlequin sweetlips, moorish idol, teira batfish, two-lined monocle bream, yellow banded sweetlips, yellowtail fusilier
• Odd-Shaped Swimmers: mimic filefish, niger triggerfish, rectangle triggerfish, valentini pufferfish
• Rabbitfish: blue-lined rabbitfish, foxface rabbitfish, scribbled rabbitfish
• Small Reef Fish: blue-spotted watchman goby, canary blenny, dusky dottyback, gold head sleeper goby, lawnmower blenny, midas blenny, ocellated dragonet, pink-spotted watchman goby, red firefish, zebra barred dartfish
• Tangs: achilles tang, bluespine unicorn tang, chocolate tang, convict tang, dussumieri tang, naso tang, orange shoulder tang, orange-striped bristletooth tang, regal tang, sailfin tang, scopas tang, vlamingi tang, white cheek tang, yellow eye kole tang, yellow tang
  
• Wrasses and Hogfish: axilspot hogfish, blue-sided fairy wrasse, carpenter's flasher wrasse, exquisite fairy wrasse, green bird wrasse, hawaiian cleaner wrasse, longfin fairy wrasse, lunare wrasse, lyretail hogfish, red coris wrasse, saddle wrasse, scott's fairy wrasse, sixline wrasse

There is one other tank - this is actually in the Florida Gallery, and it will replace the large reef tank. The main reason for this is because almost all of those species are in the large Atlantic ray tank already, so there's no reason to copy that tank without the sharks or rays. I don't want to completely get rid of it though, so we're going to make it much much smaller. Stock list is all the way down below. Also, this tank is large, so the sportfishing tank is going to be changed into something much smaller. So, what happens to the livestock in that tank? Well, here's the run-down:

• Red drum are now living in the large Atlantic shark/ray tank
• Permit are now living in the large Atlantic shark/ray tank
• Ladyfish are now in the new tank
• Speckled seatrout keep their tank, although it will become much smaller

And in the large tank (which is 30 feet long, 12 feet wide, 6 feet deep, and 16,200 gallons), there are the following species:

• Goliath grouper
• Green moray eel
• Neon goby
• White margate
• French grunt
• Sailor's choice
• Ladyfish

Finally, the atlantic reef tank. Not sure on size, but not massive:

• French angelfish, queen angelfish
• Lookdown, porkfish, french grunt, atlantic spadefish
• Blue parrotfish, rooster hogfish, slippery dick wrasse, cuban hogfish, princess parrotfish, spanish hogfish
• Blue chromis, atlantic blue tang

There we go, the aquarium is finished. Actually not, I have to get back to temp! Do not worry, I will surely do it when I get a chance

 

Okay, here is my response to temp:

1. I've kept this combination personally before multiple times, and it's only failed me once - when I missed a feeding for the mantis. In fact, that exact stock list has been done by me before - I'll have to search for some pictures
2. Yeah, I have decided against the blue ring. They have not been replaced by anything
3. The angels and butterflies were the main ones I meant, and none of the live reef tanks are exactly large enough to the point where keeping these wouldn't be any issue. The tangs are definitely fine though, as are most of the fish in there. They're still in a large artificial reef tank though, not going live coral with them
4. The stonefish is Synanceia verrucosa - which reaches around 16" at maximum. The antennata lionfish reaches about half this size, so they definitely cannot be kept in there - there isn't another lionfish species in the trade (to my knowledge) that reaches a large enough size to be kept in here, so it won't be replaced. Scorpionfish will be removed and not replaced as well
5. I've kept chocolate chips with feather dusters no problems before, although I have heard of problems before. I'll take the starfish out, just to be safe (no replacement)
6. The golden neon goby will be replaced with the popular (and often not properly kept) catalina goby
7. These rays can all be kept together with no issues. The blue spotted ray can handle some very low temperatures down to the 60's but prefer high 70's, the ribbontail can't handle temps far under the low 70's, and the fiddler can handle high 60's if it really needs to. Temps in the low 70's, say 72-74, will facilitate all species well
8. Panamic green moray eel removed completely, green wolf eel moved in with the snowflake moray and zebra moray
9. Good point, I know a guy with a 1,700 gallon former reef tank that was turned into a paludarium with various dart frog species - he had aggression issues in the beginning, but they all simmered down. He does get hybrids though. One alternative would be to keep solely females, so no breeding whatsoever occurs. The other species will have males and females to facilitate breeding, these are rarer species in captivity
10. Good point, dwarf pike removed and not replaced
11. Again, know many people with this combination personally, it just requires space and regular feedings
12. Never knew that, that tank will be labeled Southeast Asia tank I guess
13. White cloud mountain minnow moved into the hillstream loach tank, not replaced in the tank they are currently in
14. Both species replaced with colombian shark catfish - green spotted puffer also removed from here
15. Emperor salamander and climbing toad separated
16. Polleni removed and not replaced
17. The aviary is very large, with plenty of plants and such, so they should be fine - can be removed if necessary

Thank you very much for the response! I will post a full species list at some point this week

 

Discus should be kept in a species only tank...

 

Not at all necessary, they are fairly easy to keep with other species if given enough space and hiding places. And usually "enough space" isn't too much space.

 

A few specifications:
1: I personally know four cases where "smashers" (i.e., the mainly crustacean-feeding mantis shrimp, such as peacock) were mixed with small fish. The survival record for the fish was 11 months, which some may consider ok.
7: Doable, but only if accepting reduce lifespan.
8: "Wolf eel" (Anarrhichthys; cold-water) mentioned on previous page and "green wolf eel" (Congrogadus; tropical) in your recent comment are two very different species. If you meant the green, you can disregard my comment about temperature.
11: Perhaps I did not express myself clearly enough. The two cat's can't deal with salt (even low level brackish), but they can be mixed with the banded archer and green-spotted puffer you mentioned. This is because this archer and puffer are very adaptable and can live in freshwater, although they do prefer a bit of salt. I've seen aquariums mixing all these in "mangrove tanks", but always using pure freshwater, not brackish.

Discus can indeed be mixed with others, although they do tend to see tiny fish as snacks and really don't do well if mixed with aggressive species. Captive bred are less extreme in their pH requirements than wild caught, but still require the high temperatures. Perhaps no public aquarium has done the discus-other species mix as well and realistic (compared to wild habitat; virtually no plants!) as Berlin Zoo Aquarium. Some variation in species-mix over time, but discus and angelfish have been a constant in the tank.

 

No they would be bullied and out competed for food, the only really sutible tank mates are small tetras and pencil fish, Corydoras and shrimps and snails.

 

@1 and only Drew This is quite a dream aquarium!

 

This is really well thought out, good job. I always love seeing multi-complex aquarium and zoo ideas like these when done well.