Dear Zoochat pals, At the begin of August I plan to do a trip to Paris but with a scale of 1-2 days in Valencia previous to it, where, of course, I would try to visit the best facility of the place: the Oceanographic. This place opens to public much latter that all the Paris facilities that I planned to visit: it don't reopen until 1st July! It doesn't should surprise me, as in Spain the covid-crisis was gestioned by the worst government in Europe. Anyway, I think that despite the late opening I will have no problems for getting the tickets on board a the begin of August - or yes? Do you think that there will be still a long pending queue for people that bought it online before and cannot visit during pandemia? The thing that decreases more my enthusiasm about the place is the price. Nothing less than 31,30 € by an adult ticket! Much more than any of the French facilities! This incredibly expensive place is, however, more rich in species than any of the Paris aquariums, and it have a wonderful number of rarities and exciting ones. 11 species are unique to this place according to ZTL (much less than Porte Dorée, but that's because here are no cichlids!), one of them being a wonderful butterflyfish, Chaetodon punctatofasciatus, as well as interesting Cobitis paludica and Takifugu niphobles. One of the unique species is Rhinoptera marginata and I wonder if they have it mixed with their common Rhinoptera bonasus or not, and what would allow me to distinguish it. About rare species, held in 1 to 5 zoos according to ZTL, and that I lack, most noteworthy are the small livebearers endemic to the zone (Aphanius iberus and Valencia hispanica), Mobula hypostoma (I never saw a devil ray in an aquarium!) and Rhinecanthus assasi. Cephaloscyllium ventriosum is also exciting, I saw it in California but in a position that made impossible the least decent attempt of photograph. So I hope to have better chances here. They have also Orectolobus ogilbyi but according to ZTL they're not signaged, where to see them? Also noteworthy is the green sawfish, Pristis zijsron. According to Zootierliste they have both Pristis microdon and Pristis zijsron and the latter signed only as Pristis sp. Since I have P. microdon I'm interested in P. zijsron. Any trick to be sure of which one I'm photographing? In Zoochat gallery appears also a photo labelled as large-toothed sawfish, so, Pristis pristis. This species don't appear in Oceanographic list of ZTL not in current nor former lists. How can I ensure that I'm photographing a Pristis zijsron? Amongst the more common species (present in more than 5 ZTL institutions), the most exciting are Thalassoma hardwicke, my favourite of the genus, and Zeugopterus punctatus. I think that will be very difficult to get decent photos of the latter, will it be? Besides the species I lack, I also want to take better photos for substitute bad ones I already have. Especially noteworthy are three species that I have as taxidermy specimen pics but I would like to substitute by alive ones. One is the common angelshark, Squatina squatina. A fabulous species in the verge of extinction and very rarely kept in public aquaria, But of course my biggest fear is to find nothing more than sand covering completely a buried specimen. Any tricks for avoid that? Other is the angular roughshark, Oxynotus centrina. I missed it at Aquarium Barcelona and this time I don't want to miss it. It's "lost" in the huge Ocean tank, or it more easily located in a smaller tank? And third is the common pratincole, Glareola pratincola. Where is it? In the Wetlands sphere maybe?? Besides that, I saw in the Zoochat gallery a photo of nothing less than WHITE-BARRED BOXFISH (Anoplocapros lenticularis) that is one of my very favourite fishes. ZTL don't list it either in the current nor former lists. Any idea if they're still here?? Other marvelous oddities that appear here are invertebrates and hence don't appear on ZTL, but in the Gallery I see CTENOPHORES!!!!!!!!!! (Mnemiopsis leidyi, I suppose) that undoubtely would be the best animal in Oceanographic. As well as SEA PENS! (Pennatula rubra). Please, are these species still present in the place? In the Oceanographic website also appears a very interesting mantis shrimp. It looks like exactly a peacock mantis shrimp in design and patterns, but it's red instead green. Any ideas of what is it and if it's still present here? Toughts, suggestion and advices are very welcome!
Sorry I can't help with whether they'll be open or not, but I think that grand prize goes to the UK government
They do indeed by which scale the UK comes out worse than Spain, at 63.4 deaths per 100,000 population as opposed to 58.1 deaths per 100,000 population!
It's still worthwhile keeping for the benefit of anyone else intending to visit methinks, considering the breakdown you provided of some of the potential highlights!
