Looking at the last visits from 2015 the Shark Reef Aquarium has been through quite a few changes so following the main path from entrance to exit: The audio tour is gone and now every exhibit has normal signage. The Golden Crocodile has been replaced by two Freshwater Crocodiles signed as Johnstons Crocodiles. The African Cichlids have been replaced by Devils Hole Pupfish. Originally kept bts this species is extremely rare and can only be found in the devils hole cave system. The aquarium is actively working in a breeding program to help the species. The Amazon Predators exhibit now has Ripsaw Catfish and a new unidentified species of Stingray. The tunnel tank now only has bonnethead and blacktip reef sharks along with small unidentified fish. The shipwreck exhibit still has all of its original species (including the Galapagos Shark). It is however the only exhibit to still use screens as signage except for one on Bowmouth Guitarfish.
Yes, and from what I’ve read the exhibit has not changed at all. Honestly it would be easier to just replace it with an Asian water monitor, still a big lizard that would properly use the deep water space.
When I first visited Shark Reef in 2006 they had an Asian water monitor in there instead of a Komodo dragon.
They should have kept that species. I don’t know. I would assume it died although it couldn’t have been that old. Or the staff could have realized it was too big for its exhibit and decided to replace it.
Hi, I’m visiting the aquarium this Friday. Could anyone give any tips/ pointers as to how to identify the Galapagos shark? I’ve heard that they are very hard to differentiate between the reef sharks?
It isn’t very easy. The aquarium has two other similar sharks, Sandbar and grey reef sharks. Galapagos and grey reef sharks both black on their tails, sandbars do not. Usually Black tips will be much smaller than the Galapagos shark. If all else fails some Galapagos sharks have black tips on their fins. However I can’t guarantee the one at shark reef aquarium has any visible black on its fins.
There is a small off chance that I may go to this aquarium during the winter! Anyone know if the devilshole pupfish are hybrids or pure specimens? I have heard except for in the simulated pools that they can't be bred ex situ but perhaps they have bred the species? Read from a source that the aquarium has hybrid pupfish Devils Hole Pupfish × Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish? Read that the hybrid breed well but the "true" devils hole pupfish dont breed as well?
So, if the golden crocodile died, wouldn't they have told us? And if they moved it, wouldn't we hear about where it went?
Not necessarily, many animals die or are moved and we never hear about it. This is especially the case with BTS animals (not that this one was). Here is a Newsroom article from 2018 that says they now have 4 freshies on display on loan from SDZ.
Log into Facebook | Facebook It is confirmed that the pupfish are hybrids likely with the amargosa pupfish. @pangolin12 @Westcoastperson
Researched a bit more and found some interesting details about the pupfish. Pure devils hole pupfish are very hard to breed and do not have any pelvic fins while the ones bred with Amargosa pupfish do have pelvic fins and breed rapidly. It appears that the only place breeding pure devils hole pupfish is the ash meadows fish conservation facility.
