"The small-tooth sawfish - one of five sawfish species found in Australia - will be joining other fish at Sydney Aquarium's Great Barrier Reef exhibit from December 8." Not joining the sickle-fins! Four sawfish will be in the GBR oceanarium. The first is already in, two more today and another at a later date.
All 4 sawfish are now in the GBR exhibit 3:1:0. The two lemons have gone to join the others until the next move.
Now now... I'm sure the snub-nosed darts were an accident! They are better than the ferals they have now joined.
I remember when the 'ferals' were shy and the aquarists were trying their hardest to encourage them to hand feed. Oops.
the first article below was linked to a while back on the Melbourne Aquarium thread (http://www.zoochat.com/24/merlin-takes-over-melbourne-aquarium-underwater-275601/index3.html) but I found a second article as well, so thought it best to put them here (mainly so I can find them again if I need to but also for the last sentence of the second article). Tropical Bay of Rays | Explore | Sydney Aquarium New home for tropical stingrays - Yahoo!7 News
Is this thread the oldest active thread on ZooChat? Does anybody know if this aquarium still has dugongs? That alone would seem to make it worth a visit, at least for someone from North America who has never seen dugongs. It occurred to me to check the website. It appears that the dugongs are still there but not on display: http://www.sydneyaquarium.com.au/explore/dugongs-at-mermaid-lagoon/
Dugongs are expected back on display in September or October, I think. Is there still a dugong at UnderWater World Sentosa? If not, the two at Sydney might be the only ones in captivity in the world now. I have real mixed feelings about this place these days. I may be making another short trip to Sydney in September (footy finals - supporting a team from another state is expensive!) but am honestly torn about whether to go to the Aquarium and see the changes. I loved the place and don't relish seeing the Merlinisation in person.
I thought that there were around four dugongs in captivity in Japanese aquariums? I really want to go see the whole place when all of the renevations are complete but the new Tropical Bay of Rays looks really bad.
The dugong at Underwater World was not on display in November 2011, with the exhibit area blocked off, so maybe they do no longer have this species, or perhaps they have just been renovating the enclosure. Dugong are still mentioned on their website.
Are they actually building a new home for the dugongs, or are they just renovating it? Because the exhibit they had was really nice. A renovation for the shark aquarium was really needed, so that's a good thing. And where did they build that bay of rays? I hope it's not in the coral reef exhibit, that part of the aquarium was perfect, it certainly doesn't need a merlin make-over!
Sentosa still has Gracie (female dugong), Jaya Ancol Sea World has a male and female, Toba has a female (lost their male a few months back). The two Sydney Aquarium dugongs (Pig and Wuru) should be back on display after 20 September when the Aquarium gets re-branded. Their oceanarium was never being renovated - the sharks were moved into there whilst the shark tank gets renovated (hence why no dogongs were left on display). Tropical Bay of Rays is where the saltwater crocodile/mechanical white shark were. Totally out of place. It's awful but the rays are nice The theming outside the smaller tanks is nearly complete and looks quite good.
Is it pretty much how it looks on the promo: One big room with a large(ish) tank in the middle and smaller tanks on the sides?
Bay of Rays? Not quite - you walk through from the freshwater area and it opens up into a lilac-hued area with ray graphics on the wall, copacobana-style huts and the hexagonal tank in the centre lit by fairy lights (ok, maybe I'm being a bit harsh!). You then walk through to the rest of the freshwaters and around to temperate marine. As I said, the little rays are very nice, but the tank is not.