[bsmith]

I heard that this aquarium was unbelievable and figured that they had sharks and rays and big ohhhhh and ahhhhhh invoking exhibits that your normal tourist would gush about to their friends. What I was not expecting to see was the best collection of specific bio-topes and rareish fish and some of the most natural scaping I have ever seen!

Here are lots of pics of what I saw. I will try my best to caption all of them with what info I can remember about the exhibits.

Pics I took while waiting in line for about 45 mins to enter.

I believe this was an Amazon exhibit. Huge Rays and some of the biggest non common plecos I have ever seen.

Yes, that is my wife kissing the gold nugget (baryancistris I believe) through the glass!

And my buddies hand next to it (had to clarify so you all didnt think my wife had man hands!!!).

Matae cory

Another very large Plecostomus and catfish.

Not an aquarium but I just thought that this frog looked like he was very stoned.

Moer Amazon stuff. It was so neat, they actually had different tanks/habitats for low water times flooded times and normal times. It was incredible!

These Oscars were having a go at it.

This was a shoal of C.Adolfoi and it blew my mind when I saw it.

Some wild Heckel Discus in the same tank! Yes that is an Anaconda that is about 15' long and about 12" in diameter to the right of the discus...:icon_eek:

My wife next to a tank of giant Arapiyama (sp?)

Me pointing out a suspicious turtle

Part of what we do!!!

Farlowella

Kribs to the left out of focus

Another pretty pleco

The largest shoal of cardinals I have ever seen. At least 500 fish!

These were smaller ripariums that left me in awe. From the plant/hardscape layout to just how natural everything looked. I really would love to correspond with whoever oversees all these tanks and see how they do it. Im going to email the aquarium and see what I can dig up and post what I find.

Beautiful Anubis work

 

[mistergreen]

You have the same photos I have

I used to go there all the time when I went to school there. Thursdays were free otherwise I couldn't afford to go. It's pretty expensive now.

 

[bsmith]

Yeah I want to say it was ~$40 for all the exhibits we saw. We were there for a good 6-7 hours though!

 

[DishyFishy]

Is that a riparium the cardinals are in? Awesome pics, I'm very jealous!

 

[bsmith]

Is that a riparium the cardinals are in? Awesome pics, I'm very jealous!

Yes. The cardinals, discus and a couple other were ripariums. They were so nice. The plants under and above the water were just so natural (i know I have used that word a lot but it's the best word to convey the feeling of the set ups). There was distressed vegetation, new growth the whole gambit of plant condition. I could have spent 10x's more time there just studiying each different scene.

 

[AirstoND]

Please keep us updated

I would be interested in knowing the name of the aquascaping substrate material, rocks, and wood(pleco is resting on?)

 

[bsmith]

I would be interested in knowing the name of the aquascaping substrate material, rocks, and wood(pleco is resting on?)

I really tried to get a good pic of the substrate to try to identify what exactly it was. My best guess is that it is some sort of natural soil that is made from whatever the organic make up of the soil in the area would be. It looks like dirt! It is definitely not a commercial substrate unless they capped it with natural soil.

I am going to email or call someone there at the aquarium tomorrow if I have time because I have a ton of questions and would like to show whoever takes care of the tanks this site as maybe they would like to join and share some of their (from my perspective) vast knowledge on our hobby.

 

[bsmith]

I just sent the aquarium an email and hopefully I will begin correspondence with someone from the center soon!!!

 

[Kayakindude90]

hahaha! I worked as an intern there over the summer. I know the guy who planted the tank with all the water lilies in it. It's is really a cool place to check out behind the scenes. If you have the chance to go behind the tanks definately do it.

 

[BradH]

Nice pics B! Thanks for sharing.

 

[partobe]

Wow

 

[bsmith]

hahaha! I worked as an intern there over the summer. I know the guy who planted the tank with all the water lilies in it. It's is really a cool place to check out behind the scenes. If you have the chance to go behind the tanks definately do it.

Hopefully I will be able to be put into contact with that person. But untill then...

Where do they source all the plants/animals for the different set ups and what type of substrate do they use?

Also do they use co2 at all because in one of the more brightly lit tanks there was mad pearling going on. Dont know if they just did a WC or something (which can cause false pearling from time to time) but it was fizzing like 7-up!

 

[barbarian206]

wow those pics were awsome was just wondering how big those discus were

 

[bsmith]

wow those pics were awsome was just wondering how big those discus were

If I had to guess I would say 9"-10" in diameter, Very large. It would have been nice to see 20 or so in there but I could only find 3. I would bankrupt the Shedd aquarium if they allowed me free reign of this dept. Oh my goodness, the things I would do!!!roud:

 

[Kayakindude90]

Well most of the tanks use red flint filter sand. They do have a few that use flourite but in general its just plain old sand. Most of those substrate beds are decades old so they have nutrients and organics built up to fertilize the plants.

The only tanks that use carbon dioxide injection, are in the Rising Amazon Exhibit (and only one or two of them actually use it). The gallery tanks that you may have seen the pearling in was probably from the high fish load. All the tanks are on a single system so the carbon dioxide load can be pretty high.

 

[mattycakesclark]

When I was a kid we would goto here, Fields, or MOSI (back when it was free ) every weekend, we had memberships to them all. We would ride the train in from south. There was one night that there was a behind the scenes for members, awesome sauce!
If I remember, there were some smaller single exhibits a floor down from the ground floor, kinda need some offices. But that was 16 years ago :/

 

[bsmith]

Well most of the tanks use red flint filter sand. They do have a few that use flourite but in general its just plain old sand. Most of those substrate beds are decades old so they have nutrients and organics built up to fertilize the plants.

The only tanks that use carbon dioxide injection, are in the Rising Amazon Exhibit (and only one or two of them actually use it). The gallery tanks that you may have seen the pearling in was probably from the high fish load. All the tanks are on a single system so the carbon dioxide load can be pretty high.

I was thinking that maybe they used fert tabs or something that they just inserted in the substrate to provide nutrients.

What do you mean by the tanks being on a single system, are you talking about co2 filtration or something else?

When I was a kid we would goto here, Fields, or MOSI (back when it was free ) every weekend, we had memberships to them all. We would ride the train in from south. There was one night that there was a behind the scenes for members, awesome sauce!
If I remember, there were some smaller single exhibits a floor down from the ground floor, kinda need some offices. But that was 16 years ago :/

It is awesome for sure.

 

[houseofcards]

I was there about 5 years ago. Nice place here is what one of the filters looks like that Kayak was alluding to.

 

[bsmith]

I was there about 5 years ago. Nice place here is what one of the filters looks like that Kayak was alluding to.

Wow, that must be the rarely talked about and even lesser seen "Eheim 101555 pro publicly funded aquarium Ehfimodel"! :icon_smil

 

[driftwoodhunter]

I loved those pics! I so glad you took so many of them - I have to admit my favorite were the ones with the glimps of the anaconda - just enough to totally creep you out when you realized what it was - lol