Exhibit Ideas for new Aquarium.

[ethankoch888]

Hello everyone,

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself as this is one of my first posts here. If I inadvertently violate any forum rules, I sincerely apologize and welcome any guidance from the administrators.

To provide some context, I currently run the animal husbandry team at a tiny public aquarium where I oversee all aspects of animal care, and new additions. Over the past year, our aquarium has exploded in growth, and we are now exploring the possibility of expanding into a larger facility. We have a variety of exhibit ideas in mind, but I wanted to reach out to this community for any unique suggestions. We are looking for some crazy ideas, and things you don’t normally see in other aquariums. Preferably species only tanks because we have a lot of space to fill, but open to anything! Please refrain from comments on sharks, rays, and natives we plan on having all the usual public aquarium livestock.


Thank you in advance for your contributions!

 

[GavinTrz]

I think a euphyillia exclusive tank would be cool, and I've never seen it done at a public aquarium. Personally, I could sit there and watch torches hammers and frogspawn flow in the current all day. Seeing something like this done at a public aquarium in a larger tank that a hobbyist would have in the home would be totally awesome! I've been to 10 or so different aquariums and have never seen something like this done.

I feel like every time I see a reef display at an aquarium its almost always SPS sticks or plating corals. For example this is the huge 20,000 gallon tank from my local aquarium (Long Island Aquarium). There are a few other corals but for the most part its all SPS.

 

[DaJMasta]

Nonphotosynthetic coral tanks are always interesting and can take advantage of the staff and supplies of a public aquarium. If you were considering a reef tank you could also represent a specific region (other than your native one) as it's similar to a hobby mixed reef but with more care to replicate an actual ecosystem rather than just throw a whole bunch of things together.

I'm always a fan of invertebrates, so a cephalopod tank (octopus, cuttlefish, nautilus) is always an interesting one, but perhaps a colony of filter feeding worms, or something that could show off cleaner shrimp or commensal shrimp or crabs. Of course big clams too!

Another couple which are difficult at home but may be easier at scale would be a garden eel tank or a shoal of small fish like damsels or chromis in acropora or the like.

 

[twentyleagues]

What about a biotope style tank with Banggai Cardinals, long spine urchins and whatever grows/ will grow with these in the wild. I know not the most extravagant display but still cool. I have seen some pretty cool displays in public aquariums. Leafy sea dragons, Sargassum Angler with the sargassum, mangrove estuaries and associated fauna.

 

[ethankoch888]

I think a euphyillia exclusive tank would be cool, and I've never seen it done at a public aquarium. Personally, I could sit there and watch torches hammers and frogspawn flow in the current all day. Seeing something like this done at a public aquarium in a larger tank that a hobbyist would have in the home would be totally awesome! I've been to 10 or so different aquariums and have never seen something like this done.

I feel like every time I see a reef display at an aquarium its almost always SPS sticks or plating corals. For example this is the huge 20,000 gallon tank from my local aquarium (Long Island Aquarium). There are a few other corals but for the most part its all SPS.

Hi Gavin,

Thank you for the response, we do love our torch corals here, so we might just give it a go!

 

[ethankoch888]

Nonphotosynthetic coral tanks are always interesting and can take advantage of the staff and supplies of a public aquarium. If you were considering a reef tank you could also represent a specific region (other than your native one) as it's similar to a hobby mixed reef but with more care to replicate an actual ecosystem rather than just throw a whole bunch of things together.

I'm always a fan of invertebrates, so a cephalopod tank (octopus, cuttlefish, nautilus) is always an interesting one, but perhaps a colony of filter feeding worms, or something that could show off cleaner shrimp or commensal shrimp or crabs. Of course big clams too!

Another couple which are difficult at home but may be easier at scale would be a garden eel tank or a shoal of small fish like damsels or chromis in acropora or the like.

Hi DajMasta,

We are actually in the works for a mesophotic aquarium with NPS, and some deep water reef fish so we're on the same page! As far as a reef we we're thinking of multiple biotopes each representing a different coral hotspot, we are definitely going to do Japan and hopefully have a large school of chromis, damsals, and tangs swimming above some acros.

 

[ieatbugman]

a puffer fish tank, all puffer fish, nothing else. or a deepwater coral tank, I agree with what @GavinTrz said, most aquarium tanks are full of acros and montis (not that I don't love them lol)

 

[edsbeaker]

I haven’t been to many aquariums so forgive me if it is common, but what about a nicely planted macro algae tank? There are some beautiful algae’s.