A day at the Aquarium

After our slightly disappointing visit to Treasure Island this past weekend (due to the weather), Queenie mentioned that she’d always wanted to visit the Florida Aquarium. So away we went!

If you enjoy marine life and haven’t visited the Florida Aquarium, it’s a must. The $21.95 price tag for admission is just slightly steep, but the exhibits are really cool and worth seeing.

The journey begins upstairs, where the exhibits consist of various fish found in the Florida gulf waters and creatures that inhabit the wetlands. You’ll find common fish like Snook , Redfish and Stingrays as well as local snakes like Rat Snakes and two 14 foot Burmese Pythons. The Queen wouldn’t approach the glass.

Read more about the new Pythons here:
Florida Aquarium adds invasive pythons to wetlands exhibit (tbo.com)

There’s an otter exhibit, ducks that you can reach out and pet and a couple of tanks with these scary looking Gar Fish:

This guy sat at the surface of the open exhibit. Had I dipped my fingers in the water, I surely would have lost one.

The Coral Reef exhibit is one of the best, with fish I’d never seen before . They have a Goliath Grouper that is easily 300 pounds.

Don’t forget to stop by the shark tank, where you’ll find Sand Tiger sharks, Blacktips and Bonnethead Sharks.

Ol’ Crush sat in the corner looking sad. I don’t think he wanted to be bothered.

We moved to a section called “Ocean Commotion”, where Sea Horses frolicked. Such cool creatures.

And we must have stood there for ten minutes watching this Leafy Sea Dragon float peacefully through the water.

and we spent another ten minutes in sheer awe at this Bait Ball. A 4 foot Blacktip Shark circled around it, waiting for the perfect time to speed through and grab a meal. Unfortunately for him, the fish were just too quick.

So yes, take the time and visit the Florida Aquarium. You should be able to run through it in a couple of hours. Certainly worth the stop, and a great place to get an education about the stuff in our local waters and wetlands.