GA Aquarium / Behind the Scenes

Spent the better part of yesterday at the Atlanta, GA aquarium and I just have one word: WOW. From specific species tanks, properly setup region tanks, sheer size and a well thought out layout...they really hit it out of the park. It might be because I am so used to our NOLA aquarium. I'll walk you through with description and pictures as we explored.

As you enter into the ticket scanning room just inside, you're invited in by two huge wall-sized, skinny tanks that are designed to have the jacks swimming into the entrance and direction you into the central room that all the exhibits attach to.

Main central room:


There is a large touch pool inside the main room that has various rays, juvenile hammerheads, horseshoe crabs, etc. I was surprised that the sharks were a part of that exhibit but surely someone that knows better than I do made that decision.

A pair of the hammerheads:


We circled the exhibits from right to left which started us off with Georgia Explorer (child friendly) which had various touch pools, tanks and a full 2 story jungle gym.



Invasive species education tank:




Touch pool:


Surf-style tank:

 

Next was a series of freshwater exhibits/tanks named "River Scout":
Walking in, you're greeted by a series of waterfalls about 2 stories tall that creates nice ambient noise (no picture.

Up front, a Discus species tank:




Next up, an African Cichlid tank...the number of cichlids was amazing..they were everywhere:


A mixed N. American freshwater exhibit:


I forget the name of the fish that spit water at bugs on leaves but they had these complete with braches over the tanks...I'm not sure if they do public demonstrations by placing food on the leaves but I would have loved to have seen them in action:


It was hard to photograph an aspect of this exhibit but it was designed to link the exhibits in an OVERHEAD river. So you'd be walking and just glance up and realize fish are swimming above you. This was a great touch.

Next was a pair of albino alligators. They were much younger/smaller than the one at the NOLA aquarium but this place was smart enough not to leave the exhibit open on the top allowing people to throw things in. If I remember correctly, that is how NOLA lost one of their gators.





My memory gets a little foggy with the name of these 2 species specific tanks...one was a red tailed suckerfish of some sort:


The other was a long nosed fish, black in color. I didn't really get a good shot of it :\


Next up was a red-bellied pirhana tank...these guys were really big and they probably had 20-30 of them:

 

Next up was the coldwater exhibit "Coldwater Quest". Upon entering, to your left, you are greeted by a barely lit crab tank. These things are HUGE:


Directly behind that is a kelp-look tank (kelp wasn't real):


Not pictured here but you are first introduced to the beluga whale exhibit here. You wind up seeing this exhibit 3 or 4 times from different angles and the lighting wasn't very good from this side.

There was another coldwater "reef" tank:






Right after that, you're led to a weedy sea dragon species tank. It was obviously very popular becuase it took me forever to get close enough to get a picture and, even then, the picture kinda sucks:




Once you round the corner, you're led up to the african penguin exhibit. The penguins are split up. Paired mates on the right and the "singles party" on the left. On the left, there is a crawl tunnel that leads to 2 portholes where you can pop your head up, literally, into the middle of the exhibit and be face to face with a penguin. A really nice touch.




After leaving the penguins, you're led to the 2nd story of the same beluga whale viewing area:

 

The main exhibit in the Tropical Diver section is the large inverted 1/4 pipe style tank. I have mixed emotions on this tank. I think, maybe, my expectations were too high (?) before seeing it. #1, I can TRULY appreciate the under-taking they attempted. Keeping a mixed reef of this size is a huge undertaking. The lighting and the surge style water movement is just awesome (you'll see more of that later). I did see a couple of decent sized acro colonies, what might have been some branching and capping monti's. Some nice sized leathers and a few other softies. A HUGE nem with a large clown (unsure of species). The real focus was the fish, though. Lots of color...lots of movement. It was very impressive so don't let me sell it short for you.

 

Such a wonderful way to spend the day.

I have never been to the Aquarium but I hear it's huge and spectacular.

Believe or not my favorite tank among your images is the Discus and Tetra tank.

Thank you for sharing.

 

Surface of the beluga exhibit:


Education room:


Mixed reef 180:




Touch tank specimens:




Random scorpionfish predator tank:


Random (Marineland DD) tank:


Had 2 mated pairs of blue headed jawfish. Guide said they mated semi-regularly:


Reef tank skimmer:


Bigger skimmer:


Surge tanks:


Lighting:


They grow their own algae, rotifers and ghost shrimp!:


Reef tank has its own tidal pool:


Complete with sharks/rays:


Clams:


Mangroves:


They also had a "frag tank" that consisted of detained frags that were attempted to be brought into the US illegally. They said a lot of the frags ended up at educational facilities since they could not benefit from them. Most of them looked dead/dying Lots of staghorn frags that were doing well, though.

We happened to catch whale shark feeding when we were at the surface of the Voyager tank which was an awesome experience.
The grub:




So here is how they feed...get in the boat:


Scoop up the food, pull yourself along the rope....


Drop the food in the water....


Open wide!

 

Great pics! Nice detail of your trip too. I've been to the GA Aquarium many times, and in part is the reason I am in this hobby. My wife loves marine life and wanted to keep going back to the GA Aquarium...like weekly. 9 hours round trip and hotel accommodations add up, so I bought an aquarium and set up a reef instead. We go back once a year or so now, and have been to every other aquarium within a 500 mile radius of Charlotte...nothing comes close to the GA Aquarium. No pics of the UPS exhibit where they shipped the Whale Sharks? I expect that vendor had Free Shipping over $200.

 

Awesome pics; thanks for sharing! I have never been, but have wanted to go for years now. One of these days...

 

Funny you post this; I just visited for my first time on Monday while visiting some family near ATL. Wish I would have had an opportunity for a tour as you did.

 

awesome! those are some fat lionfish