 |
London Aquarium
The London Aquarium is located in the three floors of County Hall's basement on the South Bank of the River Thames and has one of Europe's largest displays of aquatic life from around one thousand species of fish, which is sponsored by the National Geographic Channel.
There is an area behind the scenes which contains about 400,000 litres of water and each week produces 30,000 litres of seawater, which is pumped to all the salt water displays in the attraction. Daily operations include analysis of water parameters, underwater cleaning and diving to feed various fish including the spectacular Atlantic feed where divers hand feed rays and native British sharks.
The aquarium includes the following 14 zones: [Zone 1] - Fresh water Stream: Perch, Minnow, Grayling and Rudd. [Zone 2] - Atlantic Upper: Mackerel, Gilthead Bread. [Zone 3] - Rivers and Ponds: Koi Caro, three-pined tickleback, roach, carp, bream, brown or sea trout. [Zone 4] - Pacific Upper: Jacks, Lookdowns, Golden Trevally, Mono. [Zone 5] - Indian Ocean: Garden Eels, Stonefish, Cardinals, boxfish and Valentini's toby. [Zone 6] - Atlantic Lower: Dogfish, Flatfish, Ballen Wrasse, Cuckoo Wrasse, Rays, Pollack. [Zone 7] - Touch Pool: where children can handle hermit crabs, starfish and rays. [Zone 8] - Temperate Waters: Greater Pipefish, Lobster. [Zone 9] - Pacific Lower: Sandtiger Sharks, Brown Sharks, Zebra Sharks, Nurse Sharks, Grouper. [Zone 10] - Coral Reef: Corals, Lionfish, Moray Eel, Tangs, Seahorses, Picasso Trigger fish, French Angelfish, Blue-Spotted Boxfish. [Zone 11] - Invertebrates: Clownfish, Anemone, Invertebrates, Sea Cucumbers, Stonefish. [Zone 12] - Tropical Freshwater: Cichlids, Piranhas, Red-eared terrapin, Suckermouth catfish, Glass catfish, Lake Barombi Mbo Cichlids. [Zone 13] - Mangrove: Archerfish, Puffer fish,Spotted scat, Mono, Anableps. [Zone 14] - Rainforest: Catfish, Arowana, Giant Gouramii, Barbs,Pacu, Mbu Pufferfish, Lake Malawi cichlids.
Also since 2005 the aquarium has a display of robotic fish with sensor-based controls to find their way around the tank safely and react to their environment. The fish are the result of 3 years of research and have been created to replicate the speed of the tuna; the acceleration of a pike, and the navigating skill of the eel. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_aquarium)
|
 |