GA Aquarium part 3

i think it's good that the aquarium has an exhibit featuring the native Georgian wildlife.

my favorite is the touch tanks!!!

this one is star fish and urchins. there's another one with horseshoe crab and shrimp...i didn't get pictures- it was crowded.

local's tip- to avoid the crowd, schedule your visit during the week AFTER school starts. but also bare in mind, that there is more available on the weekends...like feeding times

i got to touch the back of a cownose ray (they feel like the surface of half-set jello...really cool.) and i got to touch the back of a bonnet shark as it swam by. the sharks are not as easily reached as the rays and i had to be very very very patient waiting for one to swim by. they feel like very very fine knobby sandpaper...that's the best way i know to describe it

there were trout. we don't do alot of trout fishing, but i know these are huge...

catfish...this is in a walk under bubble window.

albino alligator...providing the perfect picture taking opportunity

i got a laugh when i asked when it would be available in the touch tanks *grin* always the jokester


(i just think the alligator was jealous of the attention the belugas get and was all like, " i'll show them- they aren't the only animals that can be white")

and the otters!!! they are stinking cute. no really, they stink- like wet fishy ferrets...they have a strong musk.

the lightening in the exhibit make it impossible (with my 6 year old camera) to get good pictures. plus they are constantly moving.

this one had a itch behind it's ear. they have cute little button faces....there was also a California seas otter exhibit, but that's another crowded, hard to get photo area...

davis said that way back when he first started hunting the swamp on our hunting club, there were otters in it. his favorite non-deer story is how he sat one morning and watch some baby otters (kittens??) play in the water...all i've seen in the swamp are beavers
they had a small (small for them, big compared to a home aquarium) of Lion fish (like 40) and how introducing non-species 'exotic pet' fish into and environment can destroy the local ecosystem. most people just walked on by....*sigh*  ask the Florida Fish and Wildlife Resources about how people releasing pythons into the florida swamps (cause they get so big) is pushing native species to the brink of extinction...can you tell i watch ALOT of NatGeo???

lion fish are pretty....deadly, put pretty. they have poisonous spines along all those fins....they won't make it to the touch tanks anytime soon :)

i had a friend in college who had one and i asked him if he'd ever got 'stung' he said yes, one time while cleaning the tank he bumped his lion fish with the back of his hand. he said it hurt like hell and swelled up like a bee sting, a 40 pound bee. he said it took almost three weeks for the swelling to go down.

tomorrow- the final post: the tropical fish (including a nemo tribute) and the dolphins!