Suma Aquarium, January 2005

Sometime around the end of January we drove down to Suma to visit the aquarium with Tyler.

Upon entering the aquarium, visitors are greated by a massive fish tank housing many large stingrays, sea-turtles and a multitude of fish in all shapes and sizes. It was difficult to get even a half-decent decent photo while observing their no-flash policy, but this ray drifted by the glass wall slowly enough to allow it's photo to be taken.

We watched the standard dolphin show which amused Tyler at least. Here's one riding it's tail backwards...

...and making a big splash. Dolphins are big and displace a lot of water when they land

The fish petting zoo was a more exciting prospect, yay, fish! Off we go for a hands-on experience.

Misaki befriends an orange starfish. I'm sure it didn't mind at all.

It was quite sociable actually and got along with Tyler famously.

The scary sea-gerkin didn't have a lot to say though.

Tyler instead opted to pluck a slightly less interesting starfish from it's aquatic play pen. Try as hard as we did, we just couldn't convince him that sea creatures don't much appreciate being tossed back into the water.

His imagination must have conjured all kinds of images of what treasures might have been hiding within this shell. If there was anyone home they weren't making any appearances today.

We retreated back inside from the cold to take a tour of some of the smaller fish tanks. We'd missed the pirana feeding frenzy, but found this cozy eel community amusing. Except Tyler who found it quite unsettling.

I found these fancy, frilly fish fascinating, and fortunately they were well enough lit to allow some good pics to be taken, so I now feel compelled to aflict you with my boring, frilly, fancy fish collection:

I mean, they're quite bizarre...

...and who's going to take you seriously with a face like that? Still, very cool.

Finally, I came across this guy. He's huge, but his tank wasn't much bigger than he was, and he was just sitting there, suspended motionless, watching us go by. So I stopped and spent a few minutes trying to find any signs of sentience - a fish that big must have been around for a while. I might have registered some eye movement, but that was about it.

Yay, fish!