As some of you know, I am hard at work to open a new South American exhibit at my zoo. Before a year ago, the thought of cool fish at this zoo was unheard of. But I'm slowly changing that. I've started small with two African cichlid tanks and an archer display. I think I had to prove myself for the bosses before they cut me loose on a larger scale project. Good thing I have a background with this stuff.
The South American exhibit was more or less drawn up when I was hired, but I have done some tweaking since they've never worked with this type of set up before. It's going to be an open aviary/ rainforest display - which is a completly new concept for them. I find it interesting to watch being that it's what I'm used to working in.
The main pool will house my arapaima, silver aros and a few other "fun" monster fish. It's overflow connects to my ray pool which then spills over into a river turtle area. Other than that I've got several smaller 90 gallon tanks and an anaconda display.
They are really making progress. I get to fill them and test the filtration for the first time this coming Friday. The real test will be two fold. Once the water is moving to make sure flow rates and direction are correct, then I have to move all the fish in (planning on April) and make sure they don't eat each other. Currently, the display fish are housed seperatly (more or less) in my "fish dugeon". It will be interesting to watch them interact for the first time.
I'm going to take some new pictures on Friday during the test, so I'll be able to post new ones at that point. These were taken about a week ago. The painting isn't quite done and much more work is still on tap before we open.
The first picture is the ray pool. You can see the overflow from the arapaima tank in the back to the left. On the right side (the log) is the overflow to the turtles. The second are the bio towers for the system. Yes - towerS. The smaller is very visble with the ladder leaning against it, and still 'in process' for the picture. The second larger tower is very well hiden in the tree stump just behind it. In the back ground you can see what will be our sloth tree (with the vines wrapped around it).
I'll keep you posted as I can.
~Matt
The South American exhibit was more or less drawn up when I was hired, but I have done some tweaking since they've never worked with this type of set up before. It's going to be an open aviary/ rainforest display - which is a completly new concept for them. I find it interesting to watch being that it's what I'm used to working in.
The main pool will house my arapaima, silver aros and a few other "fun" monster fish. It's overflow connects to my ray pool which then spills over into a river turtle area. Other than that I've got several smaller 90 gallon tanks and an anaconda display.
They are really making progress. I get to fill them and test the filtration for the first time this coming Friday. The real test will be two fold. Once the water is moving to make sure flow rates and direction are correct, then I have to move all the fish in (planning on April) and make sure they don't eat each other. Currently, the display fish are housed seperatly (more or less) in my "fish dugeon". It will be interesting to watch them interact for the first time.
I'm going to take some new pictures on Friday during the test, so I'll be able to post new ones at that point. These were taken about a week ago. The painting isn't quite done and much more work is still on tap before we open.
The first picture is the ray pool. You can see the overflow from the arapaima tank in the back to the left. On the right side (the log) is the overflow to the turtles. The second are the bio towers for the system. Yes - towerS. The smaller is very visble with the ladder leaning against it, and still 'in process' for the picture. The second larger tower is very well hiden in the tree stump just behind it. In the back ground you can see what will be our sloth tree (with the vines wrapped around it).
I'll keep you posted as I can.
~Matt