Arapaima with Manatees?
- Thread starter mattstevens1
- Start date
Just for informations sake:
This is the Dallas World Aquarium (www.dwazoo.com), not the regular zoo in Dallas. The Orinico River display is the largest Amazon basin display in the world and the second largest FW display as well. It's a touch over 200,000 gallons. The two girls were orphaned in Venezuela as calves and were brought in while still being bottle fed. Prior to being housed in Dallas, they were kept in a hippo watering trough at a zoo down there. They are non-releasable and that is why DWA has them. The Vet staff caring for them relocated to Dallas to ensure they got the best care possible. They are relatives of the FL manatees you see everywhere else, but the only two of this species in the US. The waterfall is a 40 foot drop. It is there to keep disolved oxygen levels up. The manatees LOVE to play in it, and it's never been a stress factor for them. In fact, in all my years working with manatees, I've never seen one stressed from water splashing into a pool. I wish the author of the article was more specific in his comments.
The exhibit isn't crowded at all, in fact there are times you can stand there an not see much of anything.
I was the Sr Aquarist there for a long time at the start of my career. In fact, I think my first post on MFK was about in relation to the arapaima in that display.
This is the Dallas World Aquarium (www.dwazoo.com), not the regular zoo in Dallas. The Orinico River display is the largest Amazon basin display in the world and the second largest FW display as well. It's a touch over 200,000 gallons. The two girls were orphaned in Venezuela as calves and were brought in while still being bottle fed. Prior to being housed in Dallas, they were kept in a hippo watering trough at a zoo down there. They are non-releasable and that is why DWA has them. The Vet staff caring for them relocated to Dallas to ensure they got the best care possible. They are relatives of the FL manatees you see everywhere else, but the only two of this species in the US. The waterfall is a 40 foot drop. It is there to keep disolved oxygen levels up. The manatees LOVE to play in it, and it's never been a stress factor for them. In fact, in all my years working with manatees, I've never seen one stressed from water splashing into a pool. I wish the author of the article was more specific in his comments.
The exhibit isn't crowded at all, in fact there are times you can stand there an not see much of anything.
I was the Sr Aquarist there for a long time at the start of my career. In fact, I think my first post on MFK was about in relation to the arapaima in that display.
Thanks for that info! I would love to come out and see this display at some point. too bad I'm in NY and the aquariums out here are pretty crappy. but Yeah I did read that they originally had a drain pipe or something leading into the water that the manatees didn't like so they put the 40 foot waterfall to make it better or something. It looks like an amazing exhibit. wish I had it at my house instead
if you get one at 6'' you have about a month.
And I believe that pic is Dallas world aquarium a few years ago as those two pima aren't there anymore, now they have some new pima that should be about 2 years old at the moment.
yes you are correct hungdang those pima are about 5 1/2' now and they just renovated the exibit and lost quite a few fish it's now 500,000g
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The whole zoo there is really cool, was blown away as a young kid. That exhibit is massive, the viewing wall is smaller but the depth is immense. There actually is a waterfall if I remember right. Loved the arowana and Leo tanks.
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Um, that exhibit is still 200,000. They did add a big shark display back when I was there. It was to be 500,000 but if I remember right it turned out to be 400,000 once the tunnel and it's support structure was set in place.
To give an idea of size, the panal is 40 feet across from end to end. It's actually 6 flat panals. There is a seam in the middle, and it's three thick. Thickness combined with the concave curve is to offset the weight of the water volume pushing against it. The tiles on the floor are 12"x12".
