It is a long process, filling a 120,000-gallon walk-through tunnel/aquarium with creatures from the Red Sea. Along with a 10,000-gallon coral reef display, this part of the Restless Planet compares Piedmont Virginias rift valleys (created 206 million years ago as the continents split up and the Atlantic Ocean formed) with a modern-day rift sea. Since the ocean is not an empty place, Beth Firchau, curator of fishes, began placing orders months ago.
We have to take them when theyre available, she explained, and that meant that when 50 fish of 12 species arrived on an airplane last week, she took them. The fish had been wild-caught near Egypt by a supplier that the aquarium knows to use ethical methods: no poison, only hand-trapping. They were allowed to settle down for a few days after capture, then flown to a distributor, where they were stabilized again. Then they went to Los Angeles, where they rested and were packed early the morning of Nov. 14.
They just take the red-eye over, Firchau said, and began opening cardboard boxes labeled Very Fragile, Please Do Not Drop and Keep Warm. Inside were fish, packaged individually or in small groups in five layers of plastic bags which then had oxygen piped inside. Each bag of fish was packed in newspaper inside a styrofoam cooler, inside a large plastic bag, with a little warm pack. Firchau and the rest of the care center staff held each bag up to the light as they unpacked.
Looks like the cardinals are messed up a little bit, Firchau said, and she meant that some of the small fish were swimming on their sides or upside down, disoriented by the trip. This shipment featured deepwater fish, which Firchau describes as delicate, and it furthermore featured small deepwater fish, which she calls extra delicate.
Each fish was emptied into a large plastic bucket, given an air line to oxygenate the water, and dosed with medication to kill parasites. Most responded well. But some of the cardinal fish bulged, meaning that the air bladders that help keep them upright were overly full, perhaps from altitude and pressure changes.
Firchau punctured each one with a sterile syringe, drawing out excess air, and left them to recuperate. After an hour in buckets, they were netted and placed in a large tank resembling an above-ground swimming pool. Only one of the 50 fish, invoice price $3,177.69, was dead on arrival.
Other holding tanks contain native Virginia fish, Southeast Asian fish, Mediterranean fish and five snakehead fish captured from the Potomac River that cross exhibit lines: They are an Asian species now invading state waters.
Two more shipments are due this week. When the Restless Planet opens in spring 2009, at least 5,000 fish will be on display. Visitors mill around an exhibit gallery, unaware that behind the wall is a narrow room, and in that room is a long case bristling with padlocks.
We have to take them when theyre available, she explained, and that meant that when 50 fish of 12 species arrived on an airplane last week, she took them. The fish had been wild-caught near Egypt by a supplier that the aquarium knows to use ethical methods: no poison, only hand-trapping. They were allowed to settle down for a few days after capture, then flown to a distributor, where they were stabilized again. Then they went to Los Angeles, where they rested and were packed early the morning of Nov. 14.
They just take the red-eye over, Firchau said, and began opening cardboard boxes labeled Very Fragile, Please Do Not Drop and Keep Warm. Inside were fish, packaged individually or in small groups in five layers of plastic bags which then had oxygen piped inside. Each bag of fish was packed in newspaper inside a styrofoam cooler, inside a large plastic bag, with a little warm pack. Firchau and the rest of the care center staff held each bag up to the light as they unpacked.
Looks like the cardinals are messed up a little bit, Firchau said, and she meant that some of the small fish were swimming on their sides or upside down, disoriented by the trip. This shipment featured deepwater fish, which Firchau describes as delicate, and it furthermore featured small deepwater fish, which she calls extra delicate.
Each fish was emptied into a large plastic bucket, given an air line to oxygenate the water, and dosed with medication to kill parasites. Most responded well. But some of the cardinal fish bulged, meaning that the air bladders that help keep them upright were overly full, perhaps from altitude and pressure changes.
Firchau punctured each one with a sterile syringe, drawing out excess air, and left them to recuperate. After an hour in buckets, they were netted and placed in a large tank resembling an above-ground swimming pool. Only one of the 50 fish, invoice price $3,177.69, was dead on arrival.
Other holding tanks contain native Virginia fish, Southeast Asian fish, Mediterranean fish and five snakehead fish captured from the Potomac River that cross exhibit lines: They are an Asian species now invading state waters.
Two more shipments are due this week. When the Restless Planet opens in spring 2009, at least 5,000 fish will be on display. Visitors mill around an exhibit gallery, unaware that behind the wall is a narrow room, and in that room is a long case bristling with padlocks.
