Best Aquarium (or zoo) for Natives?

Hi there,

I was just reading a previous post and was wondering, which would be in your opinion the best aquarium to visit to see north american native fish?
I'll throw my two cents in and say I really like the one in Charleston South Carolina. They had a very nice dollar sunnie set up and had a bunch of other centrarchid set ups as well. If you are in the montreal area, the best place here would be the ecomuseum. They have just about every local (aquarium sized) native fish.

Don

The best aquarium for native fishes in my experience, hands down, is the Chattanooga Aquarium. The New Orleans Aquarium has some pretty good exhibits too, and the winner in the "Small Public Aquarium" division might be the Estuarium affiliated with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab at the mouth of Mobile Bay in Alabama. Admittedly I've never seen the Charleston aquarium. And someone could probably make a good case for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, certainly for Pacific coast ecosystems.

For the price of an addmission you can get a cheap mask and snorkel and access the best aquarium Albeit not this time of year.

Yes. Nature definately has the most kickin' tanks on the planet. Sadly, they're much smaller exhibits these days.

Tennessee Aquarium is the flagship. They did it first and they still do it the best of all the places I've visisted. I wish the darter exhbits were done differently, I hope enough people have whined about them tho that it will be thought about extensively this winter. But the building lay out and the theme... That is world class regardless of the regional motif.

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, last I was there, wasn't anything to just shake a stick at, and I think they enhanced it when they moved everything into the Carribean exhibt? Hmmm... In looking at their website, it looks like they just have otters and big head carp now

The Newport Aquarium in the Cinnci area has my favorite native exhibit with an Ohio and Mississippi River drainages. It's a walk up tank that can be viewed from the top and side and it is LARGE. The Wall O Fish at TN is impressive, but not as much as watching a big buffalo dart off and blow sand everywhichway while cutting a wake that you can see at the same time. Rumor has it there's some special acquisitions in the works when certain Catostomids are making a run to the Falls of the Ohio this upcoming spring So the extent of native systems there isn't a big as some places, but Mr. Hagley will have that fixed before too long, mwwooooohahahahaha.

The others that I've enjoyed are the Charleston and Riverbanks Zoo, both in SC. Friends from New England have said "You should definately make time if you're in the neighborhood."

Todd

The National Aquarium in DC has a decent amount of natives, especially since their remodel. If it's been a couple of years since you've been, it's worth sticking your head in to see the improvements. And at only $7, it's the cheapest aquarium I've even been to.

Gotta put in a plug for the New England Aquarium.
Haven't been in a few years now but they always have several native biotopes that are realistic and extremely well set up. The saltmarsh and Boston Harbor setups are a couple of my faves.
Their giant central Carribian reef is very, very impressive. The whole place is built around it so as you go up level after level you have the viewing windows showing different parts of the reef. Once you get to the top, you can look down on the reef from above. Everything from big sharks and tarpon to sea turtles aand all kinds of reef fish. Look closely and you will see lots of spotfin and foureye butterflyfish and bicolored damsals that were collected as strays in New England.

The New England Aquarium is the original modern public aquarium, from the late 1960s. All of the others are more or less copies, with improvements based on lessons learned. I haven't been there for about 10 years now. Strangely, they seemed to have the best gift shop of all of them, something most guys don't usually notice.

I often stop to visit the seals at the New England Aquarium when I'm in the area visiting family. (You can do this withough paying admission - they are outside.) It's been a long time since I've been inside. They used to not have much for freshwater fish. Has that changed any?

The Shedd is world-class of course, but a little-known gem in Milwaukee, WI is the Discovery World Reiman Aquairums. It's not a huge aquarium, but for its size, it's really a knockout! Here is a link to some pics of the Reiman.

"Yes. Nature definately has the most kickin' tanks on the planet. Sadly, they're much smaller exhibits these days. "
and a lot of times they are stocked with the the wrong fish and could really use a water change


As someone on the Pacific coast for Pac Coast natives let me put in some props of Monterey Bay Aquarium(although I could definetly see them improving the one freshwater display I noticed...trout/steelhead redwood forest).

Oh, and if anyone is down in SD please swing by the Scripps Aquarium. I haven't been there since I was a kid...but since I'm still writing in here that means alot!

Edited by critterguy, 19 November 2008 - 12:50 PM.

I found this little gem in Kentucky.
http://www.kdfwr.sta...on.aspx?cid=130

Even though its small, its a pretty cool place. Has an indoor native tank and an outdoor (seasonal) stream with a window.