Visiting the aquarium in Toronto.
Whale skeleton.
They have more kinds of jellies than I'd seen in one place. Australian spotted jelly.
Moon jelly.
Pacific sea nettle. These were big. Feet long, including tentacles.
Closer crop.
Lots of aquariums have critters you can touch. Rays, Sharks. Starfish.
I remember having my hand in the freezing water at the aquarium in Seward, Alaska, and watching a sea anemone reach for my hand. I had my hand out of there in a flash. We were told that kind of anemone couldn't hurt a human, but I didn't put my hand back in there........ It was creepy to watch a critter that big move toward my flesh with Intention.....
In Chicago's aquarium I touched a sturgeon. Sturgeons have inhabited our planet since the time when dinos began....... Touching someone whose ancestors knew dinos................. Wow.
In Toronto the aquarium has scarlet cleaner shrimp. I have seen video of fish being cleaned of parasites and dead skin by fancy little shrimp. In Toronto you can stick your hand in the water with this sort of shrimp, and get a cleaning.
They were basically interested in what was under my fingernails. It felt like very gentle poking. What a cool thing to get to do. No pics -- with one hand elbow deep in water, I didn't use a camera with the other hand......
Google knows where to find a lot of images of scarlet cleaner shrimp.
Pipe fish.
I can count six pipe fish in the next image.
I think these are real plants with the pipe fish, but I'm not sure. Love all the curls.......
Sea horse.
The Toronto aquarium has a tunnel you can walk through.
Their big tank has green sawfish. These can grow to 24' long. The ones here were maybe half that long. They apparently like to drape themselves over the top of the tunnel. I saw two different ones doing this.
Looking up at the stomach side of the fish. (Many people with cameras.....)
Did you know fish have nostrils? I did not................. I was wondering what those holes were, toward the front of the fish from the mouth. Nostrils, is what they are. !!!
"Paired nostrils, or nares, in fish are used to detect odors in water and can be quite sensitive." -- Fish Anatomy - Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
A closer look at the rostrum. I bet this was about a yard long. I read that the toothy bits are specialized scales. So many are broken -- I bet they grow them back after they are damaged.......
The aquarium has a lot of anemones.
Many different colors.
Many different shapes. This one's bottom was stuck to the glass.
One last look at critters in the aquarium.
The sky was amazing.
Clouds, the moon, and a sea gull.
It looked like clouds were spinning around the top of the CN tower.....
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4 comments:
Nice of them to erect a tower in my honor. I should go visit it.
I am SO mesmerized by aquariums. I love them. Especially the jellyfish! That photo of the grasses is so striking.
It's really tall, Clayton. We went up in it when we were there in, um, 2000, I think it was. Heights don't bother me, but they have a glass floor in part of the space that is available to tourists up in the CN tower. I can't do glass floors at altitude.......... Seemed like a pretty binary distinction. Some people weren't bothered at all, and some just Were. Not. Doing. That. I guess some of us listen to 3,000,000,000 years of evolution, and some ... don't.
I love aquariums, too, Jeanie. All but the part about the screaming children....
It was cool to see so many different kinds of jellies. The really big ones were in a huge tank. It was amazing to watch them....
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