A Visit To The Tennessee Aquarium

Ruth and I spent the day driving up to Chattanooga to visit the Tennessee Aquarium. We haven't been inside the aquarium complex for years, so we figured we were due. We've always liked the original display building, now the "River Journey", and had yet to see the new "Ocean Journey".

The "Ocean Journey" displays are good, I guess much of the marine stuff isn't as interesting to me. The butterfly room is a pleasant surprise, the plants as much as the butterflies. The odd thing in that building is a shark and ray petting tank with a bunch of yellow tangs. The tangs are pretty fish, fairly hardy, but they have bone spurs on the caudal peduncle that are sharp and can inflict a nasty wound to the unwary. They seem a poor choice for a petting tank.

In "River Journey" there are still tanks devoted to various North American natives. One tank features Barrens topminnows and flame chubs. I've never seen flame chubs in a public display, so that's cool. The only topminnows I could see were some juveniles. And the darter tank had at least one blotchside logperch (Percina burtoni) along with several tangerine darters, something you don't see every day.

Tickets are $20 but it takes at least 3 hours to go through the displays so you get your entertainment value. So I approve. They also make a serious effort at education with some well designed exhibits. If you've never seen the aquarium, you should.