Aquarium of Western Australia

Out of Victoria Quay in the Hillarys suburb of Perth is the Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA). We decided to visit to see what we could learn about the western sea life.

On the way in we saw this young fellow on the quay trying to catch a fish. He's not quite a excerpt from Norman Rockwell, but he does seem to capture the essence of being young in Australia.



Inside the aquarium, we had a real treat. I tried to take pictures. The really great part was the underwater passage below the really large water tank. There was a moving sidewalk making it possible to simply stand and watch the rays, sharks, and many fish swim around you. Really cool.

I had better luck photographing the animals in the small tanks. One of the more spectacular tanks was the sea dragons.

You must forgive the color accuracy on these images. Most of the tanks had blue lights, certainly to give the impression of being under water, but also to mask the uv lights used to enhance the colors of the coral in many in of the tanks.

The next couple images are jellyfish in a tank with colored lights to enhance the visibility of the creatures and the contrast among them.

Here is a puffer fish come to have  look at me.

These sea horses were in a tank with seaweed. Many of the creatures were hanging onto the seaweed for security and camoflague.

The corals were striking.

The anemone was in a tank all by itself and very striking.

The lion fish (under a blue light) is also a striking creature.

The fellow below is really quite amazing. This is the Peacock Mantis Shrimp. From Wikipedia we learn,

An active hunter, it prefers gastropods, crustaceans, and bivalves,^[1] and will repeatedly smash its prey until it can gain access to the soft tissue for consumption. It is reported to have a "punch" of over 50 miles per hour (80 km/h). This is the fastest recorded punch of any living animal. The acceleration is similar to that in a .22 caliber handgun, with 340 pounds-force (1,500 N)^[4] per strike. In addition, the surface of its appendages is made up of extremely dense hydroxyapatite, layered in a manner which is highly resistant to fracturing. Glass aquaria can be broken by them. 

Amazing creature.

And for more information on this remarkable creature, here is a YouTube video from Physics Girl.

In some of the moderately large tanks are a variety of corals and some colorful fish. Very restful to watch these vibrant fish swim in these big tanks all maintained by someone else. I'd really hate to have to get in there and clean them out!

It was a great day. You should really stop by sometime.