Ty
I think that about 1/4 of the non-oceanarium is devoted to fish of
the Great Lakes area. This is a sizeable share. I agree that the fish
tanks are dated and unnatural. It would be difficult to totally change
their displays.
The Paddlefish display is truly sad. There were planaria in some
tanks. Some tanks are overcrowded with fish and others with untrimmed
plants.
They do have a tall "show" type display for darters which would
have been better in a "stream" type display.
The Shedd Aquarium has been under the direction of commercially
minded individuals (rather than scientific/conservation folks). The
inevitable results is that the "wow" factor has increased but the quality
has decreased (at least in the dedicated aquarists' eyes). They even let
people rent out the place for private parties. Imagine a wedding reception
with a colossal reef display in the background.
They do have a large cadre of dedicated volunteers and they do
make an effort to keep their specimens healthy. Some of the specimens are
just awesome. A four foot Black Ghost Knife fish, gigantic pacus, foot
long clown loaches, etc. They were working on converting one section over
into a massive realistic Amazon habitat.
All I can conclude is that there is some improvement but it will
never be outstanding.
Sajjad
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