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
On Fri, 6 Oct 2000 Ty_Hall_at_eFunds.Com wrote:
>
> Has anyone been to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago lately? I was there on
> Tuesday and I must say was more then a little disappointed in the condition
> of both the tanks and the fish. The display tanks where very dated, poorly
> decorated, under illuminated and the specimen fish where not very good
> specimens. They have added a very nice "Oceanarium" which has Dolphins and
> Beluga Whales, but it seems that they are more interested in being another
> Sea World. Here we are in the middle of the midwest and almost all of the
> floor space is dedicated to tropicals and saltwater fish. Only one small
> area for North American Natives. Any other opinions?
>
> Ty
>
>
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