sea world...kinda dissapointing

S

sir_dudeguy

Active member
Ok, so i went to san diego for a few days, and i went to sea world while i was there too. I have to say that i was somewhat dissapointed in it...as far as aquariums go anyways. Their shows were cool i guess (all kinda corny tho lol) but their aquariums kinda stunk. I was expecting to see really nice tanks and stuff...well, they didnt have any real rock or corals in ANY of them, (all the tanks were hugemongus too by the way..no small ones at all) and they were all so dark. no lighting besides the little sunlight that came in thru the open top. Also, on the smallest tank they had (i asked the guy and he said that it was about 150 gallons or so...even he wasnt too sure) there was a ton of red slime algae covering the bottom.

I was goin there to hopefully get some ideas for what to do w/my tank...but thats not exactly what you would call inspiring is it?

The next day tho, i went to the Birch aquarium...its part of scripps institute of oceanography, which looked way cool..thinkin about goin there myself now.

anyways, their tanks were AMAZING. All real rock and corals unlike sea world, and they had a ton of different "regional" tanks...like they had one for mexico area, australia, california, etc...I thought that it was way better than sea worlds aquariums.

just thought i'd let you all know how sea world was
mike
 
Try Monterrey Bay. That's great. Worth the trip. And the drive up the Monterrey coast is great at sunset.
 
i am going to the monterray bay aquarium in august.. i am so pumped.. especially after watching that special on channel 8 a few months ago...
 
ya i'd like to go ther too. A couple years ago i went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago...OUTSTANDING! that is positively the best one i've been too...unfortunately, i hadnt really gotten into saltwater at that time, so i didnt really pay attention to all different corals and fish types...but i do remember that it looked amazing. I was kinda mad tho, cuz i only had like 2 hours in there, and thats simply not enough time for that place.
 
I had to go to Sea World for five years in a row...it was my son's favorite place. I have only had a two year break. I wasn't expecting to see great corals at Sea World...I think it's geared more twards the animals. I get's boring after the second year and I love whales!

I just got back from Georgia Aquarium that I'll post pics to. It had the largest viewing window in the world for it's coral reef and I was kind of disapointed. It was realistic, and was lit by the sun. I just am used to our tanks that are so well kept with bright beautiful corals. They did have really cool animals though!

I think the best corals I have seen were actually at the Oregon Aquarium on the coast. THey had a ton of the cutest stawberry anenomes. I'd love to have some of those.
 
Funny, your thoughts resembled one of the comments in last months Reefkeeping top ten. I think it said something like how your family has changed because of your hobby. One comment went

"When you go to an aquarium and your child says, 'What an ugly tank'"
 
ya thats true..sea world is more geared towards the whales and stuff...but hey, they got the money! why not make their aquariums look nice..even if they're not gonna use real corals and stuff, at least take care of it and get rid of the freakin red slime.

And i dont really care for places that try to go for "the biggest aquarium in the state/country/whatever" thing...they just go for size and dont really do much w/it...they just put like big, un-colorful fish in there...and they're ALWAYS just grey fish too lol. They should try to get colorfull fish instead...that would look better imo.

Thats what was nice about Shedd aquarium in chicago...they have a huge tank in the "lobby" area..right in the middle...but it was very colorfull and had a ton of live corals. Same w/all their other tanks...they go for more the smallish tanks (compaired to other places anyways...they're tanks where usually like, 200 gallons or something) and they actually took the time to set everything up nice.

do post pics of georgia aquarium! i'd love to see that.
 
I felt the same about sea world. It was very disapointing. The Long Beach Aquarium was way cool. It was also half the price.
 
And if you get up into our neck of the woods, the Seattle Aquarium is worth getting a hotel and doing an all-day on. Exhibits range from native to exotic. Amazing things have turned up right around the pilings of the piers on which it sits---like the six-gill shark, once thought rare, turns out to cavort in the area; and pretty big Pacific octopus. You'll be tired by the time you've walked through all the exhibits.
 
The Georgia Aquarium is very cool too. The corals are still young in their reef tank, but it is HUGE and lots of great fish.

I liked Birch too - we had a big reception there at our conference, and got to have it all to ourselves.

Crystal
 
I never felt SeaWorld was a place to see cool corals. A high-end reef store has always been the better bet in my book..:P
 
Part of the problem with reef-tanks and large aquariums/amusement parks with fish, is that I think their attention is divided between so many things. I spend tremendous amounts of time making sure the conditions are perfect in my tank. And when I finally get them close to perfection, I start worrying about what I did to get them there and when it is going to break or just stop! When you think about that, and look at the number of actual critters they are keeping and the variety of them, it is almost amazing that the place is not smaller. Also, in a true aquarium, they don't have you petting and feeding the rays, or any number of other activities.
Oh, BTW, did you notice that Seaworld is the world's most expensive place to go? I took my 2 kids and wife about 1.5 years ago and my wallet still hurts today. Heck, it even made Disneyland seem inexpensive.
 
I thought the Shedd was very disappointing. The anenomes were in bad shape, the Caribbean biotope in the lobby had fake corals(I asked the diver). I think the best corals have been at the Maui Ocean Center. Their parent org actually propogates corals. THey had several racks at the end. Not too colorful but realistic.
 
i loved maui ocean center. I was going to dive in the shark tank. But they couldnt do it for 5months as they are houseing a 9 foot juvi tiger shark.
 
If you want to see a big eel in a small tank full of Aiptasia you can just cruise right on over to the Phoenix Zoo!

The Seattle Aquarium is the nicest one I have been to. I just moved to Phoenix from Seattle a year ago. That aquarium is a blast!
 
I loved Scripps but I really loved Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. F___ Awesome!
Frizz
 
phil you didnt like shedd?! when did you go? when i went 2 or 3 years ago..cant remember which it was...all theiir corals were looking great....maybe they were just bad at that time?...or for that matter maybe they were just GOOD for the time i went lol.

phlipper

ya it is expensive..way overpriced for what you get..and then all the stuff inside is so expensive too...keychain RINGS costed 2.50! nothing on it just a ring! They have a bunch of different "collectable" keychains that you can buy to put on it...those were like 5 bucks each too...rediculous.
Anyways, my dad got our passes really cheap thru his work...we got a 2 day pass for 39, when normally a 1 day pass is 43...but still...thats expensive...oh and we didnt even go back for the second day, we're gonna try to sell those tickets to my relatives i think.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7711676#post7711676 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sir_dudeguy
ya i'd like to go ther too. A couple years ago i went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago...OUTSTANDING! that is positively the best one i've been too....
Click to expand...

the Shedd A. is the best I have been to. I am originally from Chicago and I miss the aquarium and the museums in the city. Here in Yuma, there is nothing like that. Scripps is ok but it does not compare.
 
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