BLUE PLANET AQUARIUM

Text by David Marshall

Photographs by Sue and David Marshall

The Cheshire town of Ellesmere Port is famous for its Narrow Boat Museum, Cheshire Oaks shopping centre and as the home of the Blue Planet Aquarium - the largest Public Aquarium in the U.K.

As you enter the Blue Planet you begin an incredible journey that mirrors a drop of water travelling through fresh, brackish and salt environments. The galleries are spread over an upper and lower floor.

The first gallery is named Northern Streams. Here you will find 5 aquariums displaying fish from the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere. The largest of these aquariums is a truly amazing sight with Barbel, European Chub, Xanthic Channel Catfish, Sturgeon and Golden Tench the chief occupants. To enhance the experience walk up the steps and look down upon this aquarium from above.

Now we move past an Axolotl display and into Exploring the Amazon. Here you will find 10 display aquariums, which vary greatly in size and dimension, and 4 display areas for 'Amazon creepy crawlies'.

The main aquarium is home to a stunning 2m-long Arapaima (which is in such good condition that the 'ivory carvings' in the head area and deep red hind quarters are clearly visible - see footnote) that has a shoal of Black Pacu, Redtail Catfish, Granulated Dora and an Amazon Pictus Catfish for company. Worth the entry fee just to view this spectacle and every visitor seemed to struggle to catch this display on camera.

A beautiful opened topped display (which held Asian fish on our last visit) is home to the largest shoal of Night Tetra (Prochilodus species) that I have ever seen. Festive Cichlids, Apistogrammas and several varieties of small tetra species form the company.

Young visitors love the Electric Eel exhibit as a meter shows them the voltage released by these amazing creatures. The information boards tell an equally amazing story of how indigenous people use horses to catch Electric Eels for human consumption. How does this work? The horses are run through swamps thus frightening the Eels into releasing their electrical discharges, at which time humans rush to then collect these Eels before their natural batteries have time to recharge. Thankfully the electric current released by the Eels does little harm to the poor old horses.

Now no serious Public Aquarium would be without a Red-breasted Piranha display so these menacing fish, which have a huge number of Butterfly Goodeids for company, end this particular gallery.

The third gallery is named Life in Lake Malawi. The first of two large displays is like a 'dream aquarium' for me. Here you find a group of Nile Perch (which are said to be a main cause of the decimation of Lake Victoria), Short-nosed Clown Tetra, a very boisterous Clarias, Giraffe Catfish and one of the largest Vundu Catfish I can remember seeing. Amazingly all of these fish appear to get along.

The Mbuna display, with its above and below water escarpment, is a sight to behold. The variety of Mbuna cichlids is wonderful, try counting the Zebra variants, and between them they seem to display ever colour of the rainbow. A smaller display aquarium holds Paretroplus menarambo in the company of Neolamprologus brichardi.

Now we move onto Amazing amphibians. Here 12 vivariums are found and the main focus is upon Dart and Tree frogs.

Now we descend, via stairs or lift, to the lower galleries. The first of these is Swamp. The first display aquarium once held Alligators but is now home to a large colony of Red-eared Terrapins. I love the second display which sees a two level vivarium, of water and land, that is home to the only brackish display and here you find Archerfish, Mudskippers (hence the land), Shark Catfish, Tigerfish and Scats.

Now we enter the Rocky shoreline gallery. Native marines and crustaceans abound here. As we visited on a school holiday the Ray display was surrounded by youngsters all keen to 'pat a Ray'. Very sensibly the Aquarium has hand-washing facilities available.

Coral Bay is a new display, a true highlight and Sue's declared favourite exhibit.
As you stand inside a Caribbean hut you are looking down upon various Tang, Pufferfish, Goatfish and Fingerfish to name a few. The colour, variety of shapes and movement in this aquarium is amazing.

The Coral propagation gallery holds a number of tropical marine exhibits and leads you into the spectacle of the Aquatheatre, where divers put on regular feeding shows. This is a huge window that leads you into a walk through tunnel (where you can stroll or use a moving floor) where you are surrounded by shoals of Atlantic Spadefish, French Angels, Squirrel fish, Jacks, Trevallys, Queen Triggerfish and the famous Blue Planet Shark collection that includes Lemon, Nurse, Bamboo and Epaulette species.

Halfway through your tunnel journey you come to several display aquariums, newly installed for 2006, which display the commercial culture of living rock and Clownfish.

The tunnel ends in the cafeteria area. Up the stairs and we are into the Gift Shop area - the usual moan of mainly caters for young visitors - and outside for the final exhibit. Surrounded by an electric fence the pair of Asian Short-clawed Otters have a true paradise of water, bulrushes and rockwork to call home. What you need to see these beautiful creatures is patience.

The great thing about the Blue Planet is that once around you are not forced to exit the building so, as I did, you can make a return to view your favourite exhibits. Sue and I love the Blue Planet and always look forward to a return visit.

Footnote - To view photographs of the head markings, red colouration and comparative, to human, body size of an Arapaima visit the Vancouver Aquarium article written by the late Mr. Howard Norfolk for the Aquarticles website (which you can access through the links on the Ryedale A.S. website).

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