THE AQUARIUM AT CHESTER ZOO

Text by David Marshall

Photographs of Probarbus julenni in quarantine by Jackie Goulder

All other photographs by Sue and David Marshall

The beautiful City of Chester is famous for its Roman history, Cathedral, superb shopping facilities and as the home of the U.K.'s largest Zoological Gardens - which were recently voted 'the U.K.'s best large family attraction'.

Situated in the village of Upton, the Zoological Gardens are home to a vast array of animal and plant species - of which we will shortly give you a little taster. Over the past decade the Zoo has gone through a programme of massive reconstruction, which remains ongoing, that has produced some breathtaking 'natural' animal enclosures and to cover everything would fill our website so we will concentrate on the fish side of a recent visit, August 2006, made by Sue and myself.

No surprise that the main fish exhibits are contained within the aquarium building. Now one of the oldest remaining features the building has recently had a facelift with outer glass shelving and improved visitor information boards appearing as a result. Here you find 23 beautifully set out aquariums, which vary greatly in size and dimension.

As we entered the aquarium we found ourselves facing 6 large tropical freshwater aquariums, which are as wide as they are deep and long. The first of these to catch the eye contains a shoal of beautifully coloured Torpedo barb (Puntius denisonii). To highlight the important conservation work carried out by the aquarium staff is a Lake Victoria display that is home to a beautiful shoal of Yssichromis argens.

One of the features of the aquarium has always been the Discus display so it was no surprise to view this particular exhibit, complete with tangled roots and lush plants, in awe as what a sight the small group of Turquoise Discus looked as they moved around their home, in a very majestic manner, looking down in disgust upon their Cardinal tetra and various Corydoradinae companions.

Now as this bank of aquariums ends we are gazing upon a large Lake Malawi exhibit and here you find so many Mbuna, of many sizes and colours, that you literally cannot see the water for fish. Watch the rock escarpment and you will see various cichlid fry move from one hiding place to another.

Now we are onto the only brackish display. The Archerfish, Scats and Fingerfish are a joy to behold and had me transfixed.

Several tropical marine exhibits follow in which precise water conditions etc. are maintained by keeping the number of fish in each display to a minimum stocking level. Chiefs amongst these are the breeding group of Bengali Cardinalfish whose offspring can be seen in the aquaria of many fellow Zoos and Public Aquariums around the World.

Axolotls and other amphibians follow before a final row of tropical freshwater displays.
Sue's favourite in this section is a darkened aquarium with a whole tangle of roots and home to several species of Elephant-nosed fish and large Synodontis angelicus very difficult to spot (sorry).

Of conservation importance is the display of Blind Cave Garra (cyprinids which resemble loaches) from Oman. This particular group is the only known breeding group to be maintained in a place of public viewing. For months the aquarists here struggled in their attempts to get these particular fish to spawn before outside forces came to their aid as Chester's worst thunderstorm in living memory, coupled with a moving day from one aquaria to another, produced the unexpected trigger which would see pairs of this Garra spawn in buckets and jugs. Sadly, and several years on, this remains their one and only spawning.

As we exit, past a wonderful display of Australian Lungfish, several small breeding aquaria feature the product of behind-the-scenes activity and these held young Seahorses and Allotoca goslinei (a livebearing species) at the time of our visit.

Fish exhibits are also to be found spread around other areas of the Zoo, including a very ambitious display in the 'Spirit of the Jaguar' in which a huge colony of ants walk a tightrope, carrying leaves to their colony, above a pool of Butterfly Goodeids.

My favourite however is housed in the new Asian Elephant House were a large aquarium houses a wonderful shoal of Probarbus julenni in the company of a large pair of Asiatic Arrowana. To show just how large the Probarbus actually are we thank Jackie for allowing us to use the two photographs she took while on a behind-the-scenes visit for work (the lady in the photo. is Jackie's colleague Ruth - whom you may recognize from the Zoo Vet t.v. series) at which time the Probarbus were still in quarantine.

The photo. below shows these fish in their new home.

Finally we must say that for all animal lovers Chester Zoological Gardens are a magical place to visit with so much to see what ever the weather and all you really need is plenty of time (we didn't see every exhibit in close to 7 hours) and good walking shoes.

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