People always wonder about the workings behind the glass - how the aquarium actually runs. We
asked Jason, one of our aquarists, to answer a few questions:
What do you do?
My job is to take care of the fish and the seals, and to help with the upkeep of the aquarium. I open and/or
close and spend a lot of time cleaning the tanks and setting up displays. I also fill in as-needed around
the aquarium visiting with guests or working in the gift shop or ticket booth. My favorite part is taking care
of the fish.
How do you feed the animals?
The tanks are open on top, so we feed them from above. What we feed the fist depends on who's in the
tank. We feed them cut up pieces of capelin (the kind of fish you feed the seals - cut or whole), whole her-
ring, squid in serveral forms(with the tentacles cut in small pieces, or the body cut into strips, or chunks of
squid heads), brine shrimp or krill, depending on the animal's size and tastes.
What is your favorite animal in the Aquarium?
There are so many. One of our wolf eels was brought to us when it was five inches long and red. It is now
seven years old and five FEET long. They grow up so fast! There's also a brown rockfish I'm fond of (I call
him "The Professor" because of his bulging eyes) and a kelp bass. I love the octopus, that's my favorite. And
the seals, of course. And there's the grunt sculpin and the pipefish. And the red sea urchins. And I love red
rock crabs...
Ask the Aquarists will be a regular feature in our newsletters. If you have a question about how things work
in back, submit it to and we might publish your question (and your name) in our next newsletter.
|
Word Search See if you can find these words in our word search! Words can be across, down, forward, or backward.
|
|