Ripley's Aquarium of Canada!

[Victoss]

Warning possible spoilers if your planning on going and don't wanna see a million pictures!

This Saturday I was lucky enough to go to the newly open Ripley's Aquarium in Toronto and my what pictures I have to share! I was a little disappointed with their single real coral tank but to give them credit it hasn't been setup for very long and their tunnel for the main tank was truly amazing.

This is an overview of what you will first see coming in but will actually be near the end (it's on a lower floor). Those are actually horseshoe crabs, not the typical stingrays you see places have that you can pet.

Then you walk through a Great Lakes area but you'll have to see that for your self. After all the freshy stuff is your first stop at a reef fish tank:

[img=1400x933]http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9249/wpr.JPG[/img]

There are a bunch of hidden gems of fish in this tank that are not shown but for the sake of time lets keep moving

 

[sunnykita]

nice, great shots, thanks for sharing ! will have to get there over the winter

 

[Victoss]

NOW WERE AT THE TUNNEL!!!  8) This by far was the most amazing aquarium I have seen (fish wise ) and the tunnels made the experience. From what I could gather the tunnels cross over once, then make almost a 120 degree turn and pass through it again.

This gives you an idea of what the tunnel is like:

And this is where the turn is, there is a big flat glass section you can view out:

This tank had many many types of sharks, stingrays, some turtles and a million different little fishies.
This sawfish (or saw shark?) kept laying on the top of the tunnel for some great pics (this is a cave like area the tunnel went through):

ON NO LOOK OUT!!! Oh wait it's just a picture:

They had a TON of sharks and I could show you pictures for days but I won't. ;D

Here's just a stingray eating a kid, move it along people:

This is one of my favourite pictures, it gives you an idea of the size of this tank:

Here's one to the left of the previous pic:

Sill more to come!

 

[Victoss]

After the tunnel you end up in that kiddie and horseshoe crap area. There was even a play "submarine" kids could go in and play with all the buttons and things as well as a lookout into the big main tank.

Some Horseshoe crabs:

[img=1400x933]http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/6914/esz.JPG[/img]

This is the only coral tank they had but hey i'm sure with time it will grow out.

Here's a little lionfish tank:

Then there were some seahorse tanks which were pretty cool and now into another whole section dedicated to sharks. They liked to setup tanks that protruded from the wall and were very shallow which made for great viewing:

[img=1400x933]http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5120/b7fb.JPG[/img]

There is a lot more shark shots and different types of sharks but I'll skip ahead again. Same with the stingrays, a bunch more tanks of them too but here's a single pic:

Keep reading! ↓↓↓

 

[Victoss]

Now another favourite tank of mine, the jellyfish! This tank had hidden lights that would change colours from red to blue but the blue was a harder shot to get while red made for great pictures. This tank was surrounded by mirrored walls and a ceiling so it gave it a deeper feel and a unique look.

Then there was a bunch of different jellyfish tanks like the upside down jellys!

And the spotted Australian jellyfish, they were cool little guys:

And FINALLY the pumphouse, I'm really glad they displayed this in a fun and interesting way instead of just hiding it all in a back room somewhere. They even showed the flow and temperature of each of the tanks.

Oh and one last thing, right after the pumphouse you can pet some little sharkies too!

Overall great experience and well worth the 2 hr wait outside. Thanks for viewing, hope you enjoyed!

 

[Victoss]

nice, great shots, thanks for sharing ! will have to get there over the winter

Thanks sunnykita but you haven't even seen the best pictures yet!  ;D

 

[waldo]

[quote author=sunnykita link=topic=6903.msg69072#msg69072 date=1384932654]
nice, great shots, thanks for sharing ! will have to get there over the winter

Thanks sunnykita but you haven't even seen the best pictures yet!  ;D

Sweet  Thanks
Well where's the best pic's??
[/quote]

 

[Darryl_V]

pretty awesome for Ontario.  Glad we got something decent.  Now only if they can get that reef tank looking good (small hope) that would put it over the top.  Can't wait to take my kids.

 

[AdamS]

pretty awesome for Ontario.  Glad we got something decent.  Now only if they can get that reef tank looking good (small hope) that would put it over the top.  Can't wait to take my kids.

Maybe they need someone to help, someone that knows what they are doing but is getting out of the hobby...

 

[theyangman]

I should keep these kind of corals:

[img=1400x933]http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9249/wpr.JPG[/img]

 

[Duke]

yup all you need is a good cleanup crew and they will stay colored up for years.



great photos above also, im excited to take my oldest kid there in the coming months, its crazy how busy it is and the wait times to get in according to their facebook site, i think ill plan for a tuesday morning or something to hopefully avoid the crowd.

 

[Poseidon]

ya its definitly on my 'too see' list, but i dont think i feel much like standing outside and waiting for 2 hrs

 

[Victoss]

Ya the wait can be a pain but luckily I went on a nice day.

 

[pulpfiction1]

one can imagine how this might look after a couple of years of maturing,i want to go in the new year with my kid,great picks victoss

 

[Poseidon]

hey guys, how long did those that went here take to look at the entire exhibit?
i plan on going next weekend, and am trying to plan my day out a bit, and wondering how much time i should alot to spend a the aquarium
thanks!

 

[Victoss]

I wanna say around 3 hours but I don't quite remember.

 

[reefgeek]

I am a little late dropping into this thread but wanted to add that I too had a blast a few months back. One other this is that I believe they offer 'behind the scenes' tours or will be in the near future. Not sure what that means but it definitely piques my interest.

 

[Darryl_V]

I spend 2hr there with my family on Thursday. It was crazy busy or I could have spent 3hrs there. The tunnel or large marine tank is the best I've seen. They have a crazy amount of sharks and some of them are real beasts. ONly thing is I wouldnt go between 11-2, best to go early or late to avoid the crowds during the week from day camps/schools. On the weekend its probably worse.