Best public aquariums?

[Tharry68]

Future vacation planning - which public aquariums have lots of reef corals and home aquarium size fish on display? Most seem to favor penguins, seals, stingrays, dolphins and similar large animals.

Hi this is at the New England Aquarium in Boston. The top of their 200,000 gallon Caribbean reef tank.

 

[bnord]

Georgia, Shedd, National inBaltimore are all great and expected t o be

The great surprises are smaller cities like Springfield Mo, Chattanooga and my basement. Of course I may be biased

It would be cool to set up a 5 day five city driving tour through NC, TN Mo…

 

[Flame2hawk]

Just got back from scuba diving the 6.2m gallon tank at the Georgia Aquarium with whale sharks, giant manta’s etc. Beyond awesome. However as far as Reef, the Long Island aquarium in Riverhead Long Island, Ny is tough to beat!

 

[ZoWhat]

I don’t have much input on the matter but Newport Aquarium is right by me on the Ohio river. Can hang out at the aquarium and the surrounding shops or go right across the river into cincinnati check out the stuff to do in Cincinnati. It’s a pretty well done aquarium. Been several years since I was last there, don’t remember how much they have as far as reef tanks go.

....and right next door to the Newport Aquarium use to be Mitchell's Fish Market restaurant.

I was always afraid to order the Catch-of-the-Day fearing it was a diseased fish that died the day before at the Aquarium

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[VR28man]

OP, thanks for this thread, and thanks to all for this discussion. To hit my opinion on the OP:

Future vacation planning - which public aquariums have lots of reef corals and home aquarium size fish on display? Most seem to favor penguins, seals, stingrays, dolphins and similar large animals.

As you mentioned, public aquaria make their family trip $$ off of (i.e. the kiddos want to see most) the penguins, seals, touch pools, dolphins and big pelagic tanks. heck, even amazon biotopes get better coverage, since many have small-to-large amazon bird and fish exhibits, with the obligatory arapaima. The disappointment many people feel at the Waikiki aquarium (no such exhibits, only a few reef tanks) is an example of why a heavy reef focus might be financially dangerous. (that said, while I appreciate all the work they demonstrated in their backstage tour, I do think they are coasting off of their pioneering work decades ago and need a massive remodel and recapitalization)

Coral exhibits are generally small afterthoughts and part of the smaller exhibits. That said, there are several places I've been to with nice small reef exhibits. San Diego, Monterey, Noboribetsu in Hokkaido Japan have nice reef side exhibits. One of my favorite reef tanks period is the gorgonian tank at the Henry Dooley Zoo at Omaha.

An alternative is the Berlin Zoo, which - not surprising from the land of Heiko Bleher, the center of Europe's wonky freshwater biotope craze, and really wonky brands like eheim, , tunze, tropic-marin, ATI, trident, korallen zucht - is like 30+ different fresh and salt water biotopes. (as well a a large central portion with like alligators and the like, but no seal, dophins, penguins etc.). This is my vote for the best public aquarium from a hobbyist/enthusiast perspective, even though some tanks were inevitably (in a 30+ tank institution) a bit underwhelming for their concept and should be reset.

 

[-XENOMORPH-]

I've only been to a couple. I'm up north, but when I was visiting family in Florda.. I visited Miami aquarium. Was awesome! https://www.miamiseaquarium.com/things-to-do/experiences

 

[gpd124]

I can’t say it is the best aquarium, but my family likes going to the Baltimore Aquarium. It’s got a nice mix of things for everyone.

I don’t know that there is enough there for a weekend trip or vacation, but something you could do as you are passing through.

The picture is from the top looking down of one of their main exhibits. As you go through the aquarium, you can view the main exhibit at eye level.

 

[uhgster1]

Georgia Aquarium. If you take the behind the scenes tour you’ll see the life support for that awesome reef. They even have frag tanks out on display.