Public Aquarium Touch Tanks

[Bepis]

I can answer that. They’re fastidious about quarantine procedures before introducing any new livestock. They also have massive UV sterilizers.

Also just like the ocean there are enough fish that the parasites are spread out. Ich will attach to one fish drop off and attach to another, whereas in our tanks they keep attacking the same fish. This gives them a chance to fight off and possibly kill some of the disease. Also the fish in these huge tanks are probably so healthy due to huge tanks, heavy feedings, near natural environment, plenty of room to swim, and stability like we will never have in our systems.
Correct me if I’m wrong @Jay Hemdal

 

[Sallstrom]

Our "touch tank" is only opened when we, the staff, are having a lecture/guiding. And then we pick up the animals (only invertebrates, no fish) and talk about them. The visitors are not allowed to put their hands in the water. We let the visitors touch some of the animals if they want to.
When we're not having a lecture the tank lid is on and the tanks is a like any other display tank in the exhibit/public classroom.

Our "touch tank" is a cold water tank with mostly urchins, seastars and crabs. The survival has been really good for the 10+ year I've been working. We do have the possibility to change the animals in the tank, but usually we don't have that many lectures that we feel the animals get stressed.

Sjöfartsmuseet Akvariet / The Maritime Museum & Aquarium Sweden - a small public aquarium

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Also just like the ocean there are enough fish that the parasites are spread out. Ich will attach to one fish drop off and attach to another, whereas in our tanks they keep attacking the same fish. This gives them a chance to fight off and possibly kill some of the disease. Also the fish in these huge tanks are probably so healthy due to huge tanks, heavy feedings, near natural environment, plenty of room to swim, and stability like we will never have in our systems.
Correct me if I’m wrong @Jay Hemdal

I once tried to estimate the biomass versus volume of the oceans. I may have gotten it wrong, but the number I came up with was basically a large tomato clownfish living alone in a 20,000 gallon tank. Our public aquariums are much more densely packed, and then something called "propagule pressure" comes into play - the parasites find their host much easier, so they produce more parasites, etc., just like in home aquariums.

The one difference that I see in large public aquariums that isn't seen in home aquariums is that diseases tend to be more chronic, and not acute like they are in home aquariums. This results in a public aquarium battling ich for months, while in a home aquarium, it's over in days (either cured or not). I cannot explain why this is the case. I know one aquarium that has been battling ich for literally years in one display. Neobenedenia often requires that aquariums treat their entire fish systems.

Jay

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Wow. That is some interesting random thought for sure!
"Then I thought about all the greasy little children who’ve been picking their butts and noses who then stick their hands in the public touch tanks."
I'm wondering if folks have ever thought about these same kids and their parents getting into the hotel hot tub with you' after everyone enjoyed a visit to the aquarium?

There are a whole lot of public vectors commonly used by people without too much thought about what the exposure is.

Can you still go swimming with the dolphins at some of these public attractions? I could barf through my snorkel just thinking about this one. There may be some positive public hygiene steps that result from our current pandemic exposure?

A Lysol dipping pool to pass through before entering the hot tub?

18 years old I was helping maintain Public swimming pools in the city of fullerton, and you don't want to know what we saw, every time I think about it I start feeding the fish....... Barfing. Hahaha

 

[CMMorgan]

I love this thread. I worked at a small facility north of Atlanta for 5 years. They had a Rivers to Reefs exhibit, probably still do. The most exciting thing for kids was the horseshoe crab touch tank. Like most museum exhibits funded by the local government, it was underfunded and not well thought out. The filtration was insufficient to support the bioload of the HSC and the mucky little fingers of children. (it was basically an AIO kiddie pool made to look like rocks. The room itself did not have a hand washing station. We had a hand sanitizer dispenser in the main hallway for them to sanitize AFTER they left but the well intentioned teachers would always squeeze globs of the stuff on the kids hands BEFORE sending them in to pollute the tank.
We lost way too may HSC as a result. It was just one of those things that wasn't acknowledged. The maintenance company just dropped new ones in periodically.
My co-teacher and I took a trip to the Ga Aquarium to meet with those folks regarding their best practices. They gave us an amazing tour of the facility as a professional courtesy and provided us with some great information. Kudos to the amazing staff at the Ga. Aquarium - they really run an amazing facility.
At the end of the day, however, we were unable to get anything changed. It was not for lack of trying. The best I could do was to take he HSC out of the tank myself and walk around the group to demonstrate, asking them to look but not touch. Many of us tried to do so... but we could not be there all of the time. It still bothers me to this day ... like I owe some unpaid debt to the horseshoe crabs of the world.