Pictures from the Shedd Aquarium (image intense)

[mhurley]

Just wanted to share some pictures from our trip to the Shedd in n Chicago yesterday. Took my 6 month old (see picture to left) for his 1/2 year b-day (basically just an excuse so I could go).
I had not been there since they opened the Wild Reef shark exhibit so it was a great time....Here we go:

Awesome reef tank display, this thing is about 8' high about 10 to 15' across:

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd6.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd13.jpg



The entrance into the Wild Reef shark exhibit, looking above our heads:
http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd11.jpg


A few shark shots. This display tank is amazing. It's dark in the room so it's very hard to photograph but the display arches over your head about 20' high, it's at least 50' wide, just the display panels, not the interor of the tank itself:
http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd8.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd12.jpg


An anemone display tank, almost all rose BTA's
http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd15.jpg

A few filtration pictures, these obviously aren't the big filters, but just nice that they had some out on display. This was some type of grow out tank with LR and a bunch of shroom's in it.

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd3.jpg

Skimmers were ETSS:
http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd9.jpg

[mhurley]

Cool lobster:
http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd5.jpg


This was a really neat surge tank display. The thing created huge waves of water that had to have been in the hundreds of gallons. The acrylic panel you see is over 2" thick:
http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd7.jpg


A couple shots of the beluga whales....God, these things are so intelligent...When they look at you, you can see them thinking, especially when they are vocalizing. It's almost like they are saying, "hey, what are you looking at?!"

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd16.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd14.jpg

[LOTUS50GOD]

awsome pics...

[ammiller2]

Awesome pics!! This is definitely on my to-do list next time I'm in Chi-town.

[beefcake]

Wow, those reef tanks are incredible! Those RBTA's are huge!

[Soltaker]

Awesome pics!!

Does anyone know what kind of fish are in the 2nd pic down, bottom of the pic? 3 of them playing follow the leader.

Thanks! :D

[Algae Blenny]

The orange fish(There are 3 of them) swimming across the bottom that are blurred, do you know what type they are?

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd6.jpg

Great pics, BTW. Glad to see some public aquariums have good reef setups.

[rmendis]

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing!

[Indy1]

Originally posted by Algae Blenny
The orange fish(There are 3 of them) swimming across the bottom that are blurred, do you know what type they are?

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/shedd6.jpg

Great pics, BTW. Glad to see some public aquariums have good reef setups.

I believe those are a type of Sweetlips, possibly Oriental. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Creade]

I think the blurred fish you see are sweetlips.
I may be mistaken but Im fairly certain.

Creade

[Sylock]

Wow!!!

[mhurley]

Yes, the blurry fish are the oriental sweetlips.

Mike

[Sting]

Those pics are awesome! Along with those display tanks- wow! My favorite, though, has got to be the beluga whales...such unique animals...amazing! m I've only seen them at Sea World before...it's neat they have them in Chicago for display!

[rbaker]

Awesome pics Mike!

Thanks for sharing...

Ryan

[Soltaker]

Originally posted by mhurley
Yes, the blurry fish are the oriental sweetlips.

Mike


Are they sold to the general public?

[mhurley]

Originally posted by Soltaker
Are they sold to the general public?

Should be...just a matter of finding them somewhere. I don't know much about sweetlips except 2 things. 1: their adult coloration is drastically different than their juvenille (much like an emperor angelfish) and 2: they grow very large.

Mike

[Soltaker]

Originally posted by mhurley
Should be...just a matter of finding them somewhere. I don't know much about sweetlips except 2 things. 1: their adult coloration is drastically different than their juvenille (much like an emperor angelfish) and 2: they grow very large.

Mike

So I take it those are juvies? And also, how large is large? Would a 375 reef be acceptable to keep a couple? Or wouldthat be pushing it?

thanks again :)

[Ernest T. Bass]

Nice Pics. I plan on going to the Shedd next weekend when I'm in Chicago for the International Motorcycle Show (one of my other loves). Did the cold weather prevent you from seeing anything or are all/most of the displays inside?

[jhaake]

Fascinating lobster. Ugly, yet beutiful.

[RobChuck]

Clarence,
The whole aquarium is inside, but there are three sections you need tickets for: the main part, the Oceanarium, and the Wild Reef. I would suggest buying your tickets through Ticketmaster, and picking them up at Will Call so you don't have to wait in the long line to get in (the Shedd is the busiest museum in Chicago), and guarantee a ticket into the Wild Reef and the Oceanarium.

Mike,
I was just there a few weeks ago, and stared at that reef in your first picture for at least 45 minutes. By the way, nice pics!

[Ernest T. Bass]

Thanks Rob

[whirley]

I was just at the wild reef/shedd 2 weekends ago. To be honestly, it was ok. I was honestly expecting more sps's. Perhaps I was looking for something that wasn't supostabe there.

I guess, when I think reef, I think sps/lps. I saw a couple tanks that had some sps, but if I had to choose between spending $8 to goto the wild reef, vs going to some guy's house and checking out his 180+ gallon sps only tank, I'd take option #2.

I dunno, guess I was expecting more... but that's just me.

whirley

[mhurley]

Originally posted by whirley
I was just at the wild reef/shedd 2 weekends ago. To be honestly, it was ok. I was honestly expecting more sps's. Perhaps I was looking for something that wasn't supostabe there.

I guess, when I think reef, I think sps/lps. I saw a couple tanks that had some sps, but if I had to choose between spending $8 to goto the wild reef, vs going to some guy's house and checking out his 180+ gallon sps only tank, I'd take option #2.

I dunno, guess I was expecting more... but that's just me.

whirley

I enjoyed it, but my expectations were lower. I didn't expect them to have full on reef displays that we have around here. Probably too much maintenance for them. Still impressive to see a massive shark tank.

And where did you get $8 from? I paid $21 to get in!!

Mike

[whirley]

Yah, I think I paid $19 for just the regular entrance and the wild reef exhibition. I think it's $12 to get in the door and $7 to get into the reef exhibit. Although, I onlly could to threw the wild reef ONCE.

Perhaps I had too high expectations. I did go all the way down into chicago, pay $12 for parking, $19 to get into the wild reef....when instead I could have bought a couple frags from Menards (reef dwellars).

Again, it was OK. I was expecting it to be larger as well. Perhaps it's all that hype that they gave out.

I did ask the 'Guide', aka door greeter about a couple corals that they had, and he had no clue what I was talking about.

whirley

[Laura Moon]

Hmmmm.....

Maybe I need to make another trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore again (WITHOUT kids) and post some pics for ya'll......:D

[Eve]

Shedd Aquarium photos are ok - but your daughter is adorable :-)