About the Aquarium

Curaçao Sea Aquarium


	About the Aquarium
	In 1984, one of Curacao’s finest assets, its underwater world, became accessible to everyone. The Curacao Sea Aquarium was developed directly on the oceanfront with a healthy coral reef only a stone’s throw from the entrance. This beautiful aquarium complex is one of the most unique in the world because of its ‘open-water-system’, which means that fresh sea water is continuously pumped into the aquaria. The park offers a unique combination of observation, information, education and interaction. During the day the park offers different feeding shows during which visitors can touch and learn about the animals. Apart from the feeding shows, the park also offers training demonstrations (shows) with its sea lions and the dolphins of the Curaçao Dolphin Academy. For some real fun, visitors can go to the different companies housed in the park. Like the Animal Encounters where you can snorkel or scuba dive and hand feed stingrays, sea turtles, sharks and many other colorful tropical fish. Or you can meet our sea lions up close and personal during a Sea Lion Encounter, Snorkel-Swim or Open Water Dive. At the Dolphin Academy you can meet the most popular mammals of the sea; dolphins. In different interactive programs like the Dolphin Encounter, Dolphin Swim, Dolphin Snorkel or Dolphin Dive. After all that excitement you can relax in the coolness of our museum and theater. Aquariua The Curaçao Sea Aquarium has many aquaria with different themes which are the heart of the complex. The 46 aquaria containing about 130.00 liters (35.000 gallons) of water, offer more than 400 specimens from around the waters of Curaçao. This means that the Curaçao Sea Aquarium has one of the most extensive collections of Caribbean sea life and is still adding to it. Some aquaria show special themes like camouflage, cleaning fish, lobsters and sea horses. Other aquaria show different habitats like sea grass beds, mangroves, and deep reefs with their special fish collected by our deep-diving team. We get our specimens from up to 300 ft of depth. All the aquaria have an ‘open water system’ meaning that fresh seawater is pumped in the aquaria. Therefore the same water that circles around the coral reefs is circulating in the Aquaria. Each aquarium has a gravel filter, a false bottom allowing water to circulate underneath the sand. The aquaria are populated exclusively with “live rock”, i.e. rocks full of algae, small crustaceans, worms, tubeworms and especially bacteria. These bacteria help us to achieve a natural balance in the aquarium. To allow the bacteria to reach this natural balance, the aquaria are left empty of fish for about a month after having been decorated with live rocks, corals and sponges. Most of the lighting in the aquaria is natural, consisting of sunlight that falls through openings in the roof, directly into the aquaria. The natural sunlight provides the Curaçao Sea Aquarium with an ideal and unique situation, enabling us to keep all reef organisms alive in our tanks without sophisticated technical equipment. Animals The Sea Turtles The Curaçao Sea Aquarium houses three different species of sea turtles. the Green turtle, the Loggerhead and Hawksbill. These animals are regularly seen around the island although their numbers are decreasing. Turtles are listed as endangered species by the C.I.T.E.S. (Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species). Some turtles are brought to the Curaçao Sea Aquarium to be rehabilitated. They are observed, treated and when healthy released back into the ocean. At the Curaçao Sea Aquarium they are fed four times a day so you can get a very close look at them. The Sharks At the Sea Aquarium you will be able to see a big number of sharks. Inside the aquarium hall you can see nurse sharks in the Shark Pool. In this pool you can see a mother and her pups (born end of 2000/beginning of 2001) which you can feed yourself. Next to the Animal Encounters lagoon you will find the bigger Nurse sharks. These sharks are bottom dwellers, in nature they feed on fish and shellfish that they suck out of the sand or coral crevices. Next to the nurse sharks you will see lemon sharks. These sharks can become as long as 3,5 meters (8 feet) and are reef hunters. In the wild sharks eat at night and about twice a week, here at the Curaçao Sea Aquarium we feed our sharks twice during the day. The Sea Lions In the Woerden Canal, next to the old minesweeper lies the sea lion pool. In this pool you will find 12 sea lions including our oldest sea lion Chichi born in 1989 and with us since 1990. Five other Sea Lions were between ages 2 and 3 when they came to the Aquarium in October 2003. In January 2006 they were joined by 6 youngsters between 9 and 11 months old. In contrary to the other animals our 12 Sea Lions are not natural inhabitants of the Caribbean Sea but are South-American or Patagonian Sea Lions. Until the last century the Caribbean Monk Seal lived in this area, but they have not been sighted for more than fifty years. The Crustaceans Crustaceans, such as crabs, lobsters and shrimp, are familiar to most people. An interesting aspect of the life of these animals is the way that they grow, a process called molting. At regular intervals of about three months, in the case of lobsters, they have to replace their hard outer skeleton. If you hold the old discarded shell, you will think you are holding a real lobster, since it looks exactly like the original animal, down to the last small detail, except that it is hollow. Touch tank Right next to the lobster aquarium are the touch tanks. Here you can find animals like sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and conchs, which you can touch. Several times during the day our staff explains about these species and they show you that picking up a sea urchin does not really have to hurt! The Flamingoes The flamingoes in the Curaçao Pool are real eye catchers. On Curaçao you can find wild flamingos living in the saltpans of Jan Kok, Jan Thiel and St. Michiel. In the Curacao Sea Aquarium they are fed brine shrimp to retain their pink color. The Pelican Our brown pelican “Pélé” is a real star. The Curaçao Sea Aquarium adopted her because she had an unfortunate accident in Bonaire. She got caught up in a fishing line; her wing was broken in three places so it had to be amputated. She knows she's special and acts like the queen of the pool! The Goliath Grouper Another inhabitant of the Sea Aquarium who certainly deserves a visit is our Goliath Grouper Herbie. Herbie has been living in the Sea-Aquarium for about seven years and is about two and a half meters (9 feet) long and weighs about 300 kilos. A Goliath Grouper can come to grow as long as two and a half meters (9 feet) and weigh 350 kilos. There are specimens know although with a weight of 450 kilos. Herbie lives in the Animal Encounters lagoon where you can pay him a visit snorkeling or diving. Herby is completely tame and loves to be petted. Source: former official site of Curaçao Sea Aquarium (2006)