This year has begun, like many others, for all of us here at SeaWorld. With opening day just around the corner, it often prompts the question: What does everyone do when there are no guests to interact with, or shows to perform in, or rides to operate? Well, even though many of our usual activities are not in full swing, we have been hard at work preparing for opening day of the 2010 season, Saturday, Feb. 27.
In the aquarium department, preparing includes fixing up our animal displays, acquiring new animals, moving other animals to different aquariums, moving animals around in the exhibits and even overhauling some of our exhibits to prepare for the arrival of the new animals.
Red Sea Golden Butterflyfish
Some of our new additions can be seen right when you walk in the door to our Sharks/The Coral Reef building. Our first aquarium now houses some new fish species including many pink, orange and yellow Anthias, or Fairy Basslets. You’ll recognize them by their brilliant colors and their tendency to stay together in groups of about a dozen fish. The biggest and most brilliantly colored one in each group is a male and all of the others are females or juveniles.
Longfin Fairy Wrasse (left), Bartlett's Anthias (center and right)
We’ve also added some small fairy wrasses. There are many different types, with brilliant shades of orange, green, blue and red. You can always spot a wrasse by the way they swim. Wrasses swim by simultaneously flapping their pectoral fins (these are the fins on each side that are like the arms of the fish) and hardly ever use their tail to propel themselves.
Also, if you look close to the reef, you may be able to spot a Trunkfish. These look like a small swimming pyramid.
Big changes are also on the way for some of our smaller aquariums, such as a new type of jellyfish and another surprise that’s on it’s way in the coming months. I can’t let the cat out of the bag just yet, but we will have an entirely new exhibit opening soon. We’ve spent many hours overhauling one of our exhibits to house some new animals I think you are going to love.
Related posts:
- Diving Deeper: SeaWorld’s Conservation Efforts
- Asian Otter Exhibit Upgrade: Part 1
- Hanging Out with SCUBA Santa Under the Sea
- The Bonneville Three
Tags: anthias, aquarium, exhibits, fairy basslets, opening day, SeaWorld San Antonio, Sharks/The Coral Reef, trunkfish, wrasse
Posted in Around the Park, animals
