# Greater Cleveland Aquarium Opens



## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

website

It opened on Saturday. I checked it out yesterday. Sorry, I was not able to take any pictures. It was very busy, they were giving us cards that told us a time we were able to go stand in line to buy a ticket. Too busy to stand around getting in everyones way taking pictures.

I wasn't really that impressed overall, but a few things were definitely pretty cool. Not a lot in the way of cichlids. They had some freshwater rays, American Alligators (including some cute little babies), a "Petting tank" - half was horseshoe crabs, and the other half had some rays and a couple baby sharks. The small gray one I didn't know what kind it was but it was very friendly and kept circling the glass letting everyone pet it. I got to pet the baby nurse shark though. The "baby" was still like 3-4 feet long. It stayed mostly out of reach near the bottom, but it swam up the glass near me and I was able to pet it as it swam back down to the bottom. Pretty neat.

The feature of the aquarium is the very large shark tank. Not quite sure how big exactly it was, but it has a large, long viewing window along one side, and then a tunnel that goes underneath inside the tank. It would have been a loot cooler, except for some reason all the tanks seemed to be a bit cloudier than they should be, and it was especially noticeable with the shark tank being so big.

There were many other smaller tanks with various occupants, but those were the parts I enjoyed the most. It was $21 to get in per person, and it took only about an hour to get all the way through. Thats with stopping and spending a little bit of time at the more interesting exhibits. There is a cafe which we didn't go in, and a small gift shop typical of these places.

To be honest I'm a little disappointed and worried for the GCA. I was expecting more, I'm not sure they'll be able to sustain business. It'll be interesting to see it they left room to expand. I'm more impressed with the aquarium exhibits at the cleveland zoo - not sure if they're eventually planning on moving those exibits over or what. I wish them the best of luck and I want to see the aquarium succeed.


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## Sub-Mariner (Dec 7, 2011)

Sounds like the Houston aquarium.  I wasnt impressed at all.


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

To be fair the "Houston aquarium" is not an aquarium but an aquarium themed restaurant. There is an aquarium nearby on Galveston island. Unless that smile denotes sarcasm, and then I look like a smug prick. :lol:


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

Just based on the info provided in this thread, I'd say the Cleveland Aquarium is A LOT better than the Houston Aquarium :lol:

I visited the Greater Cleveland Aquarium just four days after it opened, and wrote an article (with lots of photos!) about it for the Ohio Cichlid Association's Bulletin.


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

Yup frank I agree with your entire article. Much of what you said echo my thoughts exactly, I'm just not as good as putting it into words as you are. Very nice article.

Don't know if you know this or not but I stopped into something fishy this weekend and talked with Dave Hale for a bit. Apparently he supplied some fish for the aquarium and helps out down there. He mentioned he was down feeding the sharks last thursday.

From the looks of the pictures, the shark tank was A LOT clearer for you than it was for me on sunday.


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

I got an email from Dave after he read the article 

I take it the Aquarium folks only got the idea to have some cichlid tanks after seeing Dave's beautiful store, and he has sold some fish to them as well as supplies, but they did not always heed his stocking suggestions. Enough said about that. I don't want to get Dave in trouble, and it's great seeing the Aquarium is supporting local business :thumb:

I've also heard the Aquarium folks put themselves under quite some pressure to open on the given date, and had some trouble getting fish in time to stock all the tanks. That probably explains some odd stocking choices, but goes to prove that the big guys are prone to make the same mistakes we caution beginners not to make in these forums - do your research, then buy your fish. In other words, don't buy fish on impulse just because they are readily available or look cool without carefully planning how you are going to house them in the long term.

It seems that the shark tank is clearing up, and I am sure other issues will also be overcome with time. I'll definitely be back to check on progress.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

Made my first trip to the Cleveland Aquarium this past Monday. I was looking at the Tanganyikan tank and I was like "hey, I know those fish"! I had sold some cyathopharynx to Dave Hale some time back. The fish in the tank looked exactly like them. I confirmed it with Dave. So, very cool to both have some fish in the Cleve Aq and to see that they've got a good home. It'll be nice to check back from time to time to see how they're doing. The male had built a large pit (best he could with the bit of gravel that was in there) and was entertaining a female while I was there. So, at least for now, all is well with them. These are the ones that were sold to me as c. foai 'sibwesa' and obviously aren't. Best pic I could get with a phone camera.


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

Thats pretty neat!

How did the rest of the place look? Was it still crowded? Did they finally clear up the cloudiness that seemed to be a problem in so many tanks there?

Just curious how the place is doing a couple months after opening.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

We went on a Monday morning when they first opened and there was hardly anyone there. They hadn't gotten the light timers reset properly to daylight savings, so not all of the shark tank lights were on yet. They had a sign up apologizing for the tank 'haziness'. We could see some, but it was not as bad as I expected. They obviously need to work on inhabitants in some of the tanks. I loved how they worked everything into the old power house. Very cool to walk through the old tunnels, etc to see the displays. The tanks in the tunnels were very tall and narrow, front to back, so only so much you can do with those. It'll get better with age. The tanks with native fish were better than I thought they'd be. That part of it worked well. There was a guy running around in old navy garb singing about the sinking of the edmund fitzgerald, and I could see where he'd be a bit scary to small children. The touch pool was done well, I thought. I think they have a good base to build on. It's pricey, but I've got to go back now once per year to see how my fish are getting along.


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