Trip to California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco

So yesterday I went on a trip to the CA Academy of Sciences. I had heard great stuff from my friends who had gone and wanted to see it myself!

It was absolutely AMAZING! Now, knowing all you photo hungry people here on FL, I knew I had to get some pics. And so I did- of course, mostly of the fish.

Alligator Gar! These things are at least 4 feet long in this tank, and they get larger than that.


An amazonian type tank- This had cardinals and an Amazon Puffer (never seem them before, It was kinda cute lol)


This is the underside of an... An Arapaima. This thing was longer than I am tall.

Why is it the underside? Because I am UNDERNEATH the tank. This is in a downright MASSIVE tank that, from the rainforest exhibit (which was realllly hot and humid and full of butterflies and birds that could land on you if they wanted), looked like a flooded forest (like a lake with some trees coming up out of it, it is open topped). You look closely, and you can see the people. You ride the elevator down from the top level of the rainforest (I know, funny sounding) and it takes you to the aquarium level- by aquarium they mean a BUNCH of aquariums. You walk a little and you come to a giant acrylic tube. This is the COOLEST thing EVER! You see three foot pacu (lots of em), a silver arowana, three arapaima, redtail catfish, razorback catfish (again, lots) and a bunch of smaller cichlids- probably 4-6 inches on those. Turquoise severums, some other dark ones with some beautiful orange and green speckles and lots of others that I can't describe or name lol. There was a submerged tree (yeah, a tree) in the aquarium as well.

A turtle resting on top of the tube I just described.


THIS is the tank-


Part of the 'rainforest'




This is top of the tube aquarium- glare on the water makes it so you can't see the people in the photo, but you can when you see it with your own eyes. See the fish? The BIIIG fish?


This is the ROOF of the academy- It's pretty freakin cool huh? The windows in the roof allow sunlight into the Rainforest exhibit, and the reefs which you see from above as part of large exhibit demonstrating a little stream flowing into an ocean with lots sea urchins and sea stars perched on the rocks.



More in next post!

 

This is the penguins-


This is the 'swamp'. From the aquarium level, you can look into the swamp from a huge acrylic panel. There are koi, bass, and some cichlids, as well as some turtle. This is the albino crocodile in the same swamp, from the above view. If you look you will see a turtle and some fish.


A very sociable marine fish- he's about a foot long and is in a HUGE tank- 15 feet tall at least, and long and curved. He was quite photogenic!



A completely separate marine tank with a moorish idol, banggaI cardinals and some other fish I didn't recognize.


A good above shot of a little hermit crab-


This is the Loch Ness Monster- I mean, a very large marine fish. At least a foot wide, from top to bottom, and nearly 7 feet long.


Our buddy the Arapaima again, he was hanging out on the side of the tube this time-


The freshwater ray tank. That's a common pleco you see, and there is at least 2-300 rummynose tetras in there as well. Very low light tank, so this was a luckier shot. The rummies didn't school much, so you can't see them all together.


HELLO Giant Pacu!


MORE in next post!

 

Redtail Cats and a pacu, plus some mystery striped fishies-


The razorback cats- this is the same tank as the arapaima and redtail cats, just at the very bottom.


Piranhas! These were pretty cool (different tank).


A lovely wild angel in a tank that also had sterbaI corys.


A VERY cool tank with some red hook silver dollars, and some other fish that looked like tinfoil barbs but with orange and black tails. Oh, this also had a twenty foot snake in it. Half land half water- you see the long tail? About foor feet of him was lounging on the land and the rest was chilling in the water!



This a better pic of the boas tail-

 

Soooooooo COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!! I want to live in this place!!!!!! Cant wait for more pics! =D

*EDIT* Double ninja'd!!

So cool! If I ever go out to CA, I will have to go there lol

BTW, I think we need more pics LOL

 

I don't have any more pics! That was all 26 of them! lol. (Don't kill me!)
It was really amazing. I would recommend it to any and everyone who can possibly go!

I wanted to live there too- at least, until I remembered it is on the coast and in serious earthquake country. Would NOT want to be there in an earthquake.

And sorry for the triple post there- the pic limit is 10 per post!

 

KILL HIIIIM!!!!!!!!!!! *angry mob with tourches* lol

That's so neat! I can't get over it LOL That Pleco!! Holy DANG!

Love the Arapaima. They are so cool. How big were the ones you saw?

 

Great job taking pics, thanks for sharing! Looks like you had a blast.

 

The Arapaimas were probably 7-8 feet. HUGE!
We definitely had a blast! We got there at 11:40 and left at 4:50 to go to the restaurant. From there we got ice cream and headed back home... Four hour drive round trip. We stopped at a friends house and ended up getting home at like 10 LOL

 

The Arapaimas were probably 7-8 feet. HUGE!
...

Dang!

Oh, and your little stripy mystery fish, they are sold at Pet Supermarket here... Starts with an "L" I think.... I'll look it up....


*EDIT*



That looks like them... Its hard to tell from your pic, but looks about right. The Pet Supermarkets here have them, but they are on the PetSmart web site. Weird LOL

 

Ahhh that's neat. Thanks!

 

Ahhh that's neat. Thanks!

Your welcome =3 The shape and color of them just struck a bell, so I figured I'd share what they were lol

 

Aww the earthquakes aren't that bad here, we haven't had a big one in a while. But seriously, great pictures! I haven't been to that aquarium yet, but I recently went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium and they have some nice exhibits as well.

 

Oh they can be pretty bad Dyre You should DEFINITELY check out the Academy of Sciences- it's not just an aquarium too, it has lots of really cool stuff. The planetarium sounds boring, but it's actually a show that they put on twice a day that changes from time to time, not to mention that it feel really 3D when the stuff get larger- really trippy lol.

 

I love that place! When the re-designed it to be the greenest building ever a few years ago- they totally outdid themselves

You didn't get a shot of my personal favorite for that place- the tall tube tank with really unique seahorses inside! I could have stood there for hours!

Now- if you haven't seen it yet- drive south 3 hours at see the Monterrey Bay Aquarium- it will make AS look tame. One of my favorite places on the planet. (Don't bother with the small aquarium at Fisherman's Wharf- it isn't that great).

We used to live in the Bay Area- I miss the aquariums, but don't miss the traffic

 

I saw the tall tube tank- it was GREAT! I forgot all about that one lol. It had the Sea Dragons (the seahorses that actually look a lot like they have seaweed growing on them) in it right?
I don't miss the traffic of San Fran either! I live about two hours away from it- and it's my least favorite place to drive in.
EDIT: Upon looking through the pictures I posted, I DID get a shot of it! You can JUST see the top rI'm of it in the alligator gar pic (the 1st pic) LOL!

 

I saw the tall tube tank- it was GREAT! I forgot all about that one lol. It had the Sea Dragons (the seahorses that actually look a lot like they have seaweed growing on them) in it right?
I don't miss the traffic of San Fran either! I live about two hours away from it- and it's my least favorite place to drive in.
EDIT: Upon looking through the pictures I posted, I DID get a shot of it! You can JUST see the top rI'm of it in the alligator gar pic (the 1st pic) LOL!

Yes! Those are the ones. SO. UNBELIEVABLY. COOL.

 

Amazing! How do they get the funding to maintain this collection?

Looks like a great trip, i'd come home with some epic tank envy - maybe some inspiration for RougueAgent's next build lol

 

You know, I'm really not sure. They must have a LOT of cash coming in from SOMEWHERE lol. It was really amazing- I wonder how much it cost to create and maintain.

 

If only my unI could get such funding - I suppose a lot must come in visitor admission fees though.

Thanks for sharing - i'm a biology nerd by training and i'm just drooling over this facility.

 

It is something like 25 dollars to get in, and there LOTS of people there, so it definitely must add up.