Monday, May 17, 2010

Aquarium Trip

Last Friday, we went to the Adventure Aquarium. I saw many vibrant lifeforms unknown to me until that day, such as a prod, which a shrimp like crustacean. One of my favorite aspects of the trips was that they had many touch tanks in which we could touch different marine organisms. We could touch starfish, sea cucumbers, jellyfish, rays, sharks, horseshoe crabs and sharks. My personal favorite organism to touch were the rays. Some felt fuzzy, but others felt bumpy. Unfortunately, the hippopatami were asleep when we visited, but I got to witness a symbiotic relationship. As the hippos were sleeping in the water, dozens of fish were feeding of the algae on the hippos. So, the hippos were cleaned and the fish were fed, demonstrating mutualism. I also learned that jellyfish actually eat fish as their primary diet. I was surprised at the size of some of the cnidarians. Some of the jely fish's tentacle's looked well over three feet long. Well, I would not want to be in that tank!

No comments: