Aquarium Life
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Mommy Of The Rays
Well summer is on its back and all the kids are back to school which means that things had become really, really quiet this week. The aquarium and especially the ray pool is completely quiet and different now.
Now before I start I have to explain about the ray pool. In the aquarium we have a ray touch pool with four species of ray that people can touch without fear of getting stung or attacked. As a way of educating people more about the rays. So as you can imagine there needs to be supervision by a staff member at all time so on an average day I spend about 1½ to 2 hours at the ray pool. To babysit the rays and to stop small children from falling into the pool ... and apparently this does happen.
One of the rules of the ray pool is : NO SPLASHING!!! The reason for this is that the rays think that there is another ray in distress on the surface so they all stay on the bottom. I loose count of the amout of times I say that in a day. So friday I was telling a young boy that he shouldn't splash ... I think he might have been about five ... his mother must have told him not to splash too because he gave me a look then asked his mother if I was a mommy ... his mother and I exchanged smiling glances and she said: "Yes sweetheart she is mommy of the rays". It really made my day.
I had two feeds on Friday the rainforrest section and the Coral reef section. It was my first time feeding the piranas ... what a let down ... they just looked at the food and went 'Naw not interested' ... so much for feeding frenzy ... at least the catfish and archer fish put up a show ... but not as spectacular as the last time I did the feed.
I love doing the coral reef feed ... we have the cutest little shortspine pufferfish and he has the most beautiful blue eyes but he's shy and only comes out once in a while. I have been lucky, I see him every time I do the feed. Last thursday he came out because Ian was working on the tank and I think he was pissed off at him ... but I couldn't even tempt him with some cockles yesterday. Would come up to surface then go 'Naw don't wanna' so eventually had to give up but I have lots of time to charm him yet.
More interesting stories later
P
Now before I start I have to explain about the ray pool. In the aquarium we have a ray touch pool with four species of ray that people can touch without fear of getting stung or attacked. As a way of educating people more about the rays. So as you can imagine there needs to be supervision by a staff member at all time so on an average day I spend about 1½ to 2 hours at the ray pool. To babysit the rays and to stop small children from falling into the pool ... and apparently this does happen.
One of the rules of the ray pool is : NO SPLASHING!!! The reason for this is that the rays think that there is another ray in distress on the surface so they all stay on the bottom. I loose count of the amout of times I say that in a day. So friday I was telling a young boy that he shouldn't splash ... I think he might have been about five ... his mother must have told him not to splash too because he gave me a look then asked his mother if I was a mommy ... his mother and I exchanged smiling glances and she said: "Yes sweetheart she is mommy of the rays". It really made my day.
I had two feeds on Friday the rainforrest section and the Coral reef section. It was my first time feeding the piranas ... what a let down ... they just looked at the food and went 'Naw not interested' ... so much for feeding frenzy ... at least the catfish and archer fish put up a show ... but not as spectacular as the last time I did the feed.
I love doing the coral reef feed ... we have the cutest little shortspine pufferfish and he has the most beautiful blue eyes but he's shy and only comes out once in a while. I have been lucky, I see him every time I do the feed. Last thursday he came out because Ian was working on the tank and I think he was pissed off at him ... but I couldn't even tempt him with some cockles yesterday. Would come up to surface then go 'Naw don't wanna' so eventually had to give up but I have lots of time to charm him yet.
More interesting stories later
P
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