My trip to the zoo!!! (dial-up warning!)

[Billsgate]

While some of you were at the Baltimore aquarium, I was at the Antwerp Zoo yesterday. Thought I'd share some pics. The aquarium exhibits were a little bit dissapointing though.

 

[Jchillin]

Aquarium disappointing?? How so...those are great specimens and that cichlid tank looks great! What size is that tank BTW?

You are fortunate that the zoo has an aquarium...New York doesn't have that luxury...

 

[Billsgate]

No clue about the size of that tank, I didn't see any caretakers while looking at the aquaria, otherwise I would've launched a whole bunch of questions on them
It was dissapointing, because in 15 minutes you had seen all there was to see. I could've stayed longer and observed some fishy behaviour, but I didn't feel the need 8O

The first pic is a catfish that was about 5 feet long. The 4th pic is a pacu who was 3 feet long. And I would not have noticed the basilisks if one didn't come falling down right beside me. They were crawling around freely. Cool beasts

 

[An t-iasg]

Thomas, those are all great pics, and it looks like a very nice zoo! I especially like the flamingos and the buffalo. What is a basilisk?

 

[Billsgate]

Basilisks are the ones in pictures 2 and 7. That's how they were marked.......but maybe that's just the flemish name. I googled it for you and came up with mythological creatures, so maybe I'm mistaking. Toirtis will surely know!

 

[Melody]

ummmm maybe Iguana? But Im not a reptile fan, but that would be my guess...
Toirtis will be along shortly...

A Basilisks is the creature that Harry Potter batteled in The Chamber of Secerets... I think?

 

[lmw80]

I enjoyed those pictures

 

[cJw]

Nice pics! The outdoor ones turned out very well - I need to get back to the Louisville Zoo but they don't have an aqua exhibit. :\

I will take this chance to show off two of my lou- zoo pics, though.

 

[TankGirl]

Very cool pics, Thomas. They look like iguanas to me, too - used to have one back in the day.

That red-tailed catfish is just like one we saw in Baltimore - and they are often sold as aquarium fish, so it is good to be able to see them (and the pacu, too) the size they will eventually attain.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[slowboattochina]

Great pictures.

 

[Melody]

. They look like iguanas to me, too - used to have one back in the day.

I would have loved to have one, in highschool my best friends brother had one named Taco. He was about 5 1/2 to 6 feet from tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, I got smacked across the face one time, thought it broke my jaw, I had a black eye and some nasty cuts on my face from it, he also decided to use me once as a climbing post and flew up my back, sinking some very nasty nails in my skin, I still have some faint scars on my leg and back from the beast... never felt pain like that before, wound up having to take antibiotics because they started to get infected, Very neat animals, but become very unmanagable for an inexpierenced person once they start getting any size to them. Im sure it also come from lack of training/handling

 

[Toirtis]

ummmm maybe Iguana? But Im not a reptile fan, but that would be my guess...
Toirtis will be along shortly...

A Basilisks is the creature that Harry Potter batteled in The Chamber of Secerets... I think?

He will.

Those are green iguanas, Iguana iguana.

Basilisks are two things....one a mythological creature capable of turning creatures to stone with its gaze...the other is a couple of species of smallish lizards, the most stunning of which is the green sailfin basilisk, Basilicus plumifrons:

http://urth.acsu.buffalo.edu/~pjg/basilisk.jpg

 

[Toirtis]

By the by, those are some nice photos....the red-tailed cat and tiger shovelnose cat are quite impressive, as is the pacu...I assume all three share the same tank?

 

[Melody]

.the other is a couple of species of smallish lizards, the most stunning of which is the green sailfin basilisk, Basilicus plumifrons:

http://urth.acsu.buffalo.edu/~pjg/basilisk.jpg

He is awsome! I love his sails? Fins? What ever they are called, he IS stunning...

 

[Billsgate]

Thanks for the comments everyone, and yes, the pacus and the catfish shared the same tank 8)
I was just too late to see them feed the piranhas.......all that was left was empty fish skeletons hanging on a wire.

 

[Toirtis]

I was just too late to see them feed the piranhas.......all that was left was empty fish skeletons hanging on a wire.

An aquarium in France does the same thing....but with a really big tank with several hundred piranha....and they use a goat carcass on a chain.

 

[Melody]

That would be so neat to see... nature at its finest...

 

[Fluff]

Great pics Thomas, thanks for sharing them!