# great barrier reef - Toronto Zoo



## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

A friend of mine at work told me about a new reef exhibition in Metro Toronto Zoo. I've been waiting for a chance to visit this place to have a look at this. I had high expectations, as it says "Extra Ordinary Great Barrier Reef"....










OK. I was holding my breath before entering the great barrier reef area, and these are what I saw

Reef tank - crappy lighting due to very yellow light spectrum. Everything look kinda yellowish, and corals in it are no better than what you can see all the time at big als display.










Main display tank. Fake corals !! I couldn't believe my eyes. This is supposed to be a zoo, I was expecting to see only live corals in "great barrier reef" but the main tank has ZERO live corals.. You can see better stuff at rainforest cafe at yorkdale mall. I guess lack of live corals is due to those fishes not reef safe, but I was expecting to see a true reef !! Not a fish display.










OK. To be fair, the last tank was very interesting. Many live jellyfishes. Fascinating...










Anyway, the conclusion was that this is hardly extra ordinary. It was a very disappointing visit..


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## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

That does seem pretty poor for the zoo 

Has anyone been to the Niagara Falls Aquarium in NY? I've been looking to go to some spectacular displays in and around southern ontario.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Apparently the reef at the ROM is pretty decent.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I suppose it is... Extra... Ordinary


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

ameekplec. said:


> Apparently the reef at the ROM is pretty decent.


Yes, the one in ROM looks pretty decent. I wouldn't mind having one like that at home. Here's the picture I took, sorry I never got a chance to take FTS of it


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

Sunstar said:


> I suppose it is... Extra... Ordinary


I suppose you're right.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

overleaf said:


> That does seem pretty poor for the zoo
> 
> Has anyone been to the Niagara Falls Aquarium in NY? I've been looking to go to some spectacular displays in and around southern ontario.


I did not even realize there's one in Niagara Falls, NY. I'm all for a decent aquarium exhibits, not just something a little larger than home aquariums.


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

the cichlid tank at the zoo isn't much to write about either. Only it's size is impressive.

shots from the web...


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

Actually, that Cichlid tank looks impressive!


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I had a meet and greet in 07 and it went well... but in general we had been kinda dissapointed. I dont think the zoo expects fish people to attend or something.. lol

the cichlid tank made us all pretty upset...

oohhh and ahhh from afar









but up close you get a lot of sunken tummies and such...









and I have no idea what happened to this guy.. he must have just been moved or jumped, or got stuck somewhere.









The reef wasnt open at the time but we did go to there other tanks and look around. One large wall tank was dead. A couple of fish left.... a time before i went and a few fish looked mauled. Even one had a dangling eye ball. ick.

I find myself wanting to avoid the fish sections of the zoo...

I love the zoo and wish i could do more meet and greets there as everything else was wonderful... Which is why i just dont understand the quality of the fish. I have no idea if its a staff or funding issue.. I dont see why its so hard since a lot of us keep our fish in 100% better condition.


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## hojimoe (Mar 7, 2008)

yeah there's an older thread from last year in the general section - I can't remember who started it, don't think it was me though about how disappointing the reef exhibit was ....really sad frankly


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## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

Wow Cid... that's horrible :/

I'm blown away by the plastics used in the reef exhibit. What's next? Stuffed Panda teddy bears for the panda exhibit?


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

If you goto Big Als at Kennedy / Ellesmere or Yonge / Steeles, they have 220G reef tank with live corals, fish and BETTER lighting. 200G starphire cube tank with fake corals and fish (pretty neat)  

WAY WAY BETTER than the zoo  

and

its absouletly FREE to view!


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## mr_brixs (Jun 18, 2009)

bigfishy said:


> If you goto Big Als at Kennedy / Ellesmere or Yonge / Steeles, they have 220G reef tank with live corals, fish and BETTER lighting. 200G starphire cube tank with fake corals and fish (pretty neat)
> 
> WAY WAY BETTER than the zoo
> 
> ...


thats why i always go on a tuesday.. lol


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

I agree with Cid. There is a big problem with the Metro zoo on aquatic animals. That being there isn't any expert there and that empty space is filled with stupidity, idiocy and a large part of the rest is their ego.
This isn't the first time that a hobby enthusia offered to help out their dire situation, but everyone got brushed off. Their attitude is that they think they are the expert and all the hobby enthusias should just ogle at their tank and then shut the hell up and move on to watch the elephants.
I've know a few people who offered their service for free to fix their issue and have been turned down because they think they know every thing and that if they can't fix it, no one can.
That's also the reason why I never donated any of my zebra pleco to the zoo.

Also, even though the cichlid tank is impressive, it's also a misrepresentation of a natural African lake. It just more smoke and mirror and I don't know why, every time I see this tank, all I see are the ones that are dying with a sunken stomach. And the fact that the zoo knows about this and choose to do nothing just gets me upset.

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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

They don't have a staff icthyologist or marine/aquatic biologist as I recall. 


Oh, and that cichlid exhibit? Horrible - stunted growth, deformed, missing fins and eyes - the list goes on.


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