A Look Inside Waikiki Aquarium

[Coradion]

These are some pics from work as well as some that I only ended up getting to take because of my work at the aquarium, but are not of animals at the facility. All pictures of animals that you see which were taken at the facility are now on public display. The others were all from home or wild collections that were returned back to the ocean. I hope you like them! I'd post more, but I have to get permission first, some of the really cool stuff still hasn't been officially released yet and may not be for some time. Maybe I'll be allowed to give a sneak peak though.

First one up is the Bobtail Squid, these guys used to be on display, but were released. They're really exciting at night and are bioluminescent. They're about the size of a large grape.

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Here's Buttercup, a baby Spiny Puffer I caught and later donated to the Aquarium. Here it is after I caught him while he was still in the keep, he's about the size of an Easter egg, can't wait until he's bigger, they get huge.


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[Coradion]

Gotta get permission for more, but I can take pics of stuff on display if you there's anything you want to see that you know we have at the aquarium next time I work on a tank or am in one I'll take pics.

[Mermaid Harmony]

Sweet! I like the grape squid, looks cute. :-) Looking forward to more!

[Azurin Luna]

Oh, they look cute. I would almost get the little squid as a pet, but I know better :)

[Coradion]

You can keep them as pets, they aren't that demanding at all.

[Odette]

they are magnificent! i love learning about fish

[Azurin Luna]

You can keep them as pets, they aren't that demanding at all.

Really? I thought they needed special care and attention. I know how my dad was with his freshwater tropical aquarium, always checking stuff

[Mermaid Menanna]

I absolutely love the puffers. Can't beat their personality traits even in a squid, lol. Did you have any issues getting him to eat? What did you start out offering him, if I may ask?

Azurin Luna, aquarium keeping doesn't have to be a lot of work or difficult if you understand the environment and animals before you get started and avoid a lot of the beginner mistakes by getting help and doing research. Marine tanks, once established and stable (average about 1 yr after setting it up) are less work than freshwater tanks if they are set up properly and a person doesn't skimp on equipment or try to make it "cheap". Marine tanks can get quite expensive both to set up and maintain, but that still doesn't make them difficult. What animals you keep also makes a difference... some are easier and more tolerant of "mistakes" than others. Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish are quite sensitive to water chemistry and stress, so are going to be higher maintenance than something like a clown fish or tang.

Another big difference is that most marine fish are still wild caught vs most freshwater fish that are now all captive bred (within the aquarium hobby/industry). Immune systems differ because of this, adaptability changes, even nutritional needs change somewhat. Illness/disease issues change over time with captive vs wild bred and kept fish, too.

I currently have 8 tanks running here at home, totaling about 1000 gallons between them, both fresh and saltwater. A lot of people who see my house just gasp, under the impression that it sucks up all of my time just to care for them. I spend about 10 minutes/day with any given tank during feeding time and study/research, and about 1 hr/wk doing water changes. Unless I'm doing something specific in a tank (study/research) that is the entire maintenance routine for all of my tanks combined. Before we bought this house I had a fish room with 50+ tanks and the time difference was about 1 hr extra each week during water changes.

Don't let the idea of keeping an aquarium scare you. Just ask for help and do it right from the beginning and you could have something fun, educational, relaxing, and can find a lot of companionship from the animals.

[Azurin Luna]

I did some research myself, and I came to the same conclusion. The only problem I would have is that there is no way to get one there. Shops here only tend to have local salt water fishes and a few tropical, lots of freshwater fish and some even sold shrimps, but no squids or anything like that. So I guess I will have to do with the pictures for now :)

[Coradion]

The puffer is eating really well, it accepted cut up fresh shrimp right away and within a day was already eating frozen mysids. It will accept some flake foods, but has yet to take any gel feeds.

If you're really serious about keeping squids you can have them shipped to you. Same goes for a lot of cephs. They would need a mature tank though, if you were going to go the awesome invert route I would get a cuttlefish.

[Azurin Luna]

I found out that we have common cuttlefish in the sea near us, but they are quite big, and seeing as I don't have much room I can't have a large tank for them. Some also say you can find the Sepiola Atlantica in the North sea, but it's easily overlooked as it's pretty small. I also find conflicting answers on the dutch forums. Some say you can't hold one cause it's to fragile to changes, other say you can but mostly not longer then 6 months.

I don't have much experience with saltwater aquariums either, we only have had fresh water ones. And mostly, I don't want to let them suffer.

I'm very conflicted now :(

[Coradion]

Well, the more you look and read, the more you'll learn. Take your time so you can make an informed choice. If you don't think you can provide for one properly yet, then you know the answer to whether or not you can have one. Doesn't mean you can't try and raise a different animal and work your way up to a cool invert. You may find you don't actually want to keep one and you'd rather let it be wild. Or you may find that possibly breeding and raising them is something you want to do. Doesn't heart to be informed :)