Noel's Adventure(s): February 13: London Aquarium

I didn't want to waste this wonderfully plan-free day, so I decided to take myself to the London Sea Life Aquarium. Since I knew the tickets were expensive at the door, I went online to see if I could get any deals, which was smart. At the door an adult ticket is something like £19, but buying an online student ticket for after 3pm only cost £11. I was a little worried about crowds and children, but I figured by afternoon they would have thinned. I was very, very wrong. There were screaming children everywhere. I hate to say it, but the British kids are the worst I've ever seen. Their parents just seem to let them scream and throw tantrums and cry in public. In the States, at least most parents tell their kids to shush or will even take them away if they're being unruly, but here the prevailing parenting idea seems to be just let them be as obnoxious as they want. It's really horrible, and not an isolated incident. Apparently it's one of the main complaints of Americans who visit the UK and Europe. I guess we just have different parenting styles or something, but wow is it obnoxious. One little girl literally screamed everything. She was yelling at the top of her lungs in a close, dark space filled to the brim with other people and her parents never even shushed her. I got bumped and stepped on and pushed by all the crazy people trying to gather round tiny little 4x4ft aquariums filled with seahorses or jellyfish or stingrays.

Upside-Down Jellyfish

Other than the people, it was a nice trip. The aquarium was fun, though not as nice as most US aquariums. They had lots of little tanks with little fish and sea creatures to marvel at, and one really big shark and turtle tank with a plexiglass walk underneath. The little tanks were great fun to look at. I loved the seahorses and shrimp, and there were lots of different kinds to see. There was one tank just for baby stingrays next to a bigger stingray pool, with huge rays swimming over giant orange crabs. My favorite little tank housed a group of "upside-down jellyfish," which I'd never even heard of. They were pinkish jellies with short tentacles, but instead of floating with their domes facing down, dangling tentacles, they rested on their domes and waved their tentacles in the water! They were really pretty, like living pink flowers nestled in bright green weeds. I watched them for a long time. One of the funnier fishes I saw was called a "lumpsucker." He was easily the ugliest fish I have ever seen! I also enjoyed watching the flat flounders and different types of colorful little fishes. One of the best parts of the day was when I saw a display labelled "Christmas Tree Worms," which doesn't sound too exciting, but I had seen these creatures on the Discovery Channel around Christmas time and become enchanted. They are little wormy-things that poke out of rocks and stuff, but they are the brightest colors imaginable and they look like little Christmas trees in shades of blue, red, yellow, pink, purple, and orange! I tried to get pictures, but they're hard to photograph because they hide when they feel threatened, and apparently my camera was threatening, but just type in "Christmas Tree Worms" on Google Images and see the pretty pictures. They're really cool little things.

Sea Turtle!

The big shark and fish tank was fun to watch, with the scary sharks and colorful schooling fishes. My favorite moment was after I had had to stand in a long line (or as they say here, long queue) with screaming children for half an hour to get into the plexiglass walkway under the tank to see the fish up close. Just as I stepped into the walkway area, a huge sea turtle swam over my head! Then another one joined it! They were much bigger than I would have guessed. I don't think I've ever seen a sea turtle quite that close before. I wish I had been allowed to use my camera's flash, because it doesn't work very well without it so my pictures are a bit dark and fuzzy. It was a great moment, in spite of the noisy children.

School of glass catfish. They're clear and see-through,
so bigger fish can't see them well enough to eat them.
I've never understood how such a big group of fish could
go invisible, but now after having trouble seeing them
myslef, I understand!

The aquarium also had a freshwater section, where they kept mostly Amazon fish. They were fun to see, because many of them are species I know a lot about from my own freshwater tanks. I loved their huge herd of glass catfish. I've never seen so many schooling together at once, so that was neat. They also had a giant L177 or L018 pleco (I think they're called "Gold Nuggets" as a common name) that was really pretty. I kind of want one for a future tank.

I had a lot of fun at the aquarium, and I'm glad I went, despite the nasty children and their pushover parents. Next time, I just will NOT go on a Sunday!