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The Acuario de Veracruz (Veracruz Aquarium) is a
public aquarium A public aquarium (plural: ''public aquaria'' or ''public Water Zoo'') is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept b ...
located in the city of
Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
. It is the biggest aquarium in Mexico and Latin America by area, with more than 7,500 square meters.


History

On the end of the 1980s, talks with the Government of the State of Veracruz were started about the creation of an aquarium that would exhibit local species and boost tourism. In November 1990, the construction of the aquarium started on the ''Playón de Hornos'', place chosen due to its closeness to the touristic area of the city and to its closeness to a nearby source of water. The building was led by Luis Kasuga Osaka, which is regarded as the founder of the aquarium, and Hiroshi Kamio, who also designed the aquarium. The construction was finished on the final months of 1992, and the aquarium was inaugurated on November 13, 1992. The initial building had an area of 3,500 square meters. A first phase of enlargement was held in the year 2000, which included a shark tank, a manatee tank and a terrace in the exterior part of the aquarium. In 2009, the
dolphinarium A dolphinarium is an aquarium for dolphins. The dolphins are usually kept in a pool, though occasionally they may be kept in pens in the open sea, either for research or public performances. Some dolphinariums consist of one pool where dolphins pe ...
was inaugurated with research and conservation purposes. After six months of construction and an investment of 25 million
Mexican peso The Mexican peso (Currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: MXN) is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 16th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use dollar sign, its sign, "$". ...
s, in 2014 the
penguinarium A penguinarium is a vivarium for penguins intended to simulate aspects of their natural environment. Penguinariums date back at least to 1968, when the Detroit Zoo opened the first in North America and possibly the world. The Detroit penguinarium ...
was opened to public.


Exhibits

The Veracruz Aquarium features 9 exhibits, which in total contain more than 250 different species and 3,500 animals.


''Selva de los Tuxtlas''

The first exhibit of the aquarium recreates the jungle zone of the
Los Tuxtlas Los Tuxtlas is a region in the south of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Politically it refers to four municipalities: Catemaco, San Andrés Tuxtla, Santiago Tuxtla and Hueyapan de Ocampo. It also refers to a high complex natural ecosystem, an isol ...
, south of the state of Veracruz, with a waterfall that falls to a pond. A trait of the ''Selva de los Tuxtlas'' exhibit are the jungle trees, in which
keel-billed toucan The keel-billed toucan (''Ramphastos sulfuratus''), also known as sulfur-breasted toucan or rainbow-billed toucan, is a colorful Latin American member of the toucan family. It is the national bird of Belize. The species is found in tropical jungl ...
s and
blue-and-yellow macaw The blue-and-yellow macaw (''Ara ararauna''), also known as the blue-and-gold macaw, is a large South American parrot with mostly blue top parts and light orange underparts, with gradient hues of green on top of its head. It is a member of the la ...
s can be seen. Among the species found on the ''Selva de los Tuxtlas'' are the
boa constrictor The boa constrictor (scientific name also ''Boa constrictor''), also called the red-tailed boa, is a species of large, non-venomous, heavy-bodied snake that is frequently kept and bred in captivity. The boa constrictor is a member of the family B ...
and diverse specimens of
freshwater turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
s.


Freshwater Gallery

The gallery counts with a total volume on 562,177 liters divided in several tanks. More than 30 species of freshwater fishes, reptiles and mammals with origins from the
Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...
,
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
,
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, and several regions of
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
are found on the gallery. The Veracruz Aquarium is the only aquarium that exhibits
blind cave fish The Mexican tetra (''Astyanax mexicanus''), also known as the blind cave fish, blind cave characin, and blind cave tetra, is a freshwater fish of the family Characidae of the order Characiformes. The type species of its genus, it is native to ...
, in a tank that holds the shape of a typical cavern in
San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí), is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and i ...
. Other species exhibited on this gallery are '' pejelagartos'',
arowana Arowanas are freshwater bony fish of the subfamily Osteoglossinae, also known as bony tongues (the latter name is now often reserved for Arapaiminae). In this family of fish, the head is bony and the elongated body is covered by large, heavy sc ...
s and
koi carp or more specifically , are colored varieties of the Amur carp (''Cyprinus rubrofuscus'') that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens. Koi is an informal name for the colored variants of ''C. rubrofuscus'' kept ...
s.


Reef Tank

The reef tank has a cylindrical form, with 13 acrylic windows surrounding 1,250,000 liters of saltwater. Approximately 20 species from the Veracruzano Coral Reef System National Park are exhibited in this tank, including
nurse sharks The Ginglymostomatidae are a cosmopolitan family of carpet sharks known as nurse sharks, containing four species in three genera. Common in shallow, tropical and subtropical waters, these sharks are sluggish and docile bottom-dwellers.
and
grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is u ...
s that have lived more than 17 years,
barracuda A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was ...
s,
white skate The bottlenose skate, spearnose skate, or white skate (''Rostroraja alba'') is a species of skate in the family Rajidae. It is a benthic fish native to the coastal eastern Atlantic Ocean. Due to overfishing, it has been depleted or extirpated ...
s and
tarpon Tarpons are fish of the genus ''Megalops''. They are the only members of the family Megalopidae. Of the two species, one (''M. atlanticus'') is native to the Atlantic, and the other (''M. cyprinoides'') to the Indo-Pacific Oceans. Species a ...
s.


Saltwater Gallery

The saltwater gallery contains 14 tanks with more than 60 specimens, including fishes and invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico,
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
and
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
,
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
and
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. The aquarium also has a live food laboratory in this area, where
brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp. It is the only genus in the family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to the first half of the 10th century AD from Urmia La ...
is grown, used to feed the smaller fishes from the gallery. Every tank contains filtration systems with mechanical, biological filters and UV reactors that maintain the water in optimal conditions.
Green moray The green moray (''Gymnothorax funebris'') is a moray eel of the family Muraenidae, found in the western Atlantic Ocean from New Jersey, Bermuda, and the northern Gulf of Mexico to Brazil, at depths down to . Its length is up to . The common name ...
s, Caribbean spiny lobsters,
remora The remora (), sometimes called suckerfish, is any of a family (Echeneidae) of ray-finned fish in the order Carangiformes. Depending on species, they grow to long. Their distinctive first dorsal fins take the form of a modified oval, sucker-li ...
s, lionfishes and blue tangs are some of the species that are found on the saltwater gallery.


Shark Tank

The shark tank has a volume of 919,000 liters and contains the installations to hold large specimens. Since 2004, an acrylic box became open to the public in order to dive into the tank. Two main shark species are found in the shark tank:
sandbar shark The sandbar shark (''Carcharhinus plumbeus'') also known as the brown shark or thickskin shark, is a species of requiem shark, and part of the family Carcharhinidae, native to the Atlantic Ocean and the Indo-Pacific. It is distinguishable by it ...
s and
tiger shark The tiger shark (''Galeocerdo cuvier'') is a species of requiem shark and the last extant member of the family Galeocerdonidae. It is a large macropredator, capable of attaining a length over . Populations are found in many tropical and tempera ...
s. The Veracruz Aquarium has stood out worldwide for its tiger sharks, which have been kept for periods longer than 7 years. These sharks are exhibited temporarily, as after some time in captivity the tiger sharks are released and tracked by satellite.


Jellyfish Tanks

Opened in 2005, the
jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...
tanks were the first jellyfish exhibit in Latin America. There are 7 species from the coasts of Veracruz and the Gulf of Mexico on the exhibit, including the
moon jellyfish ''Aurelia aurita'' (also called the common jellyfish, moon jellyfish, moon jelly or saucer jelly) is a species of the genus '' Aurelia''. All species in the genus are very similar, and it is difficult to identify ''Aurelia'' medusae without genet ...
,
cannonball jellyfish The cannonball jellyfish (''Stomolophus meleagris''), also known as the cabbagehead jellyfish, is a species of jellyfish in the family Stomolophidae. Its common name derives from its similarity to a cannonball in shape and size. Its dome-shaped ...
, and the
upside-down jellyfish ''Cassiopea'' (upside-down jellyfish) is a genus of true jellyfish and the only members of the family Cassiopeidae. They are found in warmer coastal regions around the world, including shallow mangrove swamps, mudflats, canals, and turtle gra ...
. The gallery contains tanks specifically designed for the jellyfish, with rounded shapes that can facilitate currents and would avoid damaging the organisms. It was also needed to install sophisticated filtration systems that would guarantee the quality of the water, monitored daily.


Manatee Tank

In 1998, the aquarium started keeping
West Indian manatee The West Indian manatee (''Trichechus manatus''), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the eastern US to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it feeds on un ...
s, as the first two orphan manatees arrived from the
Alvarado Lagoon The Alvarado Lagoon System is a large estuary and wetland complex in Veracruz state of eastern Mexico. It is located on the southern Gulf Coastal Plain, where the Papaloapan and Blanco rivers meet the Gulf of Mexico. Geography The lagoon system ...
. Since then, seven manatee specimens have been rehabilitated, and in 2004 the first calf in captivity was born. As of 2020, another two manatee calves have successfully born in the installations. The manatees can be observed from two points, firstly underwater and then above water, where they usually eat lettuce.


Dolphinarium

First of its kind in Mexico, the dolphinarium was opened to the public in 2009. It counts with a main tank and two holding tanks in total the dolphinarium holds 2,500,000 liters of saltwater, with filtration systems and monitoring at every time. At one side of the main tank a clinical laboratory is found, with instrumentation where blood samples can be taken and analyzed from the dolphins. The species of dolphins at the aquarium are
common bottlenose dolphin The common bottlenose dolphin or Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops truncatus'') is a wide-ranging marine mammal of the family Delphinidae. The common bottlenose dolphin is a very familiar dolphin due to the wide exposure it gets in captiv ...
s.


Penguinarium

The penguinarium was inaugurated on July 15, 2014, the first in Mexico. The
Humboldt penguin The Humboldt penguin (''Spheniscus humboldti'') is a medium-sized penguin. It resides in South America, its range mainly contains most of coastal Peru. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Magellanic penguin and the Galápagos pen ...
s can be observed underwater, as well as over the rocks where they can rest. The temperature of the penguinarium must be maintained between 17 and 19 degrees
Celsius The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...
, and fed with the
Peruvian anchoveta The Peruvian anchoveta (''Engraulis ringens'') is a species of fish of the anchovy family, Engraulidae, from the Southeast Pacific Ocean. It has yielded greater catches than any other single wild fish species in the world, with annual harvests ...
. As of 2017, 22 penguins were born in the Veracruz Aquarium, as well as the first penguin born in Mexico.


Gallery


External links

(In Spanish
Official Website of the Veracruz Aquarium


References

{{Zoos of Mexico, state=collapsed Veracruz (city) Aquaria in Mexico