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London Zoo.... back stage.

Iain Sutherland

Iain Sutherland

Global Moderator
UKAPS Team
Joined
7 Jul 2011
Messages
3,744
Location
Cambridge
Hey folks, i was lucky enough to receive an invite from a friend to go and visit him at work in the Aquarium at London Zoo. I finally got round to it yesterday and to say it was amazing would be an understatement!! It really was a fantastic experience seeing the inner workings of just keeping so many tanks running let alone thriving in the way they do. I can honestly say that the fish health was remarkable with many tanks breeding unassisted.

While a lot of what they do goes right over my head it was fascinating to see the work being done to maintain communities of fish that are now sadly extinct in the wild or their habits seriously threatened.

Whenever i have talked about it with him over a beer it always seemed like a dream job, working with aquatics everyday and getting to talk to people about it, aside the terrible pay i was ready to hand in my notice!!
Now, having visited it is clear how difficult it is. With all back of house areas being maintained at 30+ C, humidity levels through the roof, water changing all tanks daily with most smaller tanks (still 100lts min) being done by bucket!, the responsibility that if you syphon up one fish it could be 5% of the worlds population, glass cleaning all display tanks daily etc... you get the idea, safe to say ill be in hospitality a while longer!

On the plus side, feeding huge arapaima whole almonds, crickets etc will never get boring. Just watch were you put your fingers as they smash open whole brasil nuts like they are satsumas!!
15455568599_dc36b20424_b.jpgIMG_5244 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

Aside from the aquarium i would also say the zoo is fantastic, far more interesting that most zoos and safari parks ive been too.
Id very much recommend it if your looking for a day out!!

Ill put up a few my fave pics and personal highlights of the day but if you want to see the others then follow the flickr link to the album :)
No photos of the tigers, gorillas etc while the conservation work they are doing is sadly now vital i dont see anything pretty with caging in the background etc...

seahorse breeding
15456064128_8d99d46fb2_b.jpgIMG_5017 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15021455254_b9ba7d90d8_b.jpgIMG_5275 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15618465326_229c19f4d9_b.jpgIMG_5357 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15455537419_2231527150_b.jpgIMG_5353 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15456611250_b7cbc54366_b.jpgIMG_5349 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15642207695_e18865fce5_b.jpgIMG_5279 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15643013122_e5dca49aa9_b.jpgIMG_5256 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15022054583_68e363b7ae_b.jpgIMG_5233 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15021485114_8ec0478d97_b.jpgIMG_5209 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15021486594_117bb36807_b.jpgIMG_5205 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15643072102_deea17a9ee_b.jpgIMG_5185 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15642261205_845d30803b_b.jpgIMG_5117 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15455613699_dd37c48161_b.jpgIMG_5106 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

Huge amounts of corals that the zoo receives from customs seizures...
15456284307_a5f57e5289_b.jpgIMG_5100 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15021525804_ea60ea7058_b.jpgIMG_5090 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

huge arowana tank...
15456293807_f769460dcb_b.jpgIMG_5085 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

all of the fresh water tanks have riparium gutters to suck up nutrients and pollutants.
15643087552_48e53c2557_b.jpgIMG_5127 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

breeding extinct in the wild species
15456707110_18ae97b5a8_b.jpgIMG_5075 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15639593881_f28863678d_b.jpgIMG_5074 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

how do you fancy cleaning all these every day? most tanks have about a 4" gap along the back to get into them.
15021542034_db518926d5_b.jpgIMG_5061 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15456165848_d75bd0a814_b.jpgIMG_5031 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

15643132952_e32d23eb5d_b.jpgIMG_5028 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

2 TMC 1000 tiles running a 10,000ltr cichlid display tank :)
15643088922_186fcb3d8c_b.jpgIMG_5123 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr
 
Looks awesome. Wouldn't mind some of their seized corals right enough :p I didn't realise they weren't allowed to import them?
 
Thanks for sharing this with us. You are right it is an awsome place. I took my two young children to London zoo a couple of years ago and the whole family loved it. I would love to go back on my own so I can have a proper look at every thing.
 
Whilst its a little further than my local zoos, I reckon this one is getting a visit from my kids. Looks really quite impressive. :D
 
That one seriously interesting job but a huge responsibility. Love the pacu and valis pic, they are pacu?
 
Vey nice insight,Iain. I'm sure Luis would be keen to see how the piranha planted tank has progressed.. I thought they had removed most the vallis and had rescaped with lots of wood, anubias, bolbitus and so on, somewhat confused ?
 
Jealous!
 
I did work for a Zoo for app 2 years, sadly they didn't have a huge aquarium that time, though they have one now. They did have a few smaller ones, and 10 million guppies in the ponds in the greenhouse
 
Edvet said:
Could you elaborate on the riparium gutter bit?
Water from the tank overflows in that i guess, bot how do they keep out fish, leaflitter etc or does it all go in?
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as i understand it, there is a 2" deep and 4" wide channel that runs along the back, has a little substrate in and what looks like coco fibre where terrestrial plants are kept. The filter return has a bypass where some is returned at one end of the channel and flows by gravity back into the tank.
Same as emersed growth but with the ease of not having root systems in the tanks.

Claire said:
Looks awesome. Wouldn't mind some of their seized corals right enough :p I didn't realise they weren't allowed to import them?
Click to expand...
i know what you mean, its a shame they cant sell them as they could support the aquarium via sales but as a charity its not allowed. Corals can be imported but as always some people will collect corals from protected sites etc and as such dont have the necessary paperwork to be imported. No doubt some of the species were restricted from import though.
Saying that, as the building is so amazingly dilapidated (its amazing it hasnt been shut down with concrete falling from the ceilings etc...) there are distant plans afoot for something new with one phase being a HUGE reef tank which even the hundreds of corals they have wouldnt come close to filling.
Can see all the netting needed to catch the falling ceilings in one of the pics...

Edvet said:
Nice pics in the Flickr too!
What do they have over the tanks? look like large halogen building lights?
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yep, huge halogens. The cost of running them must be crazy. They do a good job of heating the place though!

drodgers said:
Lovely images and really glad you showed the workings behind the scenes Thank You!
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Jamie McGrath said:
Thanks for sharing this with us. You are right it is an awsome place. I took my two young children to London zoo a couple of years ago and the whole family loved it. I would love to go back on my own so I can have a proper look at every thing.
Click to expand...
Angharad said:
Whilst its a little further than my local zoos, I reckon this one is getting a visit from my kids. Looks really quite impressive. :D
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pleasure guys, well worth the trip. There were at least 15 planted tanks but the reflections on a lot were so bad it wasnt worth posting them.

kirk said:
That one seriously interesting job but a huge responsibility. Love the pacu and valis pic, they are pacu?
Click to expand...
red belly piranha, which i never knew were almost black as adults. There is a lot of fighting in some off the tanks and the piranhas really tear each other to pieces.... My friend was saying that its amazing how hard they are as they can literally have half their head bitten off and they carry on and it grows back.
Tough day for this guy!
15021483934_31bd4900e3_c.jpgIMG_5212 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

Andy D said:
Great thread Iain! :)
You should stick it on PFK too.
Click to expand...
cheers andy, will do.

Trevor Pleco said:
Vey nice insight,Iain. I'm sure Luis would be keen to see how the piranha planted tank has progressed.. I thought they had removed most the vallis and had rescaped with lots of wood, anubias, bolbitus and so on, somewhat confused ?
Click to expand...
think louis tank was at the london aquarium. Not taking anything away from their piranha tank, london zoo aquarium was far more interesting but i guess i did see far more than most....

Martin in China said:
How cool is that....
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very :p

interesting story with this little guy...
his name is Number 1, he has been trained to swim into a cup to be moved from tank to tank in order to eat aiptasia (pest anemones)
He is so good at it now they use him to train other butterflies to do the same :)
15456279707_856395cc66_c.jpgIMG_5105 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr

Also meant to mention that this tank is now the home for my old Snakeskin Barbs and Emerald eye raspora. I could not believe how big they are!! Tai feeds them, as with most of the fish, three times a day with one fast day.
I couldnt of been any happier to see them in such a great home that looked so natural.
15022081633_04fbfe8d1b_c.jpgIMG_5175 by iainsutherland24, on Flickr
 
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Love the hire-out copperband too :D They can be really hard to get to eat anything other than aiptasia so many die in captivity. Nice to see one being properly maintained :)
 
Trevor Pleco said:
the copperband looked quite thin to me ..
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Did a little, he's been there 4 yrs so think hes just fine. As luck would have it the day I visited was fast day for all fish, we did break the rules with the fun ones though like the Arowana, arapaima and piranha :)
 
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