As you’re being mesmerized by the beautiful array of creatures swimming over your head, it’s sometimes easy to miss the finer details.

What is the Fish Cam series?

The Fish Cam series is a new video film series that hopes to highlight the fish in the Aquarium that are often overlooked. This video below was filmed in the Ocean Tunnel in our Coral Seas Exhibit.

How many fish can you spot?

Where was this Fish Cam filmed?

Our Coral Seas display is the centerpiece of the Aquarium. This spectacular display themed on a warm water coral reef provides an awe-inspiring home to over 250 marine animals!

At over 250,000 liters this massive display is where our Cownose Rays can be found patrolling the reef alongside cleaner wrasse, eels, oriental sweetlips, soldierfish, and numerous other colourful species.

And of course, the reef wouldn’t be complete without Nemo and Dory!

You’ll get to witness the heart of a coral reef filled with colourful sea anemones and corals. There’s also a special floor-to-ceiling viewing window at the end of the tunnel. Spot the pufferfish, rays, eels and tropical fish who all call this reef home.

We’re hoping the introduction of our Fish Cam will help guests see a range of animals that they may normally miss on their visits.

Come and join us for the Easter holidays as we embark on our Prehistoric Sealife adventure! We’re taking visitors back in time to learn all about the ancient rulers of the sea.

Book your tickets here!

Learn about some of the features and behaviors that make these creatures so strange, as well as the challenges they face in todays ever threatened marine environment. Filmed in-house around our very own seahorse tanks, with production, editing, and narration all done by one of our Guest Experience Assistants and amateur filmmaker Billy Tonkin.

Piper has been in quarantine for 5 weeks, being trained and getting prepared to enter their new home. Piper, short for Maris Piper, is named to carry on the theme of potatoes! Our other pufferfish’ are called King Edward and Spud.

This month, Piper took the plunge as our Aquarists moved it from the acclimation tank to the Coral Seas tank.

Jennifer Vowles, our brilliant Displays Supervisor said: “Piper is doing really well in its new home! It’s a very cute and curious creature, Piper only took a day to pick up our hoop training so it’s very clever too.

“Piper is a Porcupine Pufferfish, so it has spines on its body. Piper sucks in water to its stomach, and that’s how it inflates. We’re all proud of Piper for settling into their new tank so well.

Click here to watch a previous pufferfish after being hoop trained!

The focus of Alicia’s art is marine life. Untamed uses art to explore our oceans – wild, untamed, and unexplored ecosystems, which are increasingly under threat from us. 

The exhibition will showcase around 35 art pieces, primarily exploring marine artivism as well as pieces that showcase the wider natural world.

We caught up with Alicia to ask her a couple of questions about Untamed!

Why did you want to exhibit Untamed at Bristol Aquarium?

In October Chloe, [Chloe O’Dell, Operations Supervisor – Catering and Functions at Bristol Aquarium] and I were chatting about the importance of engaging people with marine life and conservation through art. I mentioned that I had several pieces exploring marine wildlife, and Chloe was excited about the prospect of putting together an exhibition together at the aquarium!

When putting together “Untamed”, I wanted to focus on marine life, but include some pieces from the wider natural world. As I was curating the exhibition off the back of my first solo wildlife art exhibition “Exploring Artivism”, it was important to me that “Untamed” felt like it was building on some of the areas explored previously – namely artivism – as well as introducing new concepts and artworks.

Do you have a favourite piece that is on display at Bristol Aquarium?

That’s such a difficult question! I think all of my pieces have been favourites at some point, and I think whenever I first finish a piece, that artwork automatically becomes my favourite for a while. Having said this, I think I have three pieces which I really love at the Bristol Aquarium:

“Losing their Spot” is one of my most recent pieces – I started drawing cheetahs regularly when producing animations for my short film “The Watchman”; since then I’ve enjoyed exploring cheetahs in my artwork too. I loved painting “Losing their Spot” as I found working on a round canvas really fun, and I enjoyed using bright colours to draw attention to the piece.

I also really love “The Slow Dance”. As it’s such a big piece, consisting of 8 A2 panels, I’d not seen it up before exhibiting it, so it’s been a really special experience finally seeing it come together.

And of course, “When the Whale Sang” has a really special place in my heart, as a pivotal piece which gave me the confidence to delve into artistic science communication and artivism.

‘When the Whale Sang.’ Won the ‘Human Impact’ category in David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the year 2021. Can you tell us what inspired this piece and the message exploring marine life you hope people will take away from it?

“When the Whale Sang” was created in June 2020 using biro – I was doing the British Ecological Society (BES)’s undergraduate summer school, and one of our assignments was to write a blog post communicating a scientific research paper. I decided to do mine on how noise pollution affects cetaceans, as it’s an issue which has always fascinated me; filmmaker Annie Moir create a beautiful short film “A Voice above Nature” which explored this area – she visualised noise pollution in her film, and I thought this was a really different approach!

I knew that I wanted to illustrate my blog post as part of the summer school, and I had recently been exploring the work of Martin Aveling, and was particularly struck by a beautiful artivism piece of his where a tiger turns into a barcode, reflecting the fur trade. So the piece was a combination of inspiration from the BES, Annie, and Mart!

The aim of the piece is to illustrate the effect noise pollution has on cetaceans such as humpback whales. Anthropogenic marine noise pollution affects their communication, meaning they struggle to navigate, find food, avoid predators, and locate potential mates. Noise pollution is caused by everything from fishing practises to military sonar, and it is an issue which is all too often overlooked due to its invisible nature – so I hope that by visualising the noise pollution in a dramatic but beautiful way, it will provoke people to think about this issue, and focus on what we can do to tackle it.

Why did you decide to study Biological Sciences at Oxford university?

I’ve wanted to work in the wildlife film industry since I was about 13, and so I wanted to study Biology, as I thought this would be the best foundation for me to do this. Additionally, I love Biology – specifically zoology, ecology, conservation, and ornithology – so I wanted to study it in-depth at degree level! Studying at Oxford has also always been an aspiration of mine. I liked the collegiate aspect of the university, and the fact the degree encourages and hones your writing skills through essays. I love writing and the arts – so the course at Oxford allowed me to incorporate these skills as much as possible within the science degree.

Studying a Master’s in Wildlife Filmmaking at UWE Bristol, have you been inspired by the nature at Bristol at all?

Absolutely! I used to live in Frenchay, so I was surrounded by wildlife – kingfishers, green woodpeckers, jays, foxes, buzzards, and lots of warblers and smaller bird species! Wildlife and nature can be very therapeutic and relaxing, as well as deeply inspiring. Often, I come back with art and writing ideas after walking in nature. Most notably, my illustrated poetry mini-collections are all inspired by the nature I’ve encountered on my doorstep – be that in Bristol or elsewhere. My most recent collection “Sing for me, your sweet, sweet song” was inspired by the birds I used to hear singing on Frenchay Moor.

Your exhibition ‘Untamed’ explores our ocean and marine life. What do you think the biggest challenge is for creatures of the deep?

There are lots of issues facing our marine and ocean life, and deep-sea species are no exception. Deep sea mining is one of the most prominent threats, causing habitat destruction, pollution, and noise pollution; as well as climate change causing warming waters around the globe. Chemical pollutants and oil spills are hugely damaging to marine life, suffocating reefs and mangroves, and dooming marine life to slow deaths. The biggest challenge faced for all marine life is humans – and our multi-pronged impact on their ecosystems.

Art is a powerful tool that gets important messages across in a creative way. What do you hope to achieve with ‘Untamed’?

I hope that “Untamed” makes people stop and think about our oceans. So often we forget about our seas – but they are our biggest form of carbon storage, home to over 240,000 known species, and over 80% unexplored. We have so much to learn from our wild, untameable ocean – and I hope that “Untamed” reflects this.

You can come to Bristol Aquarium to view ‘Untamed’ until the 10th of February. You do not need to buy a ticket to enter Bristol Aquarium to see Alicia’s artwork.

Could you tell us about your role at Bristol Aquarium? What does your typical day-to-day look like, and what are your responsibilities?

My role at Bristol Aquarium is an Aquarist. This means it’s my job to look after all the animals and their tanks, feeding them, keeping them clean, and ensuring all the animals are happy and cared for as part of the zoological team.
The first thing we do every day is go around the whole aquarium and check that all the equipment for each tank is working and that all the fish are nice and healthy.
Next, we prepare the day’s food for each fish according to a strict diet plan, sometimes adding extra vitamins or creating enrichment by placing food inside things or on things for the animals to find and graze on. Each tank, or sometimes even specific fish, has a labelled pot their food goes into.
Throughout the day, we then work on a variety of tasks like scrubbing algae off of the inside of tanks, feeding the fish, educating visitors and answering their questions, doing some maintenance on the tank equipment, and checking and testing the water quality.

What qualifications and skills are required to become an aquarist?

It’s helpful to have a BSc in Marine Biology or a biological science, however, it’s not a requirement if you can show relevant experience.
What is essential, however, is experience in working (or volunteering) in an aquarium, fish shop, hatchery or anywhere that keeps fish. If you keep fish tanks at home that is also really good experience, but I would recommend also getting experience from elsewhere.
Useful skills to have include organisation, record-keeping, creativity, an eye for detail and to be a practical person who enjoys working with their hands. It is also very important to be a caring individual.

What three pieces of advice would you give to someone pursuing a career as an aquarist?

First, start volunteering as soon as you can! If you can’t volunteer in an aquarium, then your local fish shop is a great alternative.
Next, it’s well worth keeping a fish tank at home. Not only will this give you experience of working with and caring for fish, but it also shows a genuine passion and interest in the job.
And on that note, I’d definitely say it’s a career for passionate people. The hours include regular weekend work and the occasional late night. People should also be aware that it’s not necessarily a high-earning career path; people do it for the love of the job over anything else.

From a career point of view, is there any extracurricular experience young people can gain which can supplement their efforts to becoming an aquarist?

Some kind of dive qualification is useful, but not essential, for jobs in some aquariums.
Public speaking skills can be beneficial, as the job often requires you to deliver talks or workshops. Of course, experience working with the public in a customer service-based job is also a really valuable asset – ensuring that you can provide the very best visitor experience when interacting with guests.

Are there any resources or organisations you’d recommend where people can find help and advice on entering the aquarist field?

Here are a few organisations and courses I’d recommend for anyone looking to pursue a career as an aquarist:

• DMZAA
• BIAZA
• E-Aquarist online course

What would you say is your favourite exhibit within the aquarium?

My favourite exhibit is our second largest tank – the Coral Seas. It’s a beautiful, tropical saltwater tank with four different viewing areas, which not only give you the chance to see our larger animals, including Sheila the giant grouper and our four honeycomb moray eels, but also the creatures that live in the crevices of the coral, including our smallest (but very important) fish, the cleaner wrasse.
First, you get to see it from above by walking over a bridge. Then, there’s a huge concave bubble which you can reach out into, providing a truly unique perspective. Next, you can go underneath it through an underwater tunnel, and lastly, there is a floor-to-ceiling window where you can sit and watch the fish.
 

Do you have a favourite species at the aquarium? And which animals are the most interesting to work with?

My favourite species is our pufferfish! I really enjoy working with them because they have such sweet faces and expressive eyes and are also super clever.
We have trained them to eat from a coloured floating hoop at the surface of the water. Marky, our starry puffer, eats from a blue hoop and Simon, our porcupine puffer, eats from a white hoop.
I personally find the animals that respond to animal training the most interesting to work with, for example, our groupers. We have two species of grouper that we have target trained. A giant grouper named Sheila that comes to a black cross on a white background for her food, and our three Atlantic wreckfish, which follow a blue ball as their target for food.

If you could introduce one animal into the aquarium, regardless of size and practicality, which species would it be and why?

I would have a pitch-black display to house UK ctenophores, which are bioluminescent!
The display could teach people about the deep sea and the creatures which create their own light.
 

In your view, what makes Bristol Aquarium special? And what tips and advice would you give to visitors on how to make the most of their experience?

The large native display is, in my opinion, one of the great assets of Bristol Aquarium. I think it’s important to show what amazing wildlife can be found here in the UK, right on our doorsteps.
For visitors, I would recommend going around in the morning, have lunch, and then go around again, because the animals move around and display different behaviours throughout the day.
For example, most shark species are nocturnal, and so become more active in the afternoon. I would also recommend asking our staff questions. Everyone in the aquarium, from our guest experience staff to our zoological team, will be able to share some amazing animal facts with you and your family.

Special thanks to Stacey for taking the time to fill us in on her role here at Bristol Aquarium. If you’d like to drop by and say hello to Stacey and our wonderful animals, visit the homepage for information on tickets and opening hours

To purchase tickets at 10% off please click here.

Ask the Aquarium

Bristol Aquarium is a centre for education, leisure and entertainment. We share our knowledge of the oceans to inspire the next generation of budding enthusiasts, talking about the fascinating creatures that live in our seas and the issues that they face on a daily basis. As we are asked such interesting visitor questions we thought  it was important to share a selection of these answers with everyone.
This month’s Ask the Aquarium blog features one of our most enigmatic creatures – our Electric Eel called Bolt! Bolt is one of our fan favourites for a variety of reasons: she comes with her own backstory which we will share with you here, she’s large in size and lurks in the dimly-lit shallows and the fact that she can produce strong electrical charges is in itself a wonder! Electric Eels are capable of emitting a 500-600 volt shock in order to stun their prey.
This month, Joely age 24 asks us why our Electric Eel is kept in such a small display and comments that she looked like she barely had any room to move.
We often get comments about Bolt’s display so we found this was the perfect opportunity to tell you more about this amazing creature and about her display!
At Bristol Aquarium we aim to provide naturally-themed displays wherever possible to simulate the natural environment, from our coastline displays and stretches of river to our coral reefs. This enables our animals to exhibit their natural behaviours such as whether to hide, graze algae on rocks or lay eggs.
Electric Eels are from South America and inhabit swampy outlets and shallow floodplains of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.

There are a few reasons why these smaller spaces are best suited for an Electric Eel. Firstly, they use their electricity to stun prey which includes fish, insects, birds and small mammals! The smaller the volume of water, the more effective the electrical shock will be. If Electric Eels were to inhabit large open waters they would not be able to hunt as efficiently. The second reason these smaller murky spaces are ideal habitats is because Electric Eels have poor eyesight and cannot see far in front of them so they can maximise on occupying these areas.
The tank that we have at Bristol Aquarium is 3500 litres of warm fresh water and is actually deceptively shaped to offer our visitors the best viewing. From the front, we offer a letterbox-type view into the display however it is much bigger than you would think!

Below is a picture of the tank from ‘behind the scenes’ where you can see that it is actually triangular-shaped and offers further space at the back.

We have to be very careful when we are behind her tank due to her being a dangerous species to work with. Our aquarist team wear rubber gloves and stand on rubber mats whenever we feed her and Bolt actually shares her tank with some tiny fish which clean up all the algae and detritus at the bottom of the tank so that we don’t have to go in and clean as much!
As a zoological institution, animal welfare is at the forefront of everything we do from caring for our animals to ensuring that their displays are suitable and protected from any external influences. With this in mind, we are required to have zoological vet visits at least twice a year and these aim to scrutinise everything from our feeding regimes, health checks and also the environments our animals live in. Our zoo vet is more than happy with the size and suitability of our Electric Eel display as with all the rest of our displays.
As previously mentioned, Bolt came to us with a backstory. She was found by Heathrow Airport customs officers smuggled into the UK in somebody’s suitcase. The reason for this was to supply her into the pet trade for private sale. She was sadly found folded up in this person’s suitcase and if you take a close look at her she has a small kink in her back from being positioned in this way. After extensive quarantining she needed to be responsibly rehomed and we were in the fortunate position to have the ideal display for her to live in.
See Bolt in our Edge of Rainforest zone at Bristol Aquarium along with Red Bellied Piranhas, Blind Cave Fish, Archer Fish and our Poison Dart Frogs! Our Edge of Rainforest zone is just one of seven fully-themed areas within the aquarium offering a glimpse into the natural environments of the underwater world.

Olivia Orchart, Zoological Manager at Bristol Aquarium said: “They love the sand on the bottom of the display bed. You have to look closely for them as they are often buried, the give away is that they keep forgetting to bury their tail!”
Bristol Aquarium also has three more thornback rays in the nursery tank to add to the display this summer, once they are big enough. The fever of rays should be fully grown in around five years time and each one can grow up to 1.2metres long.

The name thornback comes from the sharp spines that they have over their back and down their tail. Mature females also have them on the underside of their body.
These rays are found in the coastal waters of UK and Europe including the Bristol Channel. Studies from the Bristol Channel have shown that along with the dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula) this is one of the most important elasmobranch species with regards to the local ecology.
Thornback rays are classified as Near Threatened. This is possibly due to the fact that they live in localised populations that are subjected to heavy fishing pressure.
Bristol Aquarium is open daily from 10am and children under three go free. For more information about our Bay of Rays please click here or call the Aquarium team on 0117 929 8929.

The seahorse is unusual in the animal kingdom in that it is the male rather than the female which carries the babies and gives birth to them via a special brood pouch on their stomach.
The female seahorse lays her eggs in the male’s pouch. He then fertilises them and incubates them until they’re ready to emerge into the great outdoors.
“With his first batch the male only gave birth to seven! The largest number we have now had so far has been around 50. The number of babies the male can have is directly proportional to his size – the bigger he is, the more he can produce,” she added.
In the wild virtually all of the approximate 35 species of seahorse are now under threat from a variety of sources. These include loss of habitat, pollution, the souvenir trade and traditional Far East medicine – believed to account for the deaths of more than 20 million seahorses annually.
The lined seahorses at the Bristol Aquarium are part of a captive-breeding programme which aims to ease the pressure on wild populations.
Bristol Aquarium hopes to put these new arrivals on display soon so visitors can see just how successful the breeding of these lined seahorses has been.
This weekend, Bristol Aquarium is celebrating Seahorse Weekend (Saturday 29th April – Monday 1st May) where visitors can learn all about these incredibly magical creatures! With extra talks, feeds and activities throughout the weekend, there is lots for the whole family to get involved with.
Bristol Aquarium is open daily from 10am and children under three go free. For more information about Seahorse Weekend please click here or call the Aquarium team on 0117 929 8929.

Cushion Stars (Asterina gibbosa) have been living at the Harbourside attraction since 2012 and the team at the Aquarium have been successfully breeding them every year since.
As well as starfish being incredibly popular with visitors they also have another very useful habit – eating the waste produced by juvenile seahorses – and so are incredibly popular with Bristol Aquarium’s team of Aquarists too.
Olivia Orchart, Head of the Zoological Team said: “Our juvenile seahorses eat a lot and so regularly it can be quite time consuming to continuously keep the display looking good.
Olivia added: “We love breeding starfish so much because they help us do our job!”

These starfish are known as protandrous hermaphrodites, meaning that the small or young individuals are males but as they become older and increase in size they develop into females.
Cushion Stars are found in the Mediterranean and around all British coasts except the area from Lincolnshire to Hampshire.
Bristol Aquarium has a number of successful breeding programmes in place from sharks to seahorses. Bristol Aquarium is an all weather attraction open to all from 10am daily. To find out more or buy discounted tickets please click here or call 0117 929 8929.