# the florida aquarium in tampa, fl (lots of pics)



## xgrafcorex (Nov 26, 2006)

went with my parents and brother while i was visiting them for thanksgiving last week.  took a lot of pics, here are a bunch of them.  i thought it was strange they had a snake there.  unfortunately, they only had one.   forgive my lack of knowledge of the scientific names..and even in some cases, common names.  

outside statue/sign 






their lonely rat snake






sign below rat snake enclosure...last i knew, Elaphe guttata guttata was a corn snake...just like in the picture :} 






florida red bellied turtle






yellow crowned night heron






gators











snapping turtle






otters






florida box turtle






yellow crowned night heron






lazy turtles






"glass fish"






?






early aquarium






flounder






barracuda






sting ray






bonnet shark






? rock fish?






?












?






"goliath grouper" said to weigh up to 1000 pounds


















horseshoe crab
















































i'll have to see if my brother remembers what this was from..but it is a magnified view of a tongue






statue outside






one of my favorites, moray eels
















nurse shark? 






?






?

	
	
		
		
	


	





jellyfish























couldn't get any good shots of sharks in the bigger tank, there was a large crowd and a presenter with a REALLY annoying voice..this is the best i could get during the time i could stand the narrator.  bull shark??






more eels...zebra, snowflake, and one dragon






dragon moray











lionfish
























skate eggsac






skate


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## funnylori (Nov 26, 2006)

:worship: WOW! Applause to your aquaria photography skills! It is so difficult for me to get pictures worth keeping when I visit the aquarium.:worship:


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## skinheaddave (Nov 26, 2006)

Agreed!  Impressive photos.  If you did want to get that extra little quality out of them, you should consider getting a polarizing filter to remove the glare from the glass.  That being said, your pictures without such a filter are better than many I've seen that were using the proper kit.  

What size tank were those barracuda in?  Did you see any of them really move?  One of the fish I would definitely love to keep -- but only if I could give them enough room to move at top speed. 

Red rat snake is another common name for the corn snake.  After all, what's in a common name?

Cheers,
Dave


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## reptscue (Nov 26, 2006)

Great pictures!
Got a correction for you... The one you labled as a blue heron and the unknown are both yellow-crowned night herons.


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## xgrafcorex (Nov 27, 2006)

thanks everyone!  this was my first time taking pics at an aquarium..but i've had practice taking pics of critters through glass at home..and i took a few of my neighbors aquarium once.  i'll have to look into that polarizing filter...the glare was the worst part about taking photos there.




skinheaddave said:


> What size tank were those barracuda in?  Did you see any of them really move?  One of the fish I would definitely love to keep -- but only if I could give them enough room to move at top speed.


nope, unfortunately just were fairly stationary.  no darting around at anything.  

i'm not really sure how big the tank was, but it was very big!!  kind of an odd shaped enclosure to fit the space available.  a rough guess would be that the tank was 15 to 20 feet in length, the water level was about 4 feet high, and the tank was about 4 or 5 feet wide.  just a guess from my memory of the enclosure heh.  

thanks reptscue, i was actually fairly busy taking pics, and didn't get around to reading each sign..and some of them i did read just didn't make it into permanent memory.


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## maxident213 (Nov 27, 2006)

Those are great pictures, I love the eels.  :clap:


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## james41777 (Nov 27, 2006)

very nice pictures...
I think I've been there seven years ago!


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## Mr. Mordax (Nov 27, 2006)

Sweet!  I need to go there sometime.  Your photos make the Oregon Coast Aquarium look like nothing.


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## Lorgakor (Dec 20, 2006)

Great pics!

That last shark isn't a bull shark it is a Sandtiger shark. Otherwise known as Snaggletooth/Raggedtooth shark. Very common in aquariums.


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## Loaf (Dec 24, 2006)

Yeah, I would have to agree with everyone else, nice pics!!!!!!!!!
You did a really good job with the aquarium shots!


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## Loaf (Dec 24, 2006)

IHeartMantids said:


> Sweet!  I need to go there sometime.  Your photos make the Oregon Coast Aquarium look like nothing.


Sweet! A fellow Oregonian!


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## xgrafcorex (Dec 25, 2006)

thanks!   yea, i wasn't sure about that shark..bull was my best guess.  i wanted to spend some more time looking at the sharks..but there was just such a large crowd of people..i just took a minute to look and then kept moving.  

one of these days i'm gonna take a trip down to the miami aquarium.  its probably about an hour..maybe a little farther away from my house.  from the looks of it on google earth, its pretty big!  i'll be sure to take pics and post them.


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## Brian F. (Dec 27, 2006)

Great pics.  That snake is an Everglades ratsnake (Elaphe obsoleta rosselini?).  Pretty common down there, I would imagine.


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## tarsier (Dec 28, 2006)

Awesome pictures!!!  :drool: 

Wish I could go to that place someday.

And here are some IDs for some of the fish (sorry, not really good with scientific names either):

stone fish






trumpet mouth






a puffer






a cowfish with a bunch of garden eels






you are right about the nurse shark. the pic after that is another stonefish, then a leafy seadragon (from Australia i think).


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## Tleilaxu (Jan 17, 2007)

I think there were several rat snakes in that cage and the one you photographed was an everglades rat snake.


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## Axlrose (Oct 22, 2007)

Pterophyllum scalare

beautiful screens


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## craig84 (Oct 22, 2007)

Looks nice. I have been there several times but its like $30 for a ticket right? And its all the same stuff


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## xgrafcorex (Oct 22, 2007)

thanks axl.

craig -  i think it's close to 40 bucks...to be honest though, i was visiting my parents at the time and they paid so i'm not sure.    they had some coupon(s?) which helped out a bit.  i've only been once or twice, and if i have been twice..the first time was a number of years ago.  so i can't really comment on it all being the same..if you recognize all that stuff then you're probably right.  i'm sure every so often they have a special event or something that might bring in some new stuff to see.


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## wolfpak (Oct 23, 2007)

tarsier said:


> Awesome pictures!!!  :drool:
> 
> /IMG_6855s.jpg[/IMG]
> 
> ...


those are gobies and boxfish


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## PhilK (Oct 25, 2007)

Plenty of mis-diagnosed I.Ds but that's OK! So many Australian natives there! Weird..


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## Sunset (Aug 11, 2009)

tarsier the last pic you forgot the gobeys to


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## DDaake (Oct 9, 2009)

Great pics. I especially like the reef aquarium and jellyfish pics, but the Snook pics (behind the ray).......Yummy! Although I can't seem to catch any myself. I'm not much of a fisherman. Thx D


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## Big Red TJ (Oct 9, 2009)

wolfpak said:


> those are gobies and boxfish


Actually pearly jaw fish and a boxfish...and the puffer is an atlantic puffer just my 2 cents......


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## sharpfang (Oct 11, 2009)

*I gotta penny too!*

Pearly jaw fish.....they are fun....Make mess of sand though.....bury rocks deep!..........Jason
	

		
			
		

		
	

View attachment 81006


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## Lucas339 (Mar 6, 2010)

Midnight Cowboy said:


> Actually pearly jaw fish and a boxfish...and the puffer is an atlantic puffer just my 2 cents......


its actually a stripped bur fish.

we don't really refer to them as trumpet mouths.  we call the trumpet fish.

the "tounge" photo isn't a tounge of anything.  it is the radula to a gastropod.


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## Herpetologydude (Mar 6, 2010)

xgrafcorex said:


> w
> 
> i'll have to see if my brother remembers what this was from..but it is a magnified view of a tongue


This Looks like a Radula from some species of Mollusk (i'd venture to guess a snail) Its like a little grinding mouth part they use


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## Lucas339 (Mar 7, 2010)

as i said.  a radula from a gastropod.....

<----mollusk taxonomist.....


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## Herpetologydude (Mar 8, 2010)

Lucas339 said:


> as i said.  a radula from a gastropod.....
> 
> <----mollusk taxonomist.....


Haha Didn't even see your post before  I just replied when I saw the picture on the 1st page!

So it is a gastropod radula then, My Invertebrate zoology class served me well last semester


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## D3AdB0DYMAN (Jul 13, 2010)

nice photos


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## Miss Bianca (Jul 16, 2010)

Yes, these _are_ great. 
Would like to visit that aquarium next time I'm in FL.


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## cannabeast (Jul 20, 2010)

very nice pictures, i especially liked the baby gators! thanks for the great photos!


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