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You should try to intern at the Monteray Aquarium before you start teaching. Then you'd have some awsome experience.

yeah, I thought seriously about it. But I have several friends and labmates who work or have worked/interned there. They say it gets old due to underpayment, and chronic under-appreciation of the aquarists. In fact, the aquarists are often at odds with management. It's a shame because that place draws in millions of bucks every year. They should better afford to take care of the folks who are directly responsible for the beauty and health of the exhibits.

After talking with them, I decided I love tank-keeping too much to let myself become jaded over it. I've worked enough low-paying jobs in my life that I know under-appreciation always leads to poor job performance for me. And the most unfortunate side-effect would be that the animals under my care would suffer.

So I've decided to keep it a hobby. Once money and politics corrupt it, there might be no going back for me. A friend once told me to do my first love as a hobby, and pursue my second-greatest love as a career. That way, your true passion remains uncorrupted and never loses its charm. I fully agree with that thinking.

One thing that's funny about public aquariums is that they're on flow-through water. In the case of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, their tanks are basically linked directly to the ocean. The water only gets some minor filtration through a bed of sand, but they want the invert larvae and algae to be intact so that they can colonize the exhibits and make it look more natural. But this also means that they don't have to be as aware of their water parameters as we are when dealing with closed, tank systems. They do test for ammonia and phosphate, but it doesn't have as much bearing as it would for us at home.

In fact, one of my labmates (who's the fella who takes care of the jellyfish exhibit) was AMAZED when I showed him pictures of my setups. He thought what I could do was extremely impressive and too high-maintenance for him to accomplish in his own home. He was also super-excited when I told him I was able to breed ornamental shrimp and have even had some success selling them online. He was like, we always talk about that at work, how it would be so cool if we could make a little $ at it ( , that's literally what he said). He was totally impressed that I had figured out how to raise, breed, market, package, and sell aquatic critters without the professional ties he has.

So it seems it's just a different world, or aspect of tank-keeping. They're curious and amazed at what we we can do with our closed-water systems. Likewise, hobbyists think what they get to do must be the best job in the world.

sorry for rambling. That was just what I've found out about working at a large public display aquarium.

sorry for rambling. That was just what I've found out about working at a large public display aquarium.

If that's rambling then I think I like a little ramble, jk Very interesting information, thanks.

That is the great thing about new people to this world. We try things that everybody knows won't work. Every once in a while it DOES!

The Birch aquarium down in San Diego was the one I was really impressed with. I was a tourist, but one of the keepers showed me around and actually explained some of the problems they were having. There was a shrimp that was breaking their tanks and they were trying to figure out a way to keep them. He actually bothered to explain it to me. They had several fractured tanks then that they were trying to fix.

That place was not about money.

Haha, aren't mantis shrimp neat? I caught one once while shrimping and I thought it was the neatest thing; I had no idea what it was or how much damage it could have done to me for handling it.

yup, sounds like a mantis shrimp to me. Those pack quite a bunch! If you try to keep them in a glass jar, they'll punch right through it.

There was a similar problem a few years back at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. One of the large fish exhibits (rockfish, if I remember correctly?) was having mysterious fish disappearances. The staff was baffled and couldn't figure it out. When they finally uncovered the mystery, turns out a giant octopus was crawling out of its exhibit every night, making its way to the fish tank, and helping itself to a snack on the sly! But it always remembered to find its way home so the aquarists would be none the wiser the next day Octopuses (yes, that's the proper plural of octopus ) are super intelligent.

Neonshrimp wrote: Very interesting information, thanks.

you're welcome
I tend to be talkative, in case you coudn't tell. So I'm just glad someone's listening.