Aquarium at home

What's going on in the Aquarium?

Even though our buildings aren't open at the moment our fish in the aquarium still need looking after.

A guide to the Aquarium tanks

Pete guides you through some tanks in the aquarium corridor, have you seen these fish before?

Feeding the Peruvian and Indian fish

The Peruvian and Indian tanks get one of their favourite foods... blood worms!

The Stingrays part 1

The sting rays get a broad range of foods, prawns, small crabs, crayfish, shrimps, worms, clams, mussels, small fish and pieces of fish. In this video they're being fed chunks of blue whiting.

We do a lot of research into the natural diet of our fish and use specialist suppliers to replicate this to the best of our ability. Bolton Markets is a great source of foods for our fish also.

Cichlid spawning

There are signs that there could soon be some baby fish appearing! The cichlids are showing spawning activity in the Costa Rica tank whist over in the Amazon tank two geophagus sveni are showing courtship behaviour! 

The Stingrays part 2

Are you missing the stingrays as much as we are? Luckily Pete is keeping us up to date with what's happening in the aquarium. Today they are being fed raw shell-on prawns!

The Indian tank

Our Indian display is one of the favourites for many of the staff here, including our resident fish geek, Pete.

Although it took a lot of research, hard work, bruises and wet clothes to build, it's a living picture full of movement and colour.

The Upside-down Catfish

The giant upside-down catfish can swim upside-down but doesn't always live up to its name. They can swim right-way-up as well, and in our group they seem to make up their minds at random.

In the wild, inverting makes it easier for them to feed on insects at the surface of the water, and also points the venomous fin spines downwards to protect against attack by larger fish.

The Ancient Egyptians wore amulets in the shape of these fish as protection against drowning, and they can be seen in paintings on tomb walls.

Our breeding programme

Our Aquarium has been very successful at breeding some endangered species over the years and we share skills, knowledge and fish across a worldwide network of aquariums. Some of our Mexican fish, Tequila goodeids recently went to Blue Planet Aquarium and you'll be able to see them on display there in the future.

Cleaning our tanks

Today the aquarium team did some essential maintainence on the Indian tank. We clean the glass as often as needed using extra-strong magnetic cleaners or brushes/pads on poles, but some types of algae attach themselves so firmly to the glass that there’s no way round it other than to get in there with a non-scratch scrubbing pad and a bit of elbow grease. The fish are well-used to this and usually just stay out of the way but we do find they get curious and we sometimes have to gently shoo them away so we can get on with it!