xenith | Melbourne Trip: Part 4 Fishies

Day 2, Aquarium

Been here before but that doesn't matter because that day I was cranky and sick

and penguins are always cool. So are sharks and other weird fishy things. All good.

The Gentoo penguins are nesting. They gather little black rocks into those dish things, and sneak around trying to steal little black rocks from other nests.

Who is actually entertaining who?

I have to mention here that one of our party Really Likes Penguins, but I don't think he's seen real ones before.

At the other end of the tank, I discovered a problem. It seems that penguins underwater move to fast to be photographed. Unlike the same penguins in the same display taken with the same camera two years ago.

I did manager to coax one usable photo out of the camera.

It seems this was the way it was going to be for the whole visit. This was the only decent photo I managed to take of the fish. The others were too far away, too close, too fast, too slow, too dark, too dim.

I did get some interesting photos.

That's a cuttle, I think.

That's an awful photo but it's a cool fishy.

Sister likes to catch the scheduled events. It was feeding time for the eels and turtles that live in the Billabong.

Freshwater crocodile.

I was determined to get some usable photos from the Lagoon by sitting in front of it and putting the camera on the ground.

So a sawfish, which are rays

and a freshwater shark.

Another awful photos but I had to include it :)

Flying whale!

This ramp goes down to the shark display, past the big circular tank

which I got some decent photos of last time but this time, well, you know.

and through the jelly room (repeat previous comment).

Button fish!

Well, there's a shark. (Note the excitement there!)

Rays are cooler anyway!

See!

"What did you do at school today?"
"We went to the aquarium and saw this guy eaten by a giant ray!"

"And then it came after us!"

I think that's a leopard shark, on account of it being in the shark tank and being spotted.

The gift shop is at the end. When you walk in, there are shelves and shelves of penguin merchandise!

We went back in to look at the penguins again, and it was feeding time. But guess who didn't realise until afterwards that their camera was still set for slow shutter speeds?