The Barcelona Aquarium

On our Birthday we wished to go to the Barcelona Zoo but unfortunately started to late and all the park spaces were full. We were tired of driving around (parking around the Zoo area is a nightmare) so we decided to go to the Barcelona Aquarium instead, which was not a bad idea, for the Aquarium is actually the second most visited tourist atraction in Barcelona. 

The Mediterranean tanks show you the largest and most important Aquarium in the world for this kind of Sea Life.
In the Oceanarium there were sharks and stingrays swimming past and above us when we walked through an underwater glass tunnel. The sharks are the stars of the Aquarium.
Everywhere we saw amazing species and their fascinating adaptations to the sea life.

Adaptations and Curiosities

They say that the Common Octopus is the animal that changes colour the fastest and that it also has a similar intelligence to that of a puppy as it has a real brain and its eyes are capable of distinguishing shapes and colours.

The Horseshoe Crab is considered a living fossil that has remained unaltered for 300 million years. They are predators that live on other invertebrates and molluscs, which they discover by digging in the sand. They eat them whole and then regurgitate the shells and other hard, undigestable parts, and they can also eat seaweed. Its blood is blue and possesses extraordinary immunological properties of interest to the biomedical industry.

A fascinating world of colours opens up under the sea in the Tropical Tanks.
 
The Clown Anemonefish is a gregarious animal, living, like all clowns, in symbiosis with the anemones. The fish protect themselves among the poisonous tentacles of the anemones while the anemones take advantage of the pieces of food their guests drop while feeding. Other benefits of the clown anemonefish for the anemones are that they eat their parasites and air them to create increased water circulation around them, oxygenating them.
Doesn’t it remind you of Nemo in the cartoon film? In fact this character is inspired in this species.

The Blue Surgeonfish starts its life almost entirely yellow. Little by little the intense blue colour spreads from the front of the body to the tail as the fish becomes adult. The tail, which remains yellow, has a couple of sharp needles the fish uses to defend itself, the so-called scalpels, and this is why they are called surgeonfish.

Tropical poisonous and aggressive fishes

Many species of fish have developed mechanisms to defend themselves from predators, such as poisons needles, electrical discharges or aggressive behaviour. Some species warn of their danger with bright colours.
The Lionfish mainly swims calmly, gently waving its fins, ignoring predators as it knows that its bright colouring is a warning of danger. However, if a lionfish detects a small fish or crustacean that seems a possible prey, it can launch to attack it at a lightening speed. They use the pectoral fins to trap their prey.

Mini Aquariums

In these small tanks you can see animals with such strange shapes that they remind us of mythological creatures. These are strange beings that adopt incredible shapes to adapt to their surroundings. They make your imagination fly, taking us to a world of fable and legend.

The Sea Dragons are animals you will find hard to distinguish from the background, full of leaves and algae. They are relatives of Sea Horses.

The Nautilus is the only cephalopod mollusc that has a true exterior shell, but the animal only lives in the exterior compartment. The interior of the shell is divided by a large number of ceramic walls into different compartments full of gas to allow the nautilus to float. The animal regulates its floating by bringing in air or releasing water. Jules Verne used the name Nautilus to baptise the submarine in his novel 20,000 leagues under the sea because submarines, like the nautilus, flood some chambers with water to control their floating.

Did you know?
-The Sting Rays do not have dorsal fins and their tail is very long and filamentous, toothed and especially toxic and they use it only as a defence system. The poisonous needle at the end of its tail caused the death of Steve, the famous “Crocodile Hunter” from Australia.
-Penguins are birds that have lost their ability to fly and have their wings transformed into fins to be able to swim, which is why in antiquity they were thought to be fish. Penguins are monogamous animals, that is, they form stable couples. They have a single partner they preserve throughout their lives, building nests and laying 2 eggs they incubate for 6 weeks.
- The male Cardinal fish incubates the eggs in its mouth (to protect them from enemies) until they hatch (after 8 days), when they are expelled, during which time the male does not feed, and could die of starvation.
-The Black-tipped-shark can never stop swimming or he will drown and die.
-The Stone fish is the most poisonous fish in the world.

It was a beautiful and fun Birthday, and would have been a perfect one if they had dolphins.
Just kidding!..