The Sevastopol Aquarium is located on the premises of the Institute of Marine Biological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is a publicly accessible part of this institution. It is not as big and spectacular as Singaporean, Dubai, Japanese and other famous aquariums, but it is an interesting institution with very informative material, numerous live exhibits and absolutely affordable prices. In addition, the Sevastopol Museum-Aquarium on Nakhimov Avenue was the first in Russia, and is also one of the oldest such institutions in Europe and has 120 years of history.
Features of the content of live exhibits
Over the long time the Aquarium has been working, employees have accumulated a wealth of experience in maintaining all kinds of marine life in artificial conditions. The museum collection is constantly supplemented by exotic and rare representatives of tropical seas and oceans.
During the reconstruction of equipment in the mid-1990s, carried out in the Sevastopol Marine Aquarium, new, modernized closed-loop systems for water purification were installed. This allows you to contain previously inaccessible species that are too susceptible to changes in water quality. Special salt mixtures make it possible to create an aquatic environment for the inhabitants of different marine and oceanic regions. The area of ​​the five observation rooms of the museum exceeds 900 square meters, and each has its own theme.
Hall One: The motley world of corals
The exposition introduces fish, arthropods and invertebrate inhabitants of coral reefs. In small aquariums you can see bright, surprisingly colored fish:
- black to white speck Comet white-spotted;
- a strange-shaped fish - orange-striped triggerfish;
- pale lemon zebrasome yellow;
- like a blue surgeon dressed in a diving suit and many other small fish.
Similar to exotic flowers, sea anemones are sedentary animals, but their tentacles are in constant motion, creating a stream of water that directs the victim in the right direction. Several types of sea anemones live in the Sevastopol Aquarium. The bright raspberry-scarlet “sea anemone”, representative of the Red Sea, refers precisely to the species that hermit crabs carry on their shells. Other varieties are similar to narrow-leaved asters and chrysanthemums or resemble a bouquet of modest garden flowers with flat inflorescences, like discoactinium blue.
Seahorses and hedgehogs, as well as variegated long-shrimps such as “blood red”, “doctor”, “dancer”, “bamboo”, “banana” and others, are of great interest. All representatives of coral reefs are small, and therefore the aquariums are small, which allows you to carefully see their inhabitants. This room also has a point where marine-themed souvenirs are sold.
The second largest hall
The exposition presents two thematic sections: inhabitants of the Black Sea and tropical waters. The middle of the room is 2.5 meters deep with a nine-meter diameter swimming pool with a capacity of 150 cubic meters. m. Large sturgeons are wrapped in circles. Under the walls in a circle of the room are 12 more identical smaller aquariums, each of which has created a special surroundings for certain types of fish.
The tropical section is the most intriguing for sightseers. Here you can observe the honeycomb moray eel with leopard coloring, breathtaking color and bulging eyes of a large-spotted triggerfish, the sucker fish “stuck ordinary”, more reaping striped lionfish and other interesting tropical representatives on an exotic bird.
The fish of the Black Sea collection are much more modest in color, but no less interesting. There are many species in the Sevastopol Aquarium, including:
- bester - an artificially bred hybrid of the sturgeon family;
- the bottom fish of the Black Sea sultan or mullet, catching small animals from the bottom, swirling sand with long antennae growing on its chin;
- Sea fox is a large species of stingrays that lives in the Black Sea waters.
Hall Three: Tropical Miracles
This section contains tropical reptiles, as well as the inhabitants of the Atlantic, Indian Oceans, African and South American coasts. Here are represented predatory piranhas, magnificent 1.5-meter giant arapaims, graceful Aravanas South American, Orinok catfish, huge pacus, freshwater stingrays and other species of fish.
Among reptiles, a spectacle cayman is considered a favorite of children. Here you can also see an ordinary iguana basking under special lamps, similar to a fish with tiny paws of a blue-tongued skink, an albino of a “tiger python”. The exhibition presents several species of turtles.
Hall four: stuffed everywhere
A small, compared with others, premises, representing also reptiles and freshwater, which are few. Here is a collection of inanimate, sealed in flasks mollusks, squids, octopuses. Under the ceiling and on the walls are stuffed animals and models of different sharks and other giant fish. An interesting model of the ruins of a Cambodian ancient temple was created in one of the aquariums. Of the reptiles in the section there lives a crocodile caiman, with whom the red-eared turtles live in the terrarium, the active swimmer is the pig-tailed turtle, as well as the loggerhead tortoise, green or soup, Nile trionics and others. There is also a tank with carpeted sharks, reaching a length of not more than 1.25 meters.
Hall 5, the most entertaining
New, opened in 2013, according to tourists, this section of the aquarium in Sevastopol is the most interesting. It presents very dangerous species from the depths of the oceans. Black-fin sharks swim in a large 40-ton aquarium, a 15-ton tank is reserved for moray eels, smaller fish and invertebrates live in other aquariums: a fish is a stone or a wart with poisonous spikes on its back, a legendary puffer, a hedgehog fish, a puffer, other marine and river inhabitants, sometimes carrying a mortal threat. Each of them requires special conditions and diet: squid, shrimp, fatty or vice versa lean fish, and sometimes preventive artificial feed.
The last acquisition in the exposition of the Sevastopol Aquarium is a marble electric ramp, which can accumulate a current charge of 150 volts, as well as electric eel, which can emit a shock of 800 volts. For these representatives, a constant water temperature of 23–27 degrees and a certain concentration of sea salt are necessary.
Mode of operation
The Sevastopol Aquarium is open every day, seven days a week, from ten in the morning until half past five in the evening. Entrance is allowed and the ticket office is open until 17:00. If a group of at least ten people gathers, then a highly qualified specialist will conduct an interesting hour-long excursion. After the tour, you can once again independently examine the entire exposition, because the time spent in the museum is unlimited. Despite the fact that the institution on Nakhimov Avenue is far from the largest aquarium, the most warm and grateful comments about visiting this hospitable place have been left.