Hi, I’m Katherine Nieman, and I go to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah pretty regularly. Please enjoy my guided tour through the aquarium, which features the highlights and exhibit ordering I use when I take my friends through the aquarium. Hopefully this guide will enhance your experience at the aquarium and give you some fun facts to share with your family. These descriptions assume you’ve entered through the entrances (rather than the exits) of the exhibits, and are not exhaustive by any means. Take your time and enjoy the creatures you want to see.
1. Journey to South America
After coming through the first-floor doors, the second tank you’ll encounter on the left side holds an electric eel. An electric eel is not an eel, however, rather, a type of knife fish. They can deliver shocks of up to 600 volts to stun prey and attackers. The tank contains a probe that indicates if the fish is delivering a shock. If you watch her for long, you may see the electric eel swim to the surface for a gulp of air. This breathing adaptation is to supplement the low-oxygen water environments they tend to live in.
The tank to the right of the electric eel contains dwarf caimans, turtles, and some big ol’ granulated catfish. Caimans are an alligatorid and can re-grow their tails if they lose a portion of it.
The tank to the right of the caimans contains piranhas. Piranhas can make a barking noise out of the water. Piranhas favor weak, dying, or dead prey and carry out their feeding frenzies in groups. Look closely and you can see their cartoony-looking, triangle-shaped teeth.
Rounding the corner, the tank to the right of the piranhas contains a bunch of tetras, plecostomuses, and a rubber eel. Surprise, it’s another thing called an eel that isn’t an eel. It’s actually a type of serpentine amphibian (think the class that contains frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders). Look for it in a hollow log on the left side of the tank. This thing also looks like a Jim Henson creation with its derpy smile.
As you proceed to a dark tunnel, you’ll encounter a large tank housing some pretty awesome river giants. The largest, ~14 foot-er is an arapaima. Arapaima bite their food by slamming their bony tongue against it, and it is extremely loud, and kind of sounds like a gun going off. If you watch for a while, you will also see the 2 arapaima in this tank occasionally gulp air from the surface like the electrical eel does.
The white, grouchy looking fish towards the surface is an arowana. They are nicknamed “water monkeys” due to their ability to jump up to 6 feet to snatch prey off of tree branches.
There are also 2 redtail catfish, which, you guessed it, have red-tipped tails. They can make a loud clicking sound as a warning to predators.
Continue on the path up to the next level and pause just before the bridge to see the prehensile-tailed porcupines. They might be a bit more social in the evening, since they are nocturnal, but all I usually see is their curling tails. In my opinion, they look like nifflers from the Fantastic Beasts movies.
The bridge overlooks the river giants tank on the left, and cage houses toucans, tortoises, and a two-toed sloth on the right.
2. Expedition Asia
This exhibit has some more beautiful and unique fish. Oh, and birds, and clouded leopards, otters, and binturongs. All I know about the binturong is that it looks like a cat-bear hybrid, and its urine smells like buttered popcorn. Idk, land animals are weird, so let’s get to the fish.
The tank across from the binturongs houses 3 differently-colored Asian arowana, some barbs, and many types of catfish. One such catfish is the man-eater Thai goonch catfish (although I believe he is a dwarf goonch, because he is very small and cute). I call him a man-eater because goonches have been known to eat corpses off of funeral pyres.
3. Penguin Research Station
If you’re holding your nose from a fishy-poop smell, chances are, you’re getting close to the penguins. Unpopular opinion, but I feel like penguins would taste delicious. I mean, look at them.
Speaking of eating penguins, there’s a leopard seal skull in this exhibit. Leopard seals are horrifying, and this skull does a pretty good job of showing why.
As you exit the Penguin Research Station, be sure to look up at the end of the ramp out to see a red-lit statue of a sperm whale hunting a giant squid above your head.
4. Deep Sea Lab
This exhibit rotates tankmates out quite a bit, so bear with me if I describe something you can’t find. The second tank on the right houses a giant isopod. At least click the link to look at the pictures. Do it. Do it. Isopods are actually a type of crustacean. Rolly-poly/pill/potato bugs (whatever you call them) are isopods, so they are also crustaceans and not bugs. Ah yes, in the animal world, many things are not as they seem.
There are also lump sucker fish, which essentially have a suction cup on the bottom of them they can use to secure themselves to surfaces.
The tank in the back of the room houses a giant Japanese spider crab. One time, I saw a toddler run out of this room crying and screaming “Mom, I really don’t like that crab”. Maybe prepare your toddlers in advance for the Japanese spider crab.
5. Discover Utah
Walking through the canyons at the entrance of this exhibit, you’re greeted by snakes, scorpions, and spiders (in their enclosed tanks, ideally). This exhibit features some locally indigenous fauna, including humpback chubs, razorback suckers, pikeminnow, June suckers, and virgin chubs. Don’t humpback chubs look like a Fiat Multipla? I think so.
Don’t forget to stop by the tank containing multiple types of trout, and after that, step into the windowed bee hive exhibit. There are also more otters.
6. Ocean Explorer
This is the one where the sharks are. But before we get to the 40 foot underwater tunnel and 300,000 gallon shark tank, there’s some more highlights along the way.
When you enter the Ocean Exporer, on the right, there is a tank of four-eyed fish and archerfish. I swear, these fishes are fascinating. Four-eyed fish have weird, bulging eyes that allow them to see above the water and below the water at the same time. Archerfish spit water at insects/small animals to make them fall into the water so they can eat them. If you wanna nerd out, you can watch this short video on how they spit with precision and consistency.
This exhibit contains a lot of gorgeous, coral-decorated tanks with Nemo (clownfish), sea horses, and many colorful reef fish.
There is also a tank containing the oft-hidden swell sharks and horn sharks. Why are swell sharks called swell sharks and horn sharks called horn sharks? I’m so glad you asked. Swell sharks have a defense tactic in which they gulp in water to intentionally swell in size to jam themselves into reef structures to avoid being yanked out by predators. Horn sharks, have, well, horns. See if you can spot them protruding in front of the 2 dorsal fins on the top of their bodies.
To the right of the swell shark tank, you’ll see a dark cave. If you enter it, you will see tanks containing pyjama squid, flashlight fish, and a giant pacific octopus. The pyjama squids are typically hidden in the sand with just their lil striped eyes peeking out. They are called pyjama squids because the stripes make them look like they are wearing pajamas. The dark-colored flashlight fish barely can be seen, except for their flashing, bioluminescent cheeks. Where to even begin with octopuses. There are so many fascinating things about octopuses. Let’s just go with they are creepy-smart and cunning, and if it weren’t for the fact that they don’t typically live longer than a year, they would probably be our overlords.
As you continue down the exhibit, past the touch tanks, be sure to pause at the beautiful upside-down jellyfish, which are literally jellyfish that are upside-down. No, they are not Australian. They just lay upside down to expose their symbiotic algae friends (the blue/green coloration on their tentacles) to sunlight, which in turns provide them with energy.
Before you run into the tunnel, as tempting as it may be, be sure to pause at the zebra mantis shrimp. He’s slightly different from the rainbow-colored peacock mantis shrimp, but he’s still very cool. Check out this mind-blowing comic on mantis shrimp from The Oatmeal for some crazy facts about mantis shrimps.
Alright, now you can go to the tunnel. Tell your kids there’s no crying in the tunnel or the sharks will eat them. Just kidding… unless your kids are crying in this very echo-y tunnel. Like I said, this 40 foot tunnel goes below the 300,000 gallon shark tank, which contains (in rough order of size) nurse sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, sandbar sharks, a wobbegong shark, and blacktip sharks.
I could talk forever about sharks, so I’ll stick with just the weirdest one. The wobbegong shark does not look like a shark at all, because he is an ambush predator. Wobbegong sharks lay, camouflaged by their patterned, textured skin, on the ocean floor and wait for an unsuspecting fish to swim within striking range. When one does, they strike up and snap the fish up like the Sarlacc from Return of the Jedi. Actually, wait, you nerds. Sarlaccs pretty much exist (video) and are called bobbit worms. Those aren’t in the aquarium though.
The last thing I want to point out is the moray eel. Isn’t she a beautiful neon green color? Psych, her skin is actually sky blue colored. Why does she appear green, then? Because moray eels are coated in mucus. The mucus makes her look green. You’re welcome. I hope you enjoyed the aquarium!
This is amazing, Katherine! Should be illustrated and for sale in the gift shop. 🙂