Whale Shark- Georgia Aquarium question

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Here are a few things to think about.....

Is the tank large enough for whale sharks? If you ask them, they'll tell you it was specifically made for them. However, it was made to house 4 juvie sharks, not four adults. Also, the other sharks and fish weren't taken into account. They have beyond maxed out the LSS with the bioload, and it's showing.

I found out they have been treating the tank with Dylox the entire time. Long term exposure to it is what has been the final step in losing so many animals. Dylox is widly used as a quarantine drug in the aquarium industry. These animals were never quarantined, so they thought it was ok to use it long term in the main exhibit. For those of you not familiar with it, if I were treating a tank - I wouldn't want that water to get on my skin, let along dive in it or have my animals in it long term. It's also used in heavy doses to wipe out anything in a major system before switching it to a new display with different animals.
 
Zoodiver;925554; said:
Here are a few things to think about.....

Is the tank large enough for whale sharks? If you ask them, they'll tell you it was specifically made for them. However, it was made to house 4 juvie sharks, not four adults. Also, the other sharks and fish weren't taken into account. They have beyond maxed out the LSS with the bioload, and it's showing.

I found out they have been treating the tank with Dylox the entire time. Long term exposure to it is what has been the final step in losing so many animals. Dylox is widly used as a quarantine drug in the aquarium industry. These animals were never quarantined, so they thought it was ok to use it long term in the main exhibit. For those of you not familiar with it, if I were treating a tank - I wouldn't want that water to get on my skin, let along dive in it or have my animals in it long term. It's also used in heavy doses to wipe out anything in a major system before switching it to a new display with different animals.
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:eek:
 
Here are a few things to think about.....

Is the tank large enough for whale sharks? If you ask them, they'll tell you it was specifically made for them. However, it was made to house 4 juvie sharks, not four adults. Also, the other sharks and fish weren't taken into account. They have beyond maxed out the LSS with the bioload, and it's showing.

I found out they have been treating the tank with Dylox the entire time. Long term exposure to it is what has been the final step in losing so many animals. Dylox is widly used as a quarantine drug in the aquarium industry. These animals were never quarantined, so they thought it was ok to use it long term in the main exhibit. For those of you not familiar with it, if I were treating a tank - I wouldn't want that water to get on my skin, let along dive in it or have my animals in it long term. It's also used in heavy doses to wipe out anything in a major system before switching it to a new display with different animals.
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Okay let's see if I'm getting this straight

So the basically restate(for those of us without bio degrees) - the major problems the Atlanta Aquariums is presently having is due to the following problems -

- Long Term Bio Overload of the tank
- Not Quarantining the Animals
- long term useage of a toxic drug, which is not intented to be used long term.

These all sound like problems that the Aquarium's adminstrative staff - should have known about, or been able to fix early on.

So the real underlying cause for the Atlanta Aquarium is simply - very poor management choices.
 
It's my understanding the Aquariums in Japan have been keeping Whale Sharks alot longer than the Atlanta Aquarium. Also IIRC - the Japanese Aquariums don't attempt to keep more than 2 whale sharks at a time.

So would it be logical that the Atlanta Aquarium attempt to copy what the Japanese Aquariums have already done, to better ensure their own success.
 
Most of them aren't kept in a similar fashion. Usually, they are in open systems (which ATL can't do). They are also in less populated tanks. I would venture to guess that they don't dump loads of quaratine type chemicals into the water as well.
 
I am saying they died of stress. I went there and they didn't look happy. You could see it in their eyes they wanted to go back to the Ocean. I'm from GEORGIA
 
Most of them aren't kept in a similar fashion. Usually, they are in open systems (which ATL can't do). They are also in less populated tanks. I would venture to guess that they don't dump loads of quaratine type chemicals into the water as well.
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Well - I understand there's some major differences between the Osaka Aquarium & the Atlanta Aquarium - especially in types of systems.

Afterall -It's much easier for your Aquarium to have an open system if your located next to large bay, instead of hundreds of miles for the coast.

But at least Atlanta should have been able use some of the other examples from Osaka - like amount of Bio-load, tank population and quaratining the fish before introducing them to the tank.

Granted I would think they would need about a 500,000 gallon quaratine tank to Quaratine a couple of 13-16 ft Whale Sharks - but they should have had that.

And IIRC - doesn't the filtration system for Atlanta's 6 million gallon Whale Shark tank only cycle about 2/3 the tank's entire volume per hr? And which the kind of sharks that they have in it - would it make much more sense to have the Filtration rate at least twice the tank's total volume. Maybe it's just me.

All this is so sad - just a complete waste of some beautiful sharks. And we already have too much of that going on in the world. :(
 
No aquarium should attempt to house such a large animal.
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Not sure I would go that far.

After all - Sea World has had great success at keeping and raising Killer Whales.

Granted Killer Whales aren't as large as Whale Sharks - but they are certainly much more active.

And as already pointed out the Osaka Aquarium has had some success in keeping Whale Sharks.
 
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