Kids in London – London Aquarium

On a sunshiny Bank Holiday Monday, we battled our way from Waterloo amongst the crowds gathered on the South Bank to enjoy the street entertainers, the Udderbelly performances, the carousel, the Royal Festival Hall’s anniversary celebrations (lovely beach huts!) and the street food festival.

Arriving around 1130am we were delighted that there was practically no queue. I was a little surprised that they didn’t take American Express but paid the £33.06 for one adult and one child ticket. We then joined a short queue to have our photos taken with model sharks in the background. Then we took the lift down two floors to begin our adventure and emerged in front of a wall of water and signs indicating that flash photograph was not allowed.

The first few small tanks – along a dimly lit corridor - contained an assortment of pipe fish, lobsters, anemones and sea urchins. We read wall signs indicating that jellyfish were 97% water before reaching an attractively pink and purple lit tank of moon jellyfish. Then we entered an open area with a large open tank in Ray Lagoon. Whilst not allowed to touch the rays anymore, this proved a great source of amusement as the various rays and small sharks “surface broke” to look at the visitors and generally put on a great show of dancing about in the water. Through a corridor and then some guided poking at rock pools under the watchful eye of a helper who had a starfish in a glass container – showing hundreds of tiny feet trying to secure an escape.

Here we had our first look at the huge tanks in the centre of the aquarium. Through the blue shimmering water we could see two huge turtles swimming around near the surface whilst closer to our noses where shoals of flat nosed silvery fish and the occasional shark – including a baby hammerhead. Plus lots of smaller, brightly coloured fish (loved the Picasso Trigger fish) picking away at what looked like the skeleton of a huge whale. The dark manta rays (or were they cownose rays? – the labelling on some tanks was somewhat lacking) glided through the water like birds in the sky. It really was rather peaceful and we could have lingered here for a while – if not for the crowds. Several youngsters were having their faces painted nearby. We took ages leaving this area as it was through an underwater tunnel where we watched the rays, sharks and other fish swimming all around us.

A wood area – feeling a bit like walking around a ship wreck – followed next and we looked at cute faced puffer fish and spied the lower levels of the large shark tank where there are four different types. I was keen to see the bottom dwelling nurse shark which I believe had been transferred from Poole in Dorset where I used to visit it regularly. The giant Easter Island replica statues here looked magnificent.

Smaller tanks next – funny upside down jellyfish, orb-like viewing holes containing shrimps and a good sized tank (surprisingly not sponsored by Disney) containing lots of clown fish (Nemo!) and Dories. I thought the black and white clown fish were more lovely than the orange ones – but I was outvoted by the many children gathered here. Obligingly, the clown fish did lots of dancing in the anemones – as if to show off their immunity. Another tank of assorted fish contained a particularly lovely anthia – it was bright orange with a square of neon pink on its side. A helper here explained a little more for us which was nice – she was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Another tank was thoroughly cheerful, containing as it did a large number of bright yellow tangs – with facial expressions that made them look perpetually surprised. I couldn’t get over how all the kids used their mobile phones to photograph just about every fish they saw….

Delicate seahorses and comic cleaner shrimps (Finding Nemo must take a lot of credit for educating kids about sea creatures) and we came to a waterfall and entered an area with leaves overhead and jungle floor beneath us. Here the tanks were filled with thousands of tiny fish. We laughed at the glass catfish – you can see right through them! Then an open tank surrounded by bird of paradise plants with angler fish (how we wished we could see them “spit” at flies!) and cute bug eyed fish that swam along with their eyes above the water. The smaller kids were enchanted at the swarming behaviour here as you placed your finger on the glass. Glittering piranhas came next – sitting absolutely still in the water as hundreds of tiny fish – including high-vis neon tetras - flitted around them. Then we spent a while watching some terrapins basking under the heat lamp whilst others waged a rather ferocious war beneath them.

A large enclosure was next, containing a couple of crocs – one of whom was conveniently close to the window and the other obligingly had its mouth open so we could admire all those teeth. A small misty tank contained toy-like poison dart frogs here and then there were huge open tanks containing enormous cat fish and pacus. More waterfalls and more tanks – this time with the silver angel fish moving in formation for us. We stopped here for the loos and emerged into the somewhat lighter and more open River Thames section. The sound of gently trickling water is great as you move along large but low open tanks with all manner of native fish (many of which I have caught – and released – when fishing on the banks of the Thames). Wall panels explain that there are 119 species of fish, 350 invertebrate species and 38 bird species in the Thames – well, I was impressed.

Finally we came to the upper viewing levels of those huge shark tanks and squealed a bit when we came face to face with a very toothy large shark. We passed through the conservation and picnic area and through some interconnected tanks with some comical patterned eels with their heads poking out. The final steps (there is a lift for those with buggies or wheelchairs) led to the Shark Walk area – eerily lit with ultra violet arches - where you step out on glass over the shark tank. Very scary but the kids absolutely loved it.

On the way out we joined a queue to view our entrance photos. After waiting a short while we were informed that we were in the wrong queue and directed to another. Bad planning as I was sufficiently irritated by this lack of regard for visitors that I went straight to the shop instead – lost sale as I would have purchased a photo as a momento of the day. The shop was full of fluffy sea creatures, books, science packs and a reasonable number of small, low priced items so that most visitors would be able to afford a small item with which to remember their visit.