the Shedd

[mytulip9]

I went to IMAC this year and I went on the Shedd tour because it's been years since I was there and I wanted a bit of a vacation too. Gotta say I was totally disappointed with the "reef" displays since 95% of all the corals are plastic. There were really only two larger reef displays up and they weren't that great. One had some pretty cool LPS and the other was mainly anemone with a few easy-to-keep softies. The biggest disappointment for me was the insane number of aptaisia. One of the tour guides actually commented on them to us saying "you can really see all of the hard to reach places in the displays where I just can't get rid of the aptasia." Well, my response is "you're the Shedd. You can certainly afford 50 peppermint shrimp to get rid of all of those for you. Duh." Anyway, here are some of the awesome fish pics that I snapped!

giant eel

this was labeled as an angler

pretty cool ray

the anemone display

my best shark photo (difficult to get without a flash)

manage a trois in a condy

scratched glass = bad pic is totally not my fault

this guy was HUGE!!! like a tennis ball. I totally want one!

puuurrrrty tang

hehe! cute. maybe I should get one for in my halimeda plant

one of my faves! someday I'll have a tank just for my giant (future) carpet and pair of (future) pink skunks!

where's Waldo? how many sexy shrimp can you spot?!?

even cooler in real-life! the first one I've ever seen in person

this one is soooo cool. totally looks like some sort of underwater bird

his body was like as big as my head! I wonder how much something like that weighs...

I think this one could have swallowed my leg whole

does this look like the male genitalia to anyone else?!? don't answer that, please.

[Sula]

Wow, they may not have much for corals but I think they've nailed the "FOWLR" class......let's face it, most of the general public get more excited about fish than coral anyway. Some of those specimens are incredibly unique - anyone know what kind of tang that is???

[mysteryship1]

Could be a Gold Rim tang from Hawaii. Check out Animart. Thought I saw one there yesterday, maybe Jakes fish. It was healthy and beautiful. Snap it up Sula before I do. Michael

[Slakker]

No...I think gold rim's are mostly grey, and the caudal fin is usually more white. I have no idea what he is, but he's gorgeous!

[mytulip9]

No, you're totally right. They did have some amazing fish. And all the ones that I saw were really healthy. I'm not trying to bash the Shedd or anything... I'm just so over fish ATM. I've got so many right now and I'm just sick of em! Personally I'd rather save the gas money and spend my 3 hours and $25 admission price on convo and a frag at MM's place!

[Sula]

Could be a Gold Rim tang from Hawaii. Check out Animart. Thought I saw one there yesterday, maybe Jakes fish. It was healthy and beautiful. Snap it up Sula before I do. Michael

Sula will not be getting a tang, not with an enormous Purple tang in residence