Rainbow & Fishes in the Melbourne Aquarium

7th July 2008
We're now in the middle of winter and it's really very cold now..

Colder when it drizzles (it doesn't rain heavily here). Temperature now are max 11 min 7 (according to the google). Don't have a termometer on me to tell you exactly...
It was rather gloomy this day and it had drizzle and I glanced out the window and saw this rainbow. It appeared most suddenly really. I snapped this photo and as quickly as it came, it was gone after 5 minutes.

8th July 2008 Melbourne Aquarium

I had planned with Annie to go to the Melbourne Aquarium next. We walked from Flinders St, pass the Immigration Museum we had visited last week.
The walk was a cold one... Annie had just recovered from a cold and I was concerned about her being out in the cold but she assured me that she was fine...
We walked along the Yarra river at one point...
Would have been nicer if the sky was not as gloomy as it was...
We walked quite a fair bit to reach the Melbourne Aquarium. We were pretty shock to see that there was quite a long line on a weekday. Not sure if everyone's on school holidays or not... The fee to get in on a student price was Aus 18. Annie and I were determined to make most of this expensive trip. [lol]
I wasn't too pleased with so many kids running around the aquarium really. When I see sea creatures, I see them as seafood. [lol] Yummy... sotong curry (Squid)
Ah... nothing yummy here. Haha~! I like the pastel-ish colours of the corals and the fishes.
Like a painting of sorts. Don't you think?
Now sure if you can see but there are 2 moray eels in the dumpster... freaky looking. XD and there's my walking lobster soup down at the bottom. Yumm~!
Can't eat this fellow. It's poisonous. It's a lion fish. Also known as Turkey fish and Dragon fish. Hehe. Pretty...
"Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming" Hehehe.. Found Dory~! (Regal Tang, I think)
And of course, I found Marlin or is it Nemo? Hehehe... (Clown fish)
A totally fascinating species in the aquarium was the Leafy Sea dragon.. [lol] This one looks like a dead piece of seaweed..
This one looks better. Serious.. It is a seahorse. Cool eh?
Of course, they have normal seahorse. Though frankly... would you call a seahorse normal since male seahorse are the one that incubates the babies... There's an interesting reason why the males are the one to incubate the babies. Hehe.. go wiki it for the reason.
Here's the giant gourmet.. I mean the giant gourami.
Sexy fish lips... hahahah~! It's a funny fish.
This one on the other hand was terribly difficult to capture. It kept swimming so fast that most of the attempts to photograph this puffer fish turned out blur. This was one of the best photo of this lil bugger.
There was an open pond filled with fishes and turtles. Think there're freshwater type. ^_^ (Turtle)
I was pretty impressed with the amount of things to see here. Then again for the amount I had to pay, it's great that I have so much to see and with the amount they get, they can put up and maintain the site.
Seeing this fish reminds of the fishing game I have for my playstation... heheheh...
Look. Guppies~!
This one is a cutie. It's a newt if I'm not mistaken. Look, it's looking at us with it's white lil eyes and lil smile.
The variety set up was interesting to see.. This one has an upper display of roots as well as into the water.
Baby shark. Looks like a dogshark... Most probably wrong about that.. hehehe..
Striped fishies. Quick lil things.. Reminds me of sweets for some reason...
Another baby shark. hehehe..
That's Annie in a tunnel of sorts...
Above us were eels... It's plenty interesting to see them like this except I can't stay in there too long since I block the way... [sigh]
Live starfishes. hehehe.. I touched a real one. It felt like sea cucumber except it's a bit more solid. The only other reference I can give is it's like a sponge? nah, let's stick with sea cucumber.
Tiny lil froggie.. 'Kecil kecil cili padi'... Don't underestimate this lil fella. It has poison, man. You should be able to tell from the yellow bands on the body... Danger~!
Garr~! Sharp teeth..
That belongs to a crocodile or it is alligator? Hmmm... either or. Hehehe~!
Gosh, with some many photos taken, there's still another level?
Annie with the aquarium.
Zebra Shark. Yea... funny that it's called that when I don't see stripes. I thought it was a leopard shark but leopard sharks have bigger spots on their body...
Sting Ray. Bright blue dots...
Argh~! A sea snake~! Frankly I don't know if it's alive since I stood there for 5 minutes and it didn't move at all. It didn't even blink... oh wait, snake don't have eyelids. Silly me.
The display was really really cool. It's nice that there were quite a bit of people. Makes the place more lively.
This is a jellyfish. Yes, it is~!
A closer view on this unusually shaped jellyfish...
Who am I to say that jellyfish are oddly shaped? It may be us humans that are weirdly shaped. Hahah~! But a trip to the Aquarium, I really get a lot of muse / inspiration about creating creatures / design / colour. ^_^
This is a Japanese Spider crab. Konnichiwa~!
And this is the local spider crab... Hey there mate~! Maybe it's just a fatter version of the Japanese Spider crab... Must be the carbs.. Hahahha~!
Ooo Wa~! A shark attack~! Ok, so it's fake... but doesn't it look menacing? Frankly, I thought the music they played in the background was scarier... Must be from Jaws OST. [shudders]
So yea, there was this huge aquarium display in the final level...
It really is a humbling experience for me to see this aquarium... There are so much more beautiful, bigger and even weirder looking things than myself. Hahahah~!
Big school of fishes...
A huge manta ray~! It's bigger than the guy standing there...
This scene just screams "It's coming, it's coming..."
Good thing I was behind the glass with is this thick.. It's bigger than Annie's wide-stretched hand... Made in Japan. Hehehehe~!
All in all, I believe my Aus18 was well spent while I was in there. I took so many photos and videos that I had to delete some to make space for the sharks and manta rays. Heheh~! What's next.... [shrugs] You'll just have to wait and see... [grin] Cheers~!