The Last Days of the Pier Aquarium

A couple weeks before MACNA this year, the city council voted 5-3 to demolish the Pier Aquarium in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Pier Aquarium is your typical small affair found in tourist spots with a handful of aquariums and a touch tank. Some have fallen in disrepair in recent years. But there is one gem among them: the 448 gallon 'Invertebrates Aquarium' housing the largest, fuzziest colonies of Acropora I have ever seen. More below.





I have to talk about the lighting. It was so crisp and the blue/white ratio was absolutely perfect. They nailed it with (1) 400w 20k halide and (4) 400w 14k halides over this 448 gallon wonder. The look they achieved will be my measuring stick for all my aquariums from now on. It was so impressive. Equally so was the lack of fan noise. The powerhouse of lights had to have had a lot of fans but I couldn't hear them. Kudos to Suncoast Aquariums - the builders of this particular aquarium. They obviously know what they are doing.

Moving past the light itself, I was face-to-face with the largest acropora coral I have ever seen in an aquarium. Some of the branches could be measured in feet. This acropora was thriving. I was in awe. There was some big montipora as well but my eyes kept going back to the acropora - the colors, the polyps.. the sheer size. I couldn't look at anything else, that is, until I finally noticed the giant clam. This clam was close to 2 feet in length! Incredible.

Everything in this tank was growing like weeds. In my opinion some of the other tanks were run down or not setup right, but the staff involved with this tank hit a homerun and took pride in it and kept it up even under threat of closing. Being there and seeing it while knowing this was bittersweet as I wondered about the fate of the inhabitants.

The Pier Aquarium in St. Petersburg, Florida has been around since 1988 and is located in an unusual building at the end of the pier - an inverted pyramid. This architectural oddity houses the small aquarium and several small businesses geared toward tourists. Problem is, not a lot of tourists go there and the building needs expensive repairs. The mayor Bill Foster decided there were better ways to spend the $50 million reserve and persuaded the city council to tear it down. All the details on its replacement are to be determined.

Most likely we will not see the Pier Aquarium in any public form again. A senior project manager for the aquarium has stated that they want to pursue research and do not want to be an aquarium anymore as there are plenty of those around. That may be true, but there is only one aquarium around known as the Invertebrates Aquarium and it will be missed.



Reference:
Inverted pyramid at the Pier in St. Petersburg headed for wrecking ball - St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg's Pier Aquarium plans to move by 2012 - St. Petersburg Times

About The Pier Aquarium - The Pier Aquarium

 

That is a beautiful tank. I was down there on the pier in Janruary and didnt know it was there. I would have loved to see it in person. Thanks for posting the pics Matt.

 

So are they giving out frags of the acro? lol

 

Wait... you mean to tell me this tank was in another aquarium not far away while I was wondering around the florida aquarium?

They should have knocked that one down instead. $50 to get in and nothing cool except a large Pseudosquilla ciliata (mantis shrimp).

 

This truly hits close to home. When I first saw the aquarium made my final decision to start keeping a saltwater aquarium. But politics are politics.

 

That's an awesome tank. It's truly a shame that the aquarium is being torn down.

 

That is a magnificant display and very sad that it will be stripped down

years invested to get corals looking like they are still in the wild (rather than stacked on rocks)

Steve

 

oh wow, that is too bad!

 

Dang. Thats the aquarium I'd sneak away to when visiting my parents. They live in Largo, I guess just down the street from you ReefBruh. I have some pics of the place at work. I'll try and find them tomorrow.

 

No one mentions the cool Hawaiian trigger that call's that reef haven its home? Sad thing about the tank being taken down though.