Review - Fantastic Frogs - "Blue Reef"

For a while now I've been meaning to mention the addition of a frogs (and toads) of the world exhibition at Portsmouth's Blue Reef Aquarium. My thinking was that anyone living vaguely in the South of England or on holiday may care to pop in. Then I thought I'd shut up until I saw it myself and could offer a sort of a personal review [any chance of a review section one day John for places visited and books published, or is there one already and I'm just clueless?].

Today was the day I found the time.

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The ticket price was £5.95. The public aquarium itself has undergone something of a rebranding lately - others may know it as the old Sea Life Centre.

The frog exhibition is attached to the fish exhibition i.e. suddenly you are in it. It is not big [axolotls; fire sals; xenopus; dendrobates; marine toads and a mixture of tree frogs] but over all a good start (I thought it would be like the inside of my house but bigger, but it was smaller than my collection - oh dear!). Some thoughts:

* I was disappointed to see the axolotls on gravel, however small the particle size.

* I have never seen terrestris described as fiery salamanders.

*The information displays at the aquarium were good but they need a decent editor ("a baron environment").

* Some of the treefrogs displays were less effective than the big vivs at my two local petshops.

*The dendrobates viv was a let-down. Why is it that other countries' zoos & aquaria do these so much better? You could really create a dramatic "slice" of their natural environment.

*Putting a big Piranha tank in there seemed incongruous and unimaginative.

* The staff seemed friendly and helpful.

*On a personal note - and this is deeply unfair of me - but I always find it so hard to go to these places as a serious hobbyist / enthusiast when the whole set-up is - quite naturally - geared towards young families. It is often hard to get up close to a display with numerous youngsters tripping over you and shouting. Deeply mean and uncharitable of me to say this but there it is... it was so hard to get up close and to concentrate. I was there on a public holiday though.

* A lot of thought seemed to have gone into the lighting of the treefrogs. They appear to be lighting heavily at night and a lot less by day in a bid to reverse day and night. I assumed this was to facilitate the viewing of nocturnal animals until I read a charming sign that said it was to help them recover from frog "jet lag"!

All in all, six out of ten. Small but ok.

London zoo's dendrobatid setups are good, but I am a bit annoyed at the fact that they have a ???Typhlonectes??? caecelian in one of the poison arrow tanks in a very small water area at the front, about 5 inches back and barely longer than the caecelian, with only a hollow log for cover...can't see how they keep it clean enough...
London zoo is disappointing on the caudate front, with only a tank of mixed mutant axolotls, but a nice setup...I know someone fairly high up there and am trying to persuade them to take up something easy and bold, like tylototriton verrucosus...
Chris

I thought the one Dendrobate viv in the London aquarium was excellent. Marwell's dendrobate viv was a big disappointment to me.
(Ermm - I'm hoping it is appropriate to review establishments out in the open like this, John...? Apologies and whoops! if not.)

Moooahaha taking over the world with verrucosus.

Matthew - don't worry, you can say what you like about organisations .

John - yes, the Verrucosus Republic is soon to rise to power!
Chris