Located in downtown Chattanooga, The Tennessee Aquarium boasts one of the largests displays of recreated habitats in the world.  It is the world's largest freshwater aquarium — a 12-story, 130,000-square-foot building holding 400,000 gallons.  It follows the hydrology of a stream from the top of a mountain to the delta and estuary until it finally meets the ocean.  It has elaborately recreated habitats that teach visitors about the world's ecosystems and their species.  Entertaining and educational,  you can watch otters frolicing, baby allligators chirping, turtles swimming in rivers stocked with fish, sharks at close range, and water cutting through canyons and sipping into the ground.  At the Tennessee Aquarium, you can also learn about freshwater ecosystems throughout the world, featuring fish, plants and animals that live in different types of freshwater habitats such as in rivers, swamps,bayous, and streams.  With more than 9,000 species of fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals, the Tennessee Aquarium is one of the best in relating the intricate web of life in a freshwater environment.

The Discovery Hall of the Tennessee Aquarium has a permanent gallery with a lake sturgeon touch station,
baby alligators, 
and odd-looking paddlefish.                                                       (photos by CDaniels unless noted otherwise)

Every two years or so, it offers a new exhibit.   First, there were hundreds of jellyfish.  Then a collection of  50 species of venomous fish, snakes and other creatures were exhibited.  The special exhibit this year is a collection of  more than 500 seahorses, sea dragons, pipe fish, starfish and crustaceans.

• Teachers will follow the hydrology of a stream by walking through the display at the skyroof of the aquarium representing the Tennessee River's source in the Appalachians, through its midstream, to the Mississippi Delta, and on to the rivers of the world. The teachers will be able to follow the re-created habitats.

• Teachers will be able to observe some of the plants found in the Appalachian highlands.  They are identified by species and common name.

Oakleaf hydrangea

• The teachers will observe sinks or plunge pools below rapids and falls.   They formed long ago as softer rock were worn down and harder rock remained to form the walls of the sink.

• Teachers will be able to note some of the efforts being done to maintain biodiversity in the Tennessee River and other rivers in the South where sturgeons have disappeared.  The aquarium raises lake sturgeon to save them from extinction. More than 2000 were released in 2002 and scientists hope to re-establish the species in the Tennessee River system by 2025.

Lake Sturgeon
Acipenser fulvescens
• Teachers will note the facts about the lake sturgeon.  These fish were found in the Great Lakes and Hudson,Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers until they were overfished and became extinct in several places.  They are presently found in Lakes:Michigan, Huron, Ontario, Erie and Superior.   These fish used to be abundant in reedy shallows or near river mouths.  In the last century, this large, bony-plated "living fossil', browsed along the bottom and was considered a nuisance because it became entangled in fishing nets.  Later the sturgeon became important for its eggs (caviar), meat, and oil. A gelatin from the inner lining of its air bladder was used as a clarifying agent in jellies and glues.   It is exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing because of its slow reproductive cycle.  It takes more than 20 years for females to mature and only spawns  every four to six years during its 50-year lifespan.  They may grow as long as 3 to 5 feet and weigh 10 to 80 pounds.

• Teachers will determine how to tell a turtle's age (by counting up the rings on the perimeter of its shell).   The aquarium has one of the the world's largest collection of freshwater turtles--500 specimens representing 48 species.

• Teachers will follow how the river shapes land and how the water's force not only affect the erosion of rocks but also affect the organisms, too.  Some fish are adapted to the fast moving water while others have adaptations for slow moving streams.  Some are adapted to water with high oxygen levels while others survive with less.

• Teachers will be able to observe hundreds of fish and other animals and determine their scientific and common names.  They will hopefully become familiar with the species that frequent the Tennessee River systems so that they can recognize them while snorkling in the Little River and visiting the trails in its canyon (one of our stops).

  (photos by CDaniels unless noted otherwise)
 

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