The Carlsbad SEA LIFE Aquarium has opened Octopus Garden, a new exhibit that is all about cephalopods, those tentacled and long-armed creatures, such as octopuses, cuttlefish and nautiluses, known for changing colors to camouflage to their environment, squirting ink and using jet propulsion to move through water.
The exhibition features five new decorated display tanks, which house a giant Pacific octopus, a common octopus, a zebra octopus, two pharaoh cuttlefish and five chambered nautiluses. It also features an interactive floor projection that allows visitors to answer questions by taking a step; an octopus-themed quiz and a hide-and-seek game; and two new educational presentations held daily at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. This being SEA LIFE, you can expect to be surprised with the LEGO creations that are part of the exhibit.
Visitors to Octopus Garden are in for a treat, said SEA LIFE spokeswoman Crystal Kranz, as cephalopods have many interesting characteristics, and all of them will be on display here.
"What's really unique about the octopuses is that they are the smartest invertebrates in the world," she said. "They're so smart, we have to give them puzzles to entertain themselves and for enrichment."
One such distraction is a Mr. Potato Head toy that's filled with food that the octopuses have to fish out.
"What's cool is that they have short-term and long-term memories," Kranz said, adding that as a result, tasks become easier for them upon repetition. " If we give them a puzzle, it might take them, say five minutes the first time. They will remember the experience, and remember how to do it, so that the next time, it might take them only a minute."
Naturally, the display features some octopus gardens, a name given to the shells that the nocturnal octopuses put out in front of their dens after they're finished eating.
Elsewhere in the exhibit, visitors can see cuttlefish mesmerize their prey by making their skin look like glitter, while the nautiluses use jet-propulsion to navigate the waters, giving them a "very prehistoric look," Kranz noted.
The exhibit takes the place of Sharks Revealed, an exhibit that opened at the Carlsbad aquarium in 2008 and that showed the life cycles of sharks. That exhibit, which featured egg cases, is now traveling to another SEA LIFE aquarium, though the sharks that were born here have been moved to other displays within the Carlsbad location.
The room of the aquarium was completely transformed for the new exhibit, said Kranz, noting that while this, too is a traveling exhibit, it was created from scratch at the Carlsbad aquarium.
Walls were painted, new displays and informational displays were brought in and the tanks were set up, the water quality-tested constantly to make sure the environment would be just right for the incoming creatures.
Octopus Garden gives SEA LIFE a total of 41 displays and over 4,000 sea creatures. For more information, visit the SEA LIFE website at www.sealifeus.com.
The exhibition features five new decorated display tanks, which house a giant Pacific octopus, a common octopus, a zebra octopus, two pharaoh cuttlefish and five chambered nautiluses. It also features an interactive floor projection that allows visitors to answer questions by taking a step; an octopus-themed quiz and a hide-and-seek game; and two new educational presentations held daily at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. This being SEA LIFE, you can expect to be surprised with the LEGO creations that are part of the exhibit.
Visitors to Octopus Garden are in for a treat, said SEA LIFE spokeswoman Crystal Kranz, as cephalopods have many interesting characteristics, and all of them will be on display here.
"What's really unique about the octopuses is that they are the smartest invertebrates in the world," she said. "They're so smart, we have to give them puzzles to entertain themselves and for enrichment."
One such distraction is a Mr. Potato Head toy that's filled with food that the octopuses have to fish out.
"What's cool is that they have short-term and long-term memories," Kranz said, adding that as a result, tasks become easier for them upon repetition. " If we give them a puzzle, it might take them, say five minutes the first time. They will remember the experience, and remember how to do it, so that the next time, it might take them only a minute."
Naturally, the display features some octopus gardens, a name given to the shells that the nocturnal octopuses put out in front of their dens after they're finished eating.
Elsewhere in the exhibit, visitors can see cuttlefish mesmerize their prey by making their skin look like glitter, while the nautiluses use jet-propulsion to navigate the waters, giving them a "very prehistoric look," Kranz noted.
The exhibit takes the place of Sharks Revealed, an exhibit that opened at the Carlsbad aquarium in 2008 and that showed the life cycles of sharks. That exhibit, which featured egg cases, is now traveling to another SEA LIFE aquarium, though the sharks that were born here have been moved to other displays within the Carlsbad location.
The room of the aquarium was completely transformed for the new exhibit, said Kranz, noting that while this, too is a traveling exhibit, it was created from scratch at the Carlsbad aquarium.
Walls were painted, new displays and informational displays were brought in and the tanks were set up, the water quality-tested constantly to make sure the environment would be just right for the incoming creatures.
Octopus Garden gives SEA LIFE a total of 41 displays and over 4,000 sea creatures. For more information, visit the SEA LIFE website at www.sealifeus.com.