The Baltimore Aquarium

Hi guys! Today I'm going to write about my trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. So on Friday After school I went with my mom to the Baltimore Aquarium. It was extra credit in my science class if we went and took a picture with the electric eel.

So we got to the aquarium at around 5:30. We started the tour looking at some small sharks and sting rays. Then we moved on and we got to touch some crabs and fish. They felt extremely weird. The fish had spikes on its back but they weren't sharp and it's actual skin was squishy. We also got to touch jellyfish. We could only touch the top part so we didn't get stung, but they were really cool. They felt soft and rubbery. After that we saw a really cool octopus. The octopus was my favorite because it could change colors. It went from pink to purple to red. It was ugly but it was really cool. Then we saw the eel. It was really big and looked pretty creepy. It stayed really still and never blinked once so it was just staring at you. It also blended in with the wood logs to it took us a little while to find it.

After we saw the eel we looked at a bunch of other little fish. After we had finished the fish section we saw all of the things like poison dart frogs, birds, and a sloth. Next we saw all of the sharks. The Sharks looked really creepy. They had a sawfish shark and it was really creepy. After the Sharks we went to see the dolphins. They played a little with the dolphins. After that we looked around the gift shop and went home.

So during the trip I took notes of five things that I learned. The first animal I learned about was the green sea turtle. The turtle eats jellyfish, algae, and sponges. They are helpful to the environment because they eat algae off of coral so the coral can see sunlight. The green sea turtle is an endangered species. The next fish is the palette surgeonfish, which is what Dory from Finding Nemo is. Dory eats plankton and algae. This fish also accidentally eats sand which actually helps with its digestion. The Dory fish grows up to 31 centimeters and up to 1.3 pounds. Next is the blacktip reef shark. The blacktip reef shark eats fishes, shrimp, and octopi. These Sharks actually bond with sharks of their kind. They group up and form bonds. This type of shark is near threatened, so if nothing changes it will become endangered. The Sharks actually have semi transparent eyelids that they can close to protect their eyes from scratches from other animals and from things like sand and coral. The next fish I picked is the bowfin fish. This fish eats other fish, amphibians, and crustaceans. This fish is actually extremely cool because it was the line survivor of an extinct family of ancient fish. It also breaths air. This fish was once endangered a long time ago but now it is flourishing. Last is the electric eel. It generates 800volts which is more than enough to stun a human. These eels can grow up to 9 or 10 feet long. You can actually tell the difference between every single electric eels because they each have a different voltage versus length equation. The electric eel sends out pulses threw the water when they want to find a mate. The eels set up an electric field and they can tell if something enters it and they send out a shock wave to kill or stun it. My favorite out of these five is probably the bowfin fish because I find it extremely cool and interesting that it was around in ancient times. 

So that was my trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. My favorite part was when I saw the color changing octopus. I also really liked touching the jellyfish. I highly recommend going to the Baltimore Aquarium it was a lot of fun. I would give it a 8 out of 10 rating.