Visiting the Lisbon Oceanarium
My little brother stunned by the Florestas Submersas exhibition at the Oceanario de Lisboa.
The Oceanário de Lisboa (Lisbon’s Oceanarium) is the largest indoor aquarium in Europe. It holds an impressive 5 million litres of seawater and includes some pretty amazing creatures in its exhibitions. If ichthyology is your thing, you’d be in heaven but if you enjoy marine biology in general this is an absolute must if you’re ever around Lisbon.
Back in October 2021, when I visited the Lisbon Oceanarium, I was lucky enough to be able to see the amazing “Forests Underwater” exhibition showcasing the work of famous Japanese photographer and aquascaper, Takashi Amano. If you’re into aquascaping, like my little brother, the name will surely be familiar to you. Needless to say, my little brother was pretty excited about it and I feel like we could have spent the whole day there if we had the time!
As it’s expected, the oceanarium has an impressive collection of fish, including a decent-sized Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) and some stunning Leafy Seadragons (Phycodurus eques) that were displayed in a well-presented round enclosure. They also had some incredibly cute Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris) representing for the mammal gang and an amazing collection of invertebrates, such as the Sunflower Seastar (Pycnopodia helianthoides).
Luckly for me, they also had an amphibian section. Mostly featuring some species that are fairly well known in the pet trade as well as the famous poison dart frogs. They did, however, have a Vietnamese Mossy Frog (Theloderma corticale) which is always fun to watch!
The highlight for me though was the Crocodile Newt (Tylototriton verrucosus). It always reminds me of “Toothless” from “How to Train Your Dragon”. There’s quite a bit of morphological and behavioural differences for these, depending on locality, but the one they had was quite possibly one of the cutest I’ve ever seen in person!
If you’re ever in Lisbon, I would definitely recommend a visit!
