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Here are just some pictures I took this weekend (some of them are not very good).

Wild Sea Otter (federally endangered species).


Large Harbor Seal on a small rock.


Several seals (and cormorants) on several rocks.


Guy scrubbing algae in a tank.


Sea Otter exhibit being cleaned.


Some kind of grouper?


Brotherly love (literally) between two Asian Small-Clawed Otters.


African Spotted-Necked Otters.


Some kind of Julidochromis.


Lake Victorian cichlid.


School of full-grown Congo Tetras (each of these was 5-6" long).


Close-up of Congo Tetra.


Nice (mostly) Asian planted tank.


Trigonostigma hengeli.


Asian community fish.


Vine snake.


Treefrogs (Whites' I think?).


Western Pond Turtle.


Decorator Crab trying to put grass on its shell.


Kelp forest exhibit.


Top of kelp forest exhibit.


Top-dwelling fish getting fed krill.


Guy being attacked by a sheephead.


Still feeding the fish.


6' long Ocean Sunfish.


8' and 6' long Ocean Sunfish.


Blue and white jellyfish.


Blue-and-white jellyfish.


And again.


Fat Inkeeper Worm.


Sleeping Sea Otters.


8" long Southern Alligator Lizard I found today (not in Monterey).


It's not uncommon for them to just try and bite rather than run away.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

nice pics... and oh yes did they take a while to load. i'm at work and we've got lots of download speed and it took about 5 minutes to get them all

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Alligator lizards hurt like crazy.

Also, since when did they have a freshwater exhibit?

Great pics Natalie! That was actually interesting!

I love this place! I try and go a couple of times a year. There always updating and changing things so it's always exciting to go. You got some really great pics there! especially of the otters, there suppose to be some new ones or a new exhibit right? Well once again great pics. now I'm itching even more to get my butt down there this summer!! Thanks for sharing

tigermom

Beautiful pics Natalie thanks for posting!
Adam and I hope to get there and chicago next june when we're over for my youngest sibs graduation.

That guy will be henceforth known as "guy scrubbing algae in a tank"

^_^

Alligator lizards aren't that bad... That one got my finger a few times when I was removing some ticks from its ears (and before that I had saved it from drowning - how ungrateful). Then again, some of the other things I've been bitten by could put an alligator lizard to shame - three-foot Snowflake Morays, subadult Black-and-White Tegus, Sun Conures, etc.

The aquarium usually has at least a few freshwater setups, though as the name suggests, it almost exclusively focuses on species from the Monterey Bay. The freshwater tanks are part of a special exhibit with a few kinds of freshwater otters from Africa and Asia, so they also had some tanks/terrariums featuring other animals that share their native habitat (such as vine snakes and tropical fish). Also, now that the Humboldt Squid have invaded the bay from Mexico, they better get some of those guys.

Babel, I'm not sure if they'll still have the exotic otter exhibit next June, but even if they don't the one thing you don't want to miss is the jellyfish display. I think that one is permanent, and it's one of the most impressive exhibits they have (and they frequently change the species they show there, so it's even interesting the fourth time around).

When I went there I saw one tank with some jellyfish that were sitting on the bottom upside-down in "colonies", and their stubby tentacles looked like they were photosynthetic (and not able to catch prey). I tried to get a photo, but because of the shape of the tank I couldn't get any to come out right.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

And since I'm already posting photos here, I'll post this one of a large Ichneumon Wasp I rescued from the garage before I went to work today. Their fearsome appearance often causes them to be needlessly killed upon being sighted, but they are actually completely harmless to humans.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Holy cow that wasp is scaryyyyyy

We have an Ichneumon Wasp in the UK that looks just like that - Ophion luteum. Yours is probably a different species though, as there are hundreds of these things in temperate climates alone ... and identification of ALL members of the Parasitica (the section of the Hymenoptera containing Ichneumon Wasps) requires a professional entomologist with access to dissecting tools and a binocular microscope with 100x magnification capability to examine the genitalia. So determining the species you have is nigh on impossible without dissection.

Many of them are parasitic on the larvae of Lepidotpera (Butterflies & Moths). They inject their eggs into the caterpillars using the long ovipositor at the rear, and the eggs then hatch out. The wasp larvae then eat the caterpillars from the inside out. Bit like Alien.

Your fish photos ... nice! LOVE the full size Congo Tetras!

Your Lake Victoria Cichlid at first sight made me think of the Christmas Fulu, Xystichromis phytophagus, because of its bright colours, but then I realised that some Haplochromis burtoni populations can exhibit similar markings. Howver, since your fish has a very distinctive bright red caudal fin, I'm increasingly inclined to think of it as being the Xystichromis, though it could also be a Haplochromis sp. "Flameback". The Cichlid Room has H. burtoni listed under Astatotilapia, but Fishbase disagrees.

Be advised that Xystichromis phytophagus is variable and quite a few specimens DO exhibit banding unlike the one shown in This page from the Cichlid Room]http://www.cichlidae.com/gallery/species.php?s=44[/link] (for example, try [link=this specimen]http://www.aquarticles.com/images/lnfulu1.jpg[/link] and the photo linked from [link=this page]http://www.africancichlids.net/gallery/index.php[/link] for examples of the variability of this species). For comparison, here is [link=Haplochromis sp. "Flameback".

As for your Julies, the top one looks like Julidochromis dickefldi, and the bottom one like Julidochromis marlieri.

Your "Grouper" ... now that one is causing a couple of headaches! Nearest I can find is Paralabrax clathratus, a large fish that is native to the US West Coast (and occurs in Kelp forests). Fishbase page for that is here]http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=3335&genusname=Paralabrax&speciesname=clathratus[/link]. Similar, but not identical, is Paralabrax maculofasciatus, which again is a native of the region (and specifically listed by [link=Fishbase as being found in Monterey Bay. On the basis of body colour, however, I'd say clathratus is the better match.

Your jellyfish are completely beyond my remit to identify.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

i've been to the monterey bay aquarium.
that place is amazing, by far my favorite aquarium. I especially like the open ocean exhibit.

-Vincent