The Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank is an Aquarium favorite. When you walk into the Aquarium's West Wing, it's easy to bee-line right to this beautiful, interactive exhibit filled with gregarious cownose rays and fascinating sharks. But you'd be missing a gem of a tank at the entrance to the exhibit. So stop for second, get quiet and belly up to the live mangrove display on your right.

Here's a quick peek at the tank—Vine-video-style. (If you have the Vine app, look for us @NEAQ!)

This tank is bursting with life—from speedy fish, to colorful anemones to hermit crabs to the upside-down jellies to live plants! Let's get to know a couple of the stars of this tank so you can impress your fellow visitors with your knowledge.

An upside-down jelly

First up, the upside-down jelly, (Cassiopea xamachana). These jellies lie on the sandy bottom with their four branching tentacles left to sway in the water. The bluish fringe contains symbiotic zooxanthallae, which are tiny plants that make food for the jelly. Those tentacles also filter nutrients and plankton out of the water. Scientists studying mangrove ponds in Belize know these tentacles also pack a bit of a sting, too.

By Aquaimages [CC-BY-SA-2.5] via Wikimedia Commons

Don't forget the copperband butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus). You may have noticed this guy zoom past the camera during the jelly clip. These fast, flat fish have a long snout that helps them eat small crustaceans, worms and coral polyps. It is an asset to this exhibit, too, because it likes to snack on parasites that might hitch a ride into the exhibit!

A speedy fusilier

The double-lined fusilier (Pterocaesio digramma) are easy to spot with two bright yellow stripes against their sleek bluish-silver bodies. While they are related to snapper, they are well adapted to eating smaller prey such as crustaceans that live in the silty layer on the bottom of a mangrove stand.

Photo: Nick Hobgood [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Tube anemones look quite graceful dotting the tank. Take a close look and you'll notice two distinct rings of tentacles and a tube-like body. The outer ring of tentacles is for defense and capturing prey. The inner ring is used to manipulate their food. If disturbed, they can completely retract into their tube! These anemones are different from other anemones, like the green anemones, and attach to the substrate by secreting a hard mucus tube.

via Wikimedia Commons

And what would a mangrove exhibit be without mangrove plants! We have some young plants that have started to put down roots, along with some sculptural mangrove roots. Mangroves are incredibly important marine habitats. They provide a cozy nursery for sharks and other fish to grow up, they are essential for healthy coral reefs, they protect coasts from storm damage and they are a carbon sink! But there has been a 17 percent decline in mangrove forests since 1980, according to the IUCN.

With all the animals that call this tiny tank home, just imagine all the marine animals in the wild that are threatened by the loss of mangrove habitats. The best way to save mangroves is to prevent them from being destroyed in the first place. Conservation organizations around the world are working to protect mangrove forests from deforestation and pollution.

-Dave Allen contributed information for this entry

Next week is December school vacation, so the Aquarium will be filled with families! However, the week before the holidays is pretty quiet, making it a great time to visit. One of the many benefits of coming to the Aquarium when it isn't extremely busy is that you can spend more time looking at the exhibits and closely observing the many inhabitants. And one of the best exhibits to take a closer look? The Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank!

Whitespotted bamboo sharks have dark stripes and white spots

Both species of bamboo sharks are benthic-type sharks, spending much of their time on the sandy bottom. To prevent being bothered by other animals (or predators) the sharks will find hiding places in which to rest. Coral reef overhangs or mangrove roots provide great cover and allow the sharks to rest in peace and quiet. And as our exhibit has lots of overhangs and roots, our exhibit animals take full advantage of these spaces!

So next time you are at the shark and ray touch tank, take a peek under the coral pieces that dot the exhibit or among the roots of the mangrove trees. You may just spot a shark resting on the sandy bottom.

Resting on the sand



In the mangrove roots

White spotted bamboo shark

You can learn a lot about the animals in The Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank from the educators working in the exhibit. And they usually bring some interesting visual aids along with them, too.

You might see one of them holding what looks like an elongated, dried out dumpling with strings trailing from it. What could it be?

Well, some sharks give birth to live young, but other sharks lay egg cases with embryos inside. The biofact (A biofact is a combination of the words artifact and biology, used to refer to preserved items such as animal bones, skins, molts and eggs.) below on the right is actually an egg case laid by a white spotted bamboo shark.

White spotted bamboo shark egg cases

White spotted bamboo sharks are a type of bottom-dwelling shark found in the Pacific Ocean from Madagascar to Indonesia and Japan. They are a type of oviparous shark, which means they lay eggs that hatch outside of the body. Once the male fertilizes the eggs, the female has the hard task of finding a safe spot to lay them.

In many sharks that lay eggs, the embryo takes several months to grow and hatch. By finding a secure hiding spot, the female can increase the embryo's chance of survival. In many places, females will find a spot around coral reefs or among the roots of mangroves. She attaches the eggs by wrapping a sticky tendril around the reef or root to help anchor the case.

Baby shark development inside casing.

The white spotted bamboo shark, as well as many other shark and fish species, rely on mangroves (learn more about mangroves on the Global Explorers Blog) as nurseries and places to rest. Without them, these animals would have a hard time raising their young.

Whitespotted bamboo sharks are listed as Near Threatened. They are hunted in India, Thailand, and China for human consumption and for traditional Asian medicines and they are also threatened by the destruction of mangrove habitat that occurs when coastal areas are developed.

Stepping into the West Wing at the Aquarium, most people’s first instinct is to go directly for the new shark and ray touch tank. That’s totally understandable, because who doesn’t want to touch some awesome cartilaginous fishes?! However, just running for the touch experience will make you miss out on some really cool animals in this area. When you first come in, on your right, you’ll find our new mangrove exhibit. This exhibit is home to some awesome animals, one of my favorite being the pink and yellow sea cucumber (Pentacta anceps).

Our new exhibit, The Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank, gives visitors a great view of a simulated mangrove ecosystem in the 25,000 gallon main tank, and there's also a live red mangrove exhibit.



The term “mangrove” refers to both individual species and entire plant communities. Many of these species are unrelated, but they all share similar adaptations to living in salty water, low oxygen, and exposure to wind and waves. There are at least 50 species of trees and shrubs called mangroves. Individual species form habitats collectively know as mangroves.



Mangroves are found along tropical and subtropical coasts of Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas. The closest mangroves to us are in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, the Caribbean and Central America. The four species in the Americas are red mangrove, black mangrove, white mangrove and buttonwood. You can read about a research trip by Aquarium scientists to mangroves in Belize here and here.

Mangroves thrive in intertidal zones of sheltered shores, islands and estuaries. They grow in soft shoreline sediment and have specialized root structures that increase their stability. They can grow in soils that are too salty for other plant species because some species have specialized root membranes that exclude salt and some species excrete salt from glands on each leaf.



For shoreline protection: Complicated networks of mangrove roots absorb pollutants and prevent coastal erosion. Seagrass beds and coral reefs depend on mangroves to maintain water quality and clarity. In areas prone to hurricanes and tsunamis, mangroves save human lives and property by reducing wave velocity by up to 75 percent.

For habitat: Many birds, fishes, reptiles, mammals and invertebrates use mangroves for foraging, roosting and breeding. One study has suggested that up to 80 percent of commercial fish in South Florida began in mangrove nurseries. In addition, many species of sharks, some similar to those in our touch tank, spend their early years among the safety of mangrove roots.