The Townsville Aquarium, part 2

Part one is here.  Upstairs at the aquarium there is a hands-on area.   There’s also a playground.  We had a browse around while we waited for the talk to start.  Surprisingly, I don’t actually have pictures of the kids touching the various sea creatures we were allowed to interact with.  I was too busy enjoying the experience and monitoring a two-year-old.  Sometimes you just have to step back from the camera.  We watched the man climb into the tank and he taught us how to shuffle our feet through the sand to avoid stepping on stingrays and other creatures. LadyBug was swallowed by a gigantic fish.  Not to worry, she recovered nicely. We found Nemo’s cousin in another anemone. His siblings were being invaded by all sorts of strange children. There’s a rock fish in this tank.  More than one, actually, although I think there’s only one in the picture.  See him? They blend in so incredibly well.  Can you imagine climbing around in the water and stepping on one?  Yikes! We looked at the seahorse tank and wondered if they had come from Seahorse World that we’d visited in Tasmania.  When we were there they told us they supply seahorses to aquariums all over the world. These are those fish that swim around in formation.  They were fun to watch. That fish was swallowing my kids again. At least it wasn’t the shark that got them. Then we headed back downstairs for the dangerous creatures talk and a trip to the turtle hospital.  We learned that certain kinds of cone snails can cause fatalities in humans.  Never pick up a cone shell you find on the beach! One more try of the dive helmet! Then we were off for a visit of the turtle hospital next door!