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Piedmont Park

A shot from my archives that I had not posted before. This was from a stroll through Piedmont Park during Dogwood Festival in 2009. Nice view of the city from here.

Common Discus
(Symphysodon aequifasciatus)

Georgia Aquarium

Love the color and patterns on these.

Moon jelly
(Aurelia aurita)

seen in the Tropical Diver gallery at the Georgia Aquarium

The tank is lit with varying bright colors and make the jellies look like space creatures. Lots of fun to watch them float about.

Georgia Aquarium - Ocean Voyager exhibit

Description from Georgia Aquarium website :

The giant grouper is a reef-associated saltwater fish that dwells in shallow reefs, caves, wrecks and estuaries in tropical climates. It is the largest of all coral reef-dwelling bony fish and feeds on fish, sharks and crustaceans by hiding in reefs and ambushing its prey. The giant grouper can expand its mouth to create a strong suction, which allows it to engulf its unsuspecting food.

Due to over-fishing the giant grouper has been listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List. The giant grouper population is thought to be declining at a rate of 20 percent every 10 years. This species can live to be more than 50 years old, which means it takes some time for younger fish to replace the older, larger fish in an environment.

Georgia Aquarium - Ocean Voyager exhibit

From the Georgia Aquarium website:

This exhibit was specially designed to house whale sharks, the largest fish species in the world. Schools of predatory trevally jacks, squadrons of small and large stingrays, enormous goliath grouper and several sharks all ply the waters of this ocean habitat containing more than six million gallons of saltwater. With 4,574 square feet of viewing windows, a 100-foot-long underwater tunnel, 185 tons of acrylic windows and the second largest viewing window in the world at 23 feet tall by 61 feet wide and 2 feet thick, visitors will have multiple opportunities to view all of these magnificent animals. No other aquarium in the world has ever attempted to manage the variety and size of fish in this major exhibit.