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Discovery Cove: Q&A with aquarium supervisor Denise Swider
Last week, Discovery Cove opened its new Grand Reef to guests. The area will be home to up to 10,000 fish. We talked with Denise Swider, Discovery Coves aquarium supervisor, about the full-time residents.
QUESTION: Where does one acquire fish?
ANSWER: I have different sources, but I acquire fish from really all around the world. It was a matter of picking out the best fit for this environment as well as whats going to look the prettiest for the guests. You have to have that balance. There are some other beautiful fish that might not be a great fit for what we have here. So its finding the beauty and the color and the adaptability, too, to this reef.
Q: Do you judge by disposition as well?
A: Oh, absolutely. There are definitely some fish that we would not want to have out here because they might be nippier. They may want to check out the guests more. We have to have very docile fish, and fish that are going to be community fish that will get along with all the other fish in here. We do have the lionfish exhibit and the eel tank, so those are animals that might not have the disposition for being with the guests, but it gives the guest the opportunity to actually swim right up to animals that you wouldnt want to get that close to in a natural environment.
Q: What would you say is one of the pretty fish?
A: Probably our collection of butterflies. We have probably at least 20 species of butterfly fish in here. There are really all colors: a lot of yellows, oranges, black, white, red. They are really are just so beautiful as they dart in and out of the corals. We have a few signature fish that we have one or two of, but really overall, to swim it, I think its the butterflies that youre going to notice for their color.
Q: Where do butterflies come from?
A: All oceans of the world. Depending on the species, they come from all over. We have them from everywhere.
Q: Is there a fish that was most difficult to get?
A: One of the animals in here that was the hardest to get that I had wanted to get for years for our other reef were our zebra sharks. Theyre native to Asia, Australia, that part of the world not quite as accessible to aquariums as some other sharks. I was really fortunate to be able to get some from other aquariums that had bred them. So we do have the captive-bred zebra sharks in here.
Q: Are all the animals on stage?
A: We do have some holding pools that we can use for acclimating animals in and out of the exhibit. And if for whatever reason, we just need to pull one off to give it a little TLC, were able to put them in our back holding pools. That was another great thing we were able to add with Grand Reef.
Q: Tell me about the lionfish.
A: Lionfish are a specific fish but because theyve been introduced into the Caribbean waters through we dont really even know exactly where they came from, possibly just someone dumping them from their aquarium. They dont have natural predators in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean, so they are a very predatory fish. Theyre kind of taking over the reefs. Theyre outcompeting and even eating some of the native species, so theyre actually trying to have people get rid of them. They have groups who go out just to catch lionfish. And the lionfish that we have in our exhibit here are the ones that came from the Caribbean, so we are taking them off the reefs, which is a great thing to help out our native fish.
Q: Whats your favorite fish?
A: I think the broomtail wrasse. Its beautiful. It has little pink spots on it. Theyre large the tail actually looks like a broom they can get up to about 2 feet long. The one we have in here is a little over a foot long. They have beautiful greens and pinks and blues.
Q: And they have pleasing personalities?
A: They DO have pleasing personalities
Last week, Discovery Cove opened its new Grand Reef to guests. The area will be home to up to 10,000 fish. We talked with Denise Swider, Discovery Coves aquarium supervisor, about the full-time residents.
QUESTION: Where does one acquire fish?
ANSWER: I have different sources, but I acquire fish from really all around the world. It was a matter of picking out the best fit for this environment as well as whats going to look the prettiest for the guests. You have to have that balance. There are some other beautiful fish that might not be a great fit for what we have here. So its finding the beauty and the color and the adaptability, too, to this reef.
Q: Do you judge by disposition as well?
A: Oh, absolutely. There are definitely some fish that we would not want to have out here because they might be nippier. They may want to check out the guests more. We have to have very docile fish, and fish that are going to be community fish that will get along with all the other fish in here. We do have the lionfish exhibit and the eel tank, so those are animals that might not have the disposition for being with the guests, but it gives the guest the opportunity to actually swim right up to animals that you wouldnt want to get that close to in a natural environment.
Q: What would you say is one of the pretty fish?
A: Probably our collection of butterflies. We have probably at least 20 species of butterfly fish in here. There are really all colors: a lot of yellows, oranges, black, white, red. They are really are just so beautiful as they dart in and out of the corals. We have a few signature fish that we have one or two of, but really overall, to swim it, I think its the butterflies that youre going to notice for their color.
Q: Where do butterflies come from?
A: All oceans of the world. Depending on the species, they come from all over. We have them from everywhere.
Q: Is there a fish that was most difficult to get?
A: One of the animals in here that was the hardest to get that I had wanted to get for years for our other reef were our zebra sharks. Theyre native to Asia, Australia, that part of the world not quite as accessible to aquariums as some other sharks. I was really fortunate to be able to get some from other aquariums that had bred them. So we do have the captive-bred zebra sharks in here.
Q: Are all the animals on stage?
A: We do have some holding pools that we can use for acclimating animals in and out of the exhibit. And if for whatever reason, we just need to pull one off to give it a little TLC, were able to put them in our back holding pools. That was another great thing we were able to add with Grand Reef.
Q: Tell me about the lionfish.
A: Lionfish are a specific fish but because theyve been introduced into the Caribbean waters through we dont really even know exactly where they came from, possibly just someone dumping them from their aquarium. They dont have natural predators in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean, so they are a very predatory fish. Theyre kind of taking over the reefs. Theyre outcompeting and even eating some of the native species, so theyre actually trying to have people get rid of them. They have groups who go out just to catch lionfish. And the lionfish that we have in our exhibit here are the ones that came from the Caribbean, so we are taking them off the reefs, which is a great thing to help out our native fish.
Q: Whats your favorite fish?
A: I think the broomtail wrasse. Its beautiful. It has little pink spots on it. Theyre large the tail actually looks like a broom they can get up to about 2 feet long. The one we have in here is a little over a foot long. They have beautiful greens and pinks and blues.
Q: And they have pleasing personalities?
A: They DO have pleasing personalities
