GOVERNMENT AQUARIUM

Hello everyone,

This weekend I visited a place that I  visited one of my favorite places in Bangalore, the Government Aquarium, and this being my second visit to this place, I decided to document my visit through my sketches. Situated in Kasturba Road at the entrance of Cubon Park, the aquarium is quite close to other Kasturba Road attractions like the Government Museum and the Visveshwarya Technology Museum.If one gets down at the Mahatma Gandhi statue bus stop one can easily spot the octagonal shaped building at the corner of the road.

The aquarium building is fairly new, being inaugurated in the year 1983, and holds the distinction of being the second largest aquarium in the country. Unlike the other Kasturba Road attractions this building's design doesnot resemble the colonial buildings, but instead is quite quirky and different in style. It is octagonal in shape and is three stories tall.

The ground floor is occupied by administrative office and laboratory which is accessible by the common public. A spiral pathway to the right leads to the main building. The tanks are spread out in two floors, and the inside are purposefully kept dark, so that illuminated tanks become the center of attractions.The aqaurium houses a variety of freshwater fishes. The first floor consists of a row of tanks containing the larger fishes namely a couple of oscar fishes, a tankfull of  grey pangasius catfishes and another tank containing a shoal of albino pangasius catfish. There is also a huge and mature aligator gar, and some goldfishes.

In the second floor there is two rows of tanks, containing both small and large fishes. The main attractions being a couple of tanks housing some really big arowana fish and a couple of tanks containing some alligator gars. Me being a hobby aquarist, I have kept a large variety of fresh water fishes over the years, was really disappointed and saddened at the condition of some of the fishes. The aqaurium has quite a few varities of Cichlids, and Cichlids being quite aggressive fishes are prone to a lot of infighting and needs constant attention and timely treatment of wounds. Unfortunately the fish keepers at the aquarium does not seem to be doing their job as many of the cichlids have scarred and wounded fins and have bacterial infections growing on their wounds. Also there was one tank housing quite a good variety of cichlids but the all of the fishes in that tank were very sick visible from the wounds in their fins and their compressed bellies. Also many of the tanks were empty or had wrong information mentioned on top of the tank.

There were quite a few healthy tanks too like the one in the ground floor containing a shoal of eel fish and another one containing a shoal of black ghost knife fish. Overall I feel that the fishes could do with some more love and care, and some of the tanks should be fitted with better filtration to keep the fishes in the prime of their health. Also I feel that the aquarium can keep some more varieties of  fishes like Discus fishes which are very beautiful and quite expensive and most good aquariums would atleast have one tankful of Discus fishes. The aquarium can become a major attraction if a little care and attention  is paid to the running of the aquarium. It has the potential to be a entertaining and educative experience for children.

All said I still love the aquarium, it's just the condition of some of the fishes that saddens me and I hope the authorities do enough to take care of this place.