Home | Functions | Aquarium | Contact Us | Where to find us | Lake Street, Merimbula | Phone (02) 6495 4446

Merimbula Aquarium

The Merimbula Aquarium has 27 tanks and a fantastic Oceanarium full of large ocean fish and sharks. Fish feeding is the best time to visit as all tanks are fed and the fish become very active. Fish feeding is held every Monday, Wedesday and Friday at 11.30am and Monday to Friday during School Holidays.

Aquarium Kids Club
Held 6.45pm every Wednesday and Thursday nights during January. Activities are held in the Aquarium including a Touch Tank on display for children to hold some some marine creatures.
Aquarium Group Tours
We offer discounts for group bookings and can organize age-specific aquarium tours for school groups. Contact us for more details.

Ollie the octopus is the most intelligent animal on display in the aquarium. He has been taught to unscrew the lid of a jar containing his favorite food, a prawn or live crab!! After getting off the lid, Ollie tackles his prey and puts it into his mouth feeding on it for many hours. Ollie must be entertained with new exciting games and toys. Tests like these keep Ollie out of trouble otherwise he gets bored and visit other tanks!

What's New
Aquarium Curator's Column

Baby Seahorses born
Recently our pot belly seahorse gave birth to live young. In the seahorse world it is the male who gives birth to the babies! The female passes on her eggs to the male and he stores them inside his inflated belly. Here he fertilizes them with sperm and stores them for 28-30 days. After this approximately 250-300 tiny baby seahorses are born through the male’s stomach. Newly born seahorses are small replicas of their parents and will mature at six months of age.

Draughtboard Shark eggs
These eggs were laid by the draught board sharks in the oceanarium. In the wild, females lay flask-shaped egg cases and tangle them around seaweed for anchorage. When laid, the eggs contain a round yolk which the shark feeds on during the process of hatching. A shark embryo is formed on the yolk in the first 30 – 90 days after which it detaches supported by an umbilical cord which transfers nutrient from the yolk. Eventually the egg yolk runs out and the baby shark is strong enough to break free of its egg case. This whole process takes approximately 12 months.

Giant Cuttlefish eggs
Recently we had the pleasure of a female giant cuttlefish laying approximately 200 eggs in our Aquarium. The females lay the spindle-shaped, marble-sized eggs one by one, and each is fertilized by being passed over the pouch of spermatophores (male sperm) stored under her mouth. These eggs take 5 months to hatch. It is interesting to watch the cuttlefish babies develop in the egg. Once hatched most of the babies will be released back into the ocean.

Swimming anemone (Bean Bag Anemone) is sometimes found attached to algae or rocks but is able to move around freely. It can crawl along the bottom or drift with the current. Compared with other anemones, the Swimming Anemone is quite an agile predator as it is able to move around and seek its own food while most other anemones must wait for food to come to them.

The Moray Eel may seem very scary and aggressive with its snakelike, scaleless body and very ugly face but in truth it is not dangerous and will only attack if threatened. The moray eel can commonly be found hidden in rocky crevices or caves leaving only its pointed snout visible and its mouth wide open. Being nocturnal creatures they emerge at night time to hunt for fish and various invertebrates and crustaceans.