FAKIEH AQUARIUM, one of Jeddah's premiere cultural and tourism institutions located on the city's beautifully renovated North Corniche, continues to grow and fascinate as it branches out from its Red Sea origins to display strange and wondrous sea creatures from around the world. Just recently, the aquarium acquired sea dragons, a rare and endangered animal closely related to the sea horse, that lives exclusively in the cold waters along the southern coast of Australia. Only about 10 aquariums worldwide exhibit sea dragons, mainly because of the difficulties involved in providing optimum conditions for their survival. The sea dragon is especially adapted to the cold waters of the southern coast of Australia where it has no predators and its staple diet of myses and artemia, tiny brine shrimp, is plentiful. In order for the sea dragon – or any other sea creature with an exclusive natural habitat – to survive outside of the waters off southern Australia, the conditions of their home waters must be duplicated. “Initially, we wanted the public to get a better understanding of the sea life that thrives in the Red Sea,” said Jay Bravo, Clear Reef On-Site manager at Fakieh Aquarium. “And we focused our exhibits along those lines. As we go forward, however, we want to give the public a chance to learn about underwater life from other parts of the world, which is why we chose to bring this very rare and beautiful creature called the sea dragon.” Bravo added, “When the aquarium created the exhibition for the sea dragons, Bravo said authorities had to ensure that the water has the same salinity, the same acidity and the same temperature. “We provide the same amount of light as the creature's native waters. Food, obviously, plays an important role in nurturing sea dragons.” Before putting the sea dragons on display, it was first necessary to wean them from a diet of myses and replace it with frozen food. Behind the scenes at the aquarium, the sea dragons were put in quarantine where meticulous and time-consuming efforts were made to influence them to accept a diet of frozen food. “It takes four hours to feed the quarantined sea dragons as biologists place the food in the water and count and record how many pieces each animal consumes. We had to make sure that they are eating while in quarantine because when they are being exhibited to the public, it is very difficult to know if they are eating or not,” Bravo explained. “What makes this all worth it,” said Jameel Attar, Tarfeeh Fakieh's executive director, “is the realization on the part of the public that they are seeing something unique for the very first time. There is no price that you can put on the smile of a five-year-old or the memories that he or she will carry for the rest of their lives. The Fakieh Aquarium is where families go to gain knowledge and enjoy its state of the art amenities.” Tarfeeh Fakieh's main mission is to spread happiness and share knowledge with the local community. The idea of bringing a smile to a child's face is the main pillar that supports Tarfeeh Fakieh. With all its establishments and restaurants, Tarfeeh Fakieh never fails to bring smiles to families and children, Attar said.
