Chattanooga's Tennessee Aquarium: Part 4

Our journey through the aquarium was coming to an end as we headed to the deep sea exhibits.

In the previous entries of this series, my wife and I spent some time walking the grounds and visiting the seahorses and starfish, we survived rats, alligators, snakes, and comedic turtles, and we were whisked away to a tropical paradise with weird monkeys and colorful butterflies. As the grand finale to our adventure, the aquarium's maze of rooms and exhibits brought us to the deep sea.

The following is a true account of our time below sea level.

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As we made our way under the sea, we first stopped to visit a few shallower-water friends. We were able to get fairly close to this one, despite the fact that it was likely very dangerous.

I thought this fish had eyes, at first. I'm still not sure if it did. Good thing there were no natural predators in the tank with him.

I don't know what kind of fish this is. I'm not even sure if it is a fish. I think it might actually be a duck-billed platypus.

He was enjoying his time with the humanfish visitors.

"Weeeeeeeeee!!!"

"Hi guys. Will you be my friend?"

We moved a little deeper into the ocean and found ourselves swimming with the bigger fishes...

And turtles...

And...

Shark!

We didn't stick around. It was too scary. (And the turtles and sharks were moving around too quickly to get any good photos.)

So, off to the lowest levels in the sea we went. This strange creature was there to greet us. It looked like it was crying about something.

We found a deep-sea reef of some sort.

And some silly bright fish. Don't they know that bright colors aren't very good camouflage for dark places? They're going to end up eaten someday...or stuck in someone's fish tank.

We entered the bottom floor of the exhibit and were invited to try some jelly. But there was some confusion, because all we saw were these stringy looking objects floating around in tanks.

We asked someone where the snacks were...but they just looked at us like we were stupid. Then I figured that they probably didn't speak any English.

As we walked around looking for help, we overheard a kid talking about the "jellied-fish." Then we realized...

The objects in the tank are the jelly! But we had never seen jelly like this before!

I asked one of the employees if the jelly in the tank was made from fish - and if the water helped with the jellifying process. He laughed at me.

I thought that was pretty rude, but I wasn't going to let it ruin my afternoon.

Then I saw a sign. It said that the objects in the tank were actually "jellyfish." Apparently, these things are a type of sea creature that is alive...not jellied at all. And they're not tasty either.

In fact, they can sting you!

Why would anyone name these "jelly" fish??? It sends the wrong message entirely and can easily confuse children!

Think about the children!!!

Now that my wife and I understood what we were dealing with, I decided to just take pictures and not worry about eating.

This one was called, "The Upside-Down."

Taking a video of these would have captured the flow of changing colors inside of them. But this isn't a videography post and we have to be careful with the tags we use.

"Look! I can put my tentacles over my head!"

I think these two were having an intimate moment. New baby jellies coming...soon.

I simply cannot believe that I didn't get a single photo with the entire trail of tentacles.

Don't worry. I fired myself.

"Jellies to the m000000n!!!"

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That's all for the Tennessee Aquarium Series! I hope you enjoyed it!

What was your favorite part? Have you ever been to this aquarium? Do they have any new or special exhibits now? Tell us about it!

Thanks for stopping by once again to experience some of my summer vacationing! There's still so much more to come, so stay tuned!

All photos were taken with my Canon 6D.

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Image courtesy of @mynameisbrian