My experience with VIPs ... Very Important Poisson!

The main stage & the Abyss

Return to the main stage, where the VIPs present a ballet each day for visitors to the Grand Aquarium. Continuous show, with their finest finery. First, the Abysses, the glagla place!! Where Aurélie jellyfish and other small and large VIPs flit about. Thomas is at home, introducing us to the different residents. He explains his morning ritual: checking all the aquariums and making sure everyone is doing well. Today, I have the privilege of being more than just a spectator! Thomas asks us to take a good look at the different species. I put myself in his shoes, and that’s when I really understood what a caretaker’s job is.

He asked us to look specifically at the occupants of one of the aquariums – we looked carefully and spotted little white spots on the pine cone fish. Obviously we would never have noticed if Thomas hadn’t been there to accompany us. He reassures us, explaining that it’s not too serious but that his attention is focused on these fish at the moment. And that, of course, just like us the fish can get sick and just like us, we go to work even with a bit of a cold! “The Show must go on”, let’s not forget!

A stop in front of the Japanese crabs, to admire the beauty of their shells. Thomas tells us that as they grow, their shells become too small. They escape by creating a hole in it. Then, over time, a new shell is formed to their size. To put it more simply, they grow and change clothes… just like us when we go from size 8 to 12! Then my gaze falls on a majestic blue lobster, Monsieur le Homard, missing a claw … The whole group has the same reaction as me: “Oh no the poor thing”. Thomas explains that his moult didn’t go well. Yes, he waited too long to change his costume and during his moult, his clip got stuck in his sleeve. He immediately reassures us by explaining that lobster claws grow back! Phew! And then my thought was: “humm a lobster claw with a bit of mayonnaise! But I promise I didn’t do him any harm.

Then another aquarium with three little sharks, two females and a male, lucky bastard you might say!!! Thomas asked us to observe again and we noticed that one of the females had badly damaged fins, but why? Isn’t the poor thing happy in this ménage à trois? Well no, it’s quite the opposite, things are going super well, mating in sharks is quite violent and this female has become a happy mother of 7 baby sharks! That was the Carnet rose moment of this article!

A final hello to these sharks’ housemates, the barracudas. Obviously we’re not talking about Mister T from the Agence Tous Risques, we’re saluting them even if they didn’t want an interview!

The discovery continues and we head off to meet the horseshoe crabs. We go back behind the scenes where there is a whole system for filtering the water, removing bacteria, passing this water through UV filters, for a deep clean and the final stage, a system for returning it to the right temperature. This is the system we use for all the tanks in the Grand Aquarium, so all the residents are in the same boat. They’re all VIPs!

Warm seas

Our immersion continues inthe warm seas, and here it’s hot!Head for the ring of seas with the Grand Aquarium’s big residents, the Bull sharks. Big beasts, who are taken in respect by “Martine” the turtle and her friends, as well as “Jojo” the grouper. The hierarchy here is not always what you might think! If one of the sharks dares to take “Martine’s” food, she lets out her little teeth! What’s more, Suzie, the nurse shark, also gets caught out if she dares to rest in the turtle’s favourite spot!

Second stop, in the warm seas, the seahorse aquarium. The whole family is there in full force. The future seahorse dads are keeping their offspring nice and warm. And yes, gentlemen, in the Seahorse family, it’s the dads who are “pregnant”… a fine example of equality!

Backstage

Thomas shows us the different rooms: the main room with the filtration machines, the hot and cold quarantine rooms and the kitchens. In the quarantine rooms, we find a number of babies of different species, quietly growing. This is also where the caretakers grow their crops. Coral plants and plant and animal plankton. This culture will be used to feed some of the Grand Aquarium’s residents. Another important part of the caretaker’s job is to check the quality of the water in the aquariums. So we’re going to play the little chemist and carry out tests to make sure that everything is in order.

Feeding

Then comes the preparation of the food; we cut up apples, fetch animal plankton and also prawns… not forgetting vitamins to make sure everyone feels in top form! Today, the feeding programme is animal plankton, seahorses, horseshoe crabs and to finish with the piranhas’ cousins and their housemates: turtles.

We start with the smallest, with the plant plankton we feed the animal plankton, with the animal plankton we feed the seahorses. It’s beautiful, the circle of life!

I take care to check that everyone is eating. We mustn’t forget anyone! Seahorses are small but they eat three times a day! Unlike sharks, which only eat twice a week! And yes, it’s not the biggest that eat the most.

Then I take the prawns, which we had prepared, and use a long rod to peck the horseshoe crabs. Individual feeding experience that allows you to get closer to the animal, it’s really something else than just putting the food in the tank there we give each horseshoe crab, a shrimp. We take the time to live in the moment, to let the horseshoe crab catch the shrimp.

My feeding session ends in the mangrove part of the aquarium, which is where we give apples to the piranha’s cousins because unlike their cousins, they’re vegetarians! I stop to watch a turtle munch its apple full mouth. When she realises I’m watching her, she stops eating… Oops! I’ve disturbed her while she’s eating. What a delight to be able to observe these VIPs up close.

The experience ends with the tactile pool, where Thomas allows us to stroke the Koi carp. A rather curious sensation, as we’re not used to touching fish, and that’s when I realise that the fish are soft! A quick hello to the scallops, who are trying to water us because of the disturbance, and it’s already time to say goodbye!

Clap at the end!

A big thank you to Thomas, who also thanks us and then, supreme pleasure, gives us a diploma! Great honour, we become carers for a day. Thanks to this experience, we’re more aware and more involved! Now I’m going to admire the ballet of the VIPs (Very Important Fish) and realise just how important and committed a carer’s job really is.