Meeting Notes

March, 2009

Rick Quinteros gave a talk on "Breeding the Amazonia Collection" for the March meeting.

Rick is an ichthyologist, or fish biologist as he calls it. He gave a talk about his job at the Amazonia exhibit at the National Zoo, where he works with all aspects of the exhibition.

Rick said that 90% of the animals at Amazonia are fish, and there are about 40 species of fish.

The former site of the polar bear pens at the National Zoo was retrofitted for the Amazonia exhibit. The polar bears did not do well at the National Zoo, and the area was dismantled and built up for Amazonia.

The tanks in Amazonia get a 50% water change weekly. They have 32,000 gallons on exhibit, and they have a reservoir of water with 29,000 gallon total capacity.

The first pool is "the flooded forest" at the entrance to Amazonia. Sting rays are the main attraction. It is filled with 32 female Sting Rays, representing five species. The National Zoo has been very succesful in breeding Sting Rays. The males are kept in another area, and the zoo is selectively breeding them. It is also filled with Silver Arowanas, Discus, and thousands of guppies. He said the zoo has "hundreds of thousands of guppies" in the exhibition spaces.

The next exhibit is "Giant River Fish." The star attractions are the Arapaima which get to nine feet long and can weigh 250 pounds. They are one of the world's largest fresh water fish. The zoo's Arapaima are about 20 years old and are long-lived.

Another area of interest is the Field Station which was inspired by Dr. Stan Weitzman, Rick said. This area has different elements, including a collection of poison frogs.

They feed the exhibit pools every other day. There is a nutritional lab in the building. There is a another exhibit which is a large sphere, six feet across, with four projectors making a unique exhibition space and nice feature for presentations. Imagine a six foot sphere with the earth projected onto it, as if the Astronauts were seeing the Earth. The spherical exhibition changes with other projects.

Mark Harnet