Fluvarium

      What is a Fluvarium you ask, well let me tell you.  The word Fluvarium is derived from the Latin root “fluv” meaning flowing water.  Fluvarium therefore literally means “windows on a stream”, and aptly describes the nine large viewing windows that allow you to look into a natural, freshwater habitat. 

     The kids LOVED it.  The first floor was the museum where they talked about water and had some hands on for the kids to play.  There was a large toy dragonfly that had a basket around it's neck for the kids to throw balls into, and then a little corn-hole board that the kids could toss beanie frogs into.  There was a video (that the kids did not care about) that explained the Rennie River and Quidi Vidi Lake system and the history of it.  The Fluvarium is built next to the river and when you are looking through the viewing windows on the bottom floor you are looking into the river. 

Playing with the Dragonfly

    The bottom floor was a semi circle wall of windows, the  building is a circle, that allow you to look into the river and see the fish that happen to be passing through.  The way it is set up they have built a small pool of water that the river flows into before passing into the lake.  They had about 8 brown trout in there right now and the worker explained that brown trout are the main fish they see, occasionally they will have a juvenile salmon, but they look a lot like the brown trout so it is hard to differentiate between the two.  They will occasionally see a brook trout as well.  The woman that worked there was full of information and was very helpful.  She told us that they have seen a mink in the water "fishing" and once there was a moose that was walking through the pool of water to eat the grasses.  You could only see the Moose's legs, but how neat would that have been. 

    On the third floor they have fish tanks that are fed from the river water.  It is set up so that the water comes in from outside and then travel down the tanks, each tank is lower than the previous one.  The water is maintained naturally.  In the winter they have to add oxygen to the tanks because the river is moving so slowly but that and wiping the walls of the tanks is the only maintenance they do.

in front of one of the viewing windows

brown trout

 

in front of the 12 year old salmon

Green Frog

 At the Fluvarium they incubate salmon eggs and green frog eggs.  The salmon eggs they will release into the river in the summer and the green frogs they keep some in the Fluvarium others go outside.  They also have programs set up with schools in town where the grade 2 will get the green frog tadpoles and watch them grow.  The salmon eggs have the same set up but they go to grade 4.  We learned the difference between a black duck and a mallard and we learned that a green head mallard goes through a phase called eclipse.  It was nice that we were the only people there and the worker was almost our personal tour guide.