Out & About: Underwater World Langkawi

Took the opportunity to see some fishies recently and I was pleasantly surprised. The sheer number of species on display in good old Langkawi definitely shocked this jaded KL Boy.

The place had no real off odours and was quite well maintained. I would argue that it certainly more than justified the Tourist entrance fee of RM35 (as a MyKad holder we will get a discount of course). Nice.

Main entrance welcome attraction. A huge tank filled with several Arapaima Gigas. These MFs are big I tell you.

Red Tail Catfish, a problem fish for some freshwater aquarists. Cute and sweet while small, but then has this ability to grow up into this large 1.2 meter-ish tadpole! (but still pretty of course).

Weird to find some non fish animals in a park called Underwater World Langkawi, but heck, the animals look well taken care of, so Kudos to the animal keepers!

Blue Tongued Skinks. These look particularly well taken care of, so, Yeayy!

Peek A Boo! I see you chubby-sleepy Leopard Gecko.

The park is built on a plot of land roughly 2 acres in size and the indoor bits are designed to maximise space usage, complete with twists and turns and multi-level displays (even including aquarium tunnels in several parts).

The freshwater fish was I think my favourite. Plenty of well stocked tanks filled with happy healthy fish. It was quite evident from these alone to make the correlation that the fish keepers are really cool people that really love their wards . Each tank was nicely aquascaped with suitable plants and appropriate tank mates - cleaner shrimp, algae eaters, algae snails.

 

 Then after more turns, we reached the larger part of the place. Ocean life displays.

Pretty Sea Cucumber.

Tube Worm

I love the stillness of this fellow. I stood there watching and he barely moved an inch. I guess its way of life is to take things easy and S-L-O-W.

No self respecting Aquarium would be caught without their own Nemo display yes?

Sea Squirt! (Cute name right?)

Some Medusae in a circular tank. Hard to accept that such graceful looking creatures are actually predators.

On to the larger display tanks then.

Giant Grouper. This one was HUGE!! Imagine your fattest and thickest bolster pillow, now imagine 3 of them tied in a bunch. o_O

Sleeping White Tipped Reef Sharks. Interesting to see these resting this way looking out. Left me wondering if they were dreaming of snacking on tourists!

GTs! Giant Trevally. Apparently these are favored game fish, famous for their speed and aggressive nature.

Giant Puffer Fish. This guy not would keep still enough for me to get a picture of his funny face.

You will forgive me for wondering if these would taste nice as Goreng 3 Rasa!

Cautious Spiny Lobster.

Damsel fish display

Blue eyes!

Then we reached the center of the complex with a Penguin tank. Penguins! Yeayyyy! Created to mimic its natural environment of rocky outcrops and gullies, these guys look happy going about their day. And all of them were fat and completely nonplussed by all the gawking spectators.

 

King Of The (ant)Hill!

Mini torpedoes in tuxes

This fella was the only individual who seemed intrigued by all the cameras and gawking people.

More surprises after that. There was an open air display nestled in the heart pf the building with loads of greenery, mock waterfalls and deep Koi pools. A nice change of scene really, moving from dark environs to a completely open air area. 

Pretty Japanese Carp. Hard to imagine they were first cultivated for the table. Now prized as display animals.

Cascade of White blooming Bougainvilleas!

Wonderful verdant greens!