Hey guys, as some of you might remember, I took a trip to Branson, MO with my parents back to December. This is my LJ post about one of the places I visited-a fish hatchery. It was rather interesting, so I thought I'd post about it for those who might want to read it. It's a bit longish, though, so be warned.
I read about it from a "Places to Visit In Branson (For Free)" website and thought it actually sounded neat, mainly because I wanted to see the really big fish in the aquariums. The first part of the hatchery was a small building with some information signs, with some pretty dry info. Then, near the back they had several aquariums, but the ones that normally contained the big fish were empty. The glass bore a note saying the fish had been moved because of the weather.
Nearby though was an aquarium with two turtles inside, one large and the other about medium sized. The turtles were neat to look at, although the younger one had me somewhat concerned. You see, the aquarium was half full with water and they had several layers of rocks set up where, on the left side, a turtle could easily crawl out of the water and climb to the right, reaching almost to the top of the aquarium lights. Well, there was a small gap between the rocks and the glass of the aquarium, and the younger turtle, swimming in the water, was paddling up against the glass, head poked out, seemingly straining to get out of the water. Well, there was no way to get out of the water from that section, we'd have to turn around and climb out from the left side. I just hope the fellow figured this out before he got exhausted and drowned.
Hopefully that's unlikely to occur, but I have no idea how intelligent turtles are...
Turtle Power!
Out back was where all the hatchery sections were kept.
There were about a dozen wide trenches filled with water and covered with curved steel bars on rollers (which, I assume they move when they want to take all the fish out.) Between the bars, they strung a tennis court like net, which, according to the sign, was to keep nearby birds from swooping down and snatching the fish out of the water. On the far end of the trenches was some kind of air cycling system, and the other side was a uncovered area where the biggest fish tended to be kept.
Another neat thing is they had vending machines (constructed oddly similar to wooden birdhouses) where, for a quarter, you could buy a small amount of fish food. Having read about this on the website, I knew to have mom bring some zip lock bags along, so we wouldn't have to keep running back and forth for more pellets.
Now, obviously, this is mainly a gimmick just to make a little extra money on the side, as people (kids especially) like feeding the fish. It was kind of funny to toss in a small handful of food and see all the fish practically jumping out of the water to snap it up. These guys definitely weren't behaving quite the way fish in nature would behave around humans, in fact, at one point a full legion of them were "following" us as we walked along the pit.
Tossing in a handful of fish pellets sent these guys into a mad dash for food.
Anyway, it was an interesting stop, although I was a bit disappointed by the aquarium selections (for starters, I thought there'd be MORE aquariums.) Also, with the dark water and the overcast sky, we couldn't see the fish too well. Course, I suppose had it been a nice, summer day the place would have SMELLED a lot more ripe than it did. Still, I thought it was definitely worth the time.
Neat fact: it takes 1,500 pounds of fish food to feed all the fish for ONE DAY.
Oh, forgot to mention, outside the hatchery there was a small resting area with some plants and whatnot. Among other thing, they had these weird looking purple plants everywhere. No idea what they were (I think there was a sign somewhere with that information, but I forgot to take note of it.)
Seriously, what the heck are those? Looks like something that should be
deep in the ocean somewhere...
