National Aquarium Denmark

The former aquarium

Denmark's Aquarium in Charlottenlund started construction in 1937 and was opened in 1939. In 1974, this aquarium was expanded to feature five large landscape aquaria and a biological museum with theme-based exhibits and aquariums. In 1990, the facility was further expanded by a new front hall, café, improved toilet facilities and a schooler service. In the final years before the closure of the aquarium in Charlottenlund, it had about 1,000,000 litres (220,000 imp gal; 260,000 US gal) of water in about 70 aquarium tanks.

New aquarium

Den Blå Planet opened in 2013 in Kastrup, a suburb of Copenhagen. It resembles a whirlpool when seen from above. It often is, being close to the Copenhagen Airport. It was designed by Danish architects 3XN. To reduce energy consumption the building is equipped with cooling units using seawater from Øresund and double glazing. It covers a total of 12,000 m² (130,000 sq ft), including the 10,000 m² (110,000 sq ft) building and 2,000 m² (22,000 sq ft) outdoors (excluding parking spaces).

In the first year of existence, the aquarium received approximately 1.3 million visitors – twice as many as expected. As a consequence of this extra wear, as well as a wish of improving public education, 12.5 million DKK (approx. 2.3 million US$; 1.7 million €) were used for changes and renovations of the aquarium.

The Blue Planet contains about 7,000,000 litres (1,500,000 imp gal; 1,800,000 US gal) of water divided into 53 exhibits. There are five main sections:

The Rainforest

The rainforest section is home to dwarf and Philippine crocodiles, arowanas, pacus, freshwater stingrays, large catfish, boa constrictors, violet turaco and more. This section also has an aquarium with a big school–about 3,000–of piranhas. Near the rainforest is the smaller grotto section, with aquaria for cave tetra, various electric fish (electric eel and elephantfish) and other fish found in dark freshwater habitats.

The African Great Lakes

Exhibits for Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. Primarily aimed at cichlids, but also home to other fish such as Nile perch (highly predatory and therefore separated from the Victoria cichlids by acrylic glass), and the section above the aquaria are home to village weaver birds, and other small animals.

Evolution and adaption

Aimed at fish evolution and adaption, and contains a mangrove aquarium with four-eyed fish, archerfish, mudskippers and alike, as well as aquaria for Apalachicola snapping turtle and primitive fish such as bichir, gar and lungfish. This includes the oldest fish in the aquarium, an Australian lungfish that arrived at Denmark's Aquarium in Charlottenlund in 1967 when already a young adult (its full age is unknown).

Cold Water

Primarily home to native Danish species from fresh- and saltwater. Among others, it includes a touch pool, and a large North Atlantic aquarium with a 15 m (49 ft) tall seabird cliff, which is home to cod, wolffish, conger, puffin and other species. Non-native species in or near the Cold Water section are giant Pacific octopus, sea anemones and more. This section also housed California sea lions for a period (their previous home, Bergen Aquarium in Norway was being renovated). In early 2014 they were moved to a permanent home at La Palmyre Zoo, France. Following modifications, a pair of sea otters moved into the former sea lion exhibit in October 2014, making the aquarium one of only two places where this species can be seen Europe (the other is Lisbon Oceanarium, Portugal).

The Warm Ocean

This section contains the largest aquarium in Blue Planet, the 4,000,000-litre (880,000 imp gal; 1,100,000 US gal) Ocean tank. It is home to sharks (zebra shark, blacktip reef shark, wobbegongs and young scalloped hammerheads), stingrays, eagle rays, guitarfish, moray eels, golden trevallies, groupers and more that can be seen through the 16 by 8 m (52 by 26 ft) main window, which is 45 cm (18 in) thick. There is also a 16 m (52 ft) long shark tunnel. Opposite the Ocean Tank is the 16 m (52 ft) long coral reef with living corals and reef fish. There are also various smaller aquaria with species such as shrimpfish, weedy seadragon, seahorses, a Mediterranean aquarium, and the highly venomous stonefish, lionfish and olive sea snake.