Malaysia Town

Just a 5-minute-walk from the Petronas Twin Towers, you can arrive at Aquaria KLCC, which is located at the Concourse level of the KL Convention Centre.

Aquaria KLCC is a project initiated, developed and wholly-owned by Aquawalk Sdn Bhd. It was officially opened on 20 August 2005. Aquaria KLCC, which occupies 60,000 square feet, was designed by the New Zealand-based Marinescape Ltd, an aquarium construction and design specialist.

It is a marvelous world-class aquarium zoo that features various kinds of weird, strange, colourful and wonderful creatures that you most probably haven’t seen before, from Malaysia and around the world.

A visit to Aquaria KLCC will make you feel that you are one with the Ocean.

It will take you through a journey of discovery as well as eco-tourism, supported by the latest technologies.

You can go there via the KLCC Park and arrive at the West Entrance. The Main Entrance is at Jalan Pinang, opposite the UOA Building.

You can also go there through a tunnel located at the West of Suria KLCC below the Twin Towers.

When you step into Aquaria, one exciting event will be waiting for you. If you arrive at 11:15am or 4:00pm, you can witness the red-bellied Piranhas tearing apart a 1-foot Tilapia fish.

Mr Azhar, the guide, will tell you that the Piranha is a freshwater meat-eating fish. It has a strong sense of smell. It can smell a single drop of blood 200 litres or 2 miles away. They don’t attack humans but if they are injured, Piranhas might attack them.

Now Mr Azhar announced that if you can guess the time the Piranhas finished eating the 1-foot Tilapia fish, you will get a little reward. The hint was it was between 1 and 3 minutes, counted by a stopwatch.

Many people, especially children, were waiting for the exciting event in anticipation.

View the video below and see the Piranhas tear apart the Tilapia fish and good luck to you guessing the time!

One fish-lover commented that they should feed the piranha fish with more tilapia fish. Haha!

Then I continued my journey deep into Aquaria. Here I highlight the most interesting creatures and things I enjoyed.

1. Touch Pool

First you will reach the touch pool, where you can touch fishes like catfish, if you dare. You can also touch the horseshoe crab. But don’t worry, they won’t harm you. Feel free to feel the slimy and scaly creatures! Children would love it!

This is the horseshoe crab, but don’t worry, it won’t bite or sting, despite its ferocious appearance. But just be careful of the spikes on its sides.

2. The Highlands

After the touch pool, you’ll arrive at the highlands. People were crowding to view the creatures there.

The Red Iguana.

The River Terrapin. Can you guess where is the head?

Look at that cute pig-nosed long-necked turtle. I guess it was smiling to the viewers. Awwwww….

The rock-like Alligator Snapping Turtle.

3. Jewels of the Jungle

After that, you will enter into the mysterious “Jewels of the Jungle” section, where small insects, frogs, spiders, snakes, and other strange jungle creatures will amaze you.

The mysteriously-lighted entrance.

Do you know what insect can survive without a head? The Forest Cockroach! It’s brain is actually scattered throughout its body. If you chop off its head, it will still be as alive as it was… until it dies of thirst after a week.

Did you know that the Bumblebee Dart Frog is one of the most toxic yet tiny (5 cm) animals on Earth?

P.S. 2 micrograms (µg) of its poison can kill as much as……………..

2,200 people!

Argentine Horned Frog a.k.a. Pacman frog. I think it is very fat but cute!

If you came to this blog, I’m sure you know what the World Wide Web is. You are about to witness a true web at its most intricate design.

Next, you’ll see the cute and adorable Coatimundi. It can rotate its nose up to 60 degrees, but the most interesting aspect to me is it likes to rest on a sling, like human babies do.

4. Flooded Forest

Now you will be entering the Flooded Forest, where mangroves grow.

This unique 5.3 metre high Flooded Forest Tube tank enchants visitors with aquatic exhibits that leisurely swim within the water column up
to the treetops.

You will also be greeted by gigantic Arapaimas, one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.

Are you afraid of teeny weeny wriggling things like… worms and worse… millipedes? Here you can come and tremble with fear by seeing, touching and holding them. Do you dare to touch them? I dare!

5. The Coast

At the coast, where the land meets the sea, you can find lion fish, bamboo sharks, and other creatures that live there.

These are the eggs of the Bamboo Shark. If you look closely, you can see the yellow egg yolk and the red embryo moving.

After hatching, it will grow up like this:

Here is a human replica of the coastal areas. You can see corals and creatures from the coast.

6. Oceanarium (The climax of the journey)

Here, you will reach the climax of your journey, which is the main attraction of Aquaria KLCC, the thrilling 90-metre underwater tunnel with a moving walkway, a view only previously accessible to divers. It is the longest underwater tunnel in Malaysia.

Here you will find Sand Tiger Sharks, a Giant Blotched Fantail Ray, Giant Groupers, Turtles, Humphead Wrasses, Blacktip Reef Sharks, Guitarfish and many more!

The tunnel will really amaze you!

The ferocious-looking Sand Tiger Shark is one of the most famous exhibits in Aquaria KLCC.

Just look at those teeth!

The biggest exhibit in Aquaria is the Giant Blotched Fantail Ray

The curved panels have a de-magnifying effect of about 30% visually, so the creatures are actually 30% bigger than seen!

A Leopard/Honeycomb Stingray.

Then I saw a guitarfish, a type of ray. Its underside looks like a smiling human face! Awwww!

Some people tried to touch the creatures because they were so one with the ocean that they forgot they couldn’t.

Another visitor trying to touch the leopard stingray.

This smiling guitarfish stayed on top of the tunnel for quite a long time. Maybe it wants to say ‘hi’ to all of the visitors below.

Actually, that guitarfish looks like this on top.

A Humphead Wrasse.

A Blacktip Reef Shark.

One of the many rays in the aquarium.

This leopard-like eel is very beautiful!

What were these little fishes doing on the Sand Tiger Shark,

and the Giant Grouper?

Small fishes in the ocean are extremely useful to these huge fishes, because they help to eat off the parasites on the big fishes’ bodies and maintain their health.

Here is a video of the underwater tunnel and its fishes. View it for your enjoyment.

After you come out from the tunnel, you can take a rest. At this resting place, there are some products and services that will help you bring back your memories of your visit to Aquaria.

You can 1) Wax your hand,

2) Do a non-permanent body art tattoo,

3) Get a professional cartoon portrait of yourself by Mr. Aloy (10 minutes),

4) Get your name engraved on a grain of rice, which will be put into a pendant on a necklace (3 minutes for the whole process).

Fyna will do it for you.

You can see how she uses the finest-tipped pen to write a name on a grain of rice in seconds.

After your rest, you can continue the journey. Next stop is the Aqua Theatre, which is connected to the huge aquarium at the tunnel.

Here, you can see view the spectacular ocean reef and its inhabitants through a large acrylic window at the Aqua Theatre.

You can see the Giant Grouper here, one of the stars in Aquaria. His breathing is like talking to you. Really cute!

If you can’t find the turtles swimming in the underwater tunnel, you can see that the turtles like to swim around the Aqua Theatre the most. Perhaps they to like entertain the audiences!

A little girl was amazed to see this friendly turtle. Its size is bigger than hers.

This turtle is waving ‘Hi!’ to the audience!

You can also witness daily fish feedings as well as death-defying diving sessions with the sharks at the Aqua Theatre (at 12pm and 3pm)!

Here is a video of a daring diver feeding a Sand Tiger Shark (35 seconds).

During the Christmas season (ended on 27 December 2009), instead of the normal divers, the Scuba Santa will come and feed the fishes. This is one of the most exciting events that you couldn’t miss, especially your children.

If you missed it, you can still witness the normal divers feed the fishes daily, or you can come back next year to say hi to the Scuba Santa, or you can view it on a big screen next to the Aqua Theatre. The video is below. Enjoy!

7. Weird and Wonderful

This section showcases some of the weird and wonderful creatures from the ocean.

Does this look like a rock to you?

Well, actually, it is a stonefish, if you look more closely. It’s camouflage is really effective among the rocks in the sea.

The Nautilus, has a true external shell. The form of the shell itself has fascinated naturalists, mathematicians and physicists for years. The spirally coiled, chambered shell is perfectly proportioned mathematically!

Hi friends, do you know what fish has no brain, no blood, no eye and no nervous system?

The wobbly and jelly-like Moon Jellyfish! Which actually isn’t a fish.

Jellyfish has been around for more than 650 million years which means that they outdate both dinosaurs and sharks

8. Discovery Zone

Now you will be arriving at the Discovery Zone. You can learn about Potbellied Seahorses. They have large swollen bellies.

I’m sure you haven’t seen these marvelous shrimps.

Anemone Shrimp. Doesn’t it look like the Anemone coral?

Harlequin Shrimp. Cleverly disguised as a coral, because it lives in coral reefs.

Camel-back Shrimp.

Besides frogs and toads, what other amphibians do you know?

This is a mudskipper, an amphibious fish, which can breathe oxygen through its lungs, and can crawl with its two pectoral fins. In fact, it can crawl faster than it can swim. Remember the fact that it is a fish!

Have you come across a black-coloured rambutan-like creature? Here it is! The Sea Urchin! But don’t imagine that it is a unique rambutan and eat it. Some are poisonous and can harm you!

You will be learning about endangered species, such as (from top to bottom) the Ocean Sunfish, the Angler Fish, the Barracuda and the Dugong.

The Discovery Zone also showcases the aquarium life support system, which duplicates parts of nature’s life support system.

Then you can take the escalator up to the Atlantis Gift Shop, where you can buy souvenirs. You can find a variety of exclusive aquaria merchandise ranging from fun and colourful apparel, toys, accessories and many more!