World Aquarium Extreme Tour

Happy Tuesday! I am shamelessly using this picture of a two-toed sloth eating a green bean at the World Aquarium to get your attention. Did you know sloths do almost everything upside down, even drink water? The come out of the tree about once a week to go to the bathroom and that's it!

Second runner up for cute goes to the honey bears who live with the sloth. They are very shy and like bananas. Look how he holds your hand while taking the slice!

This adorable puffer fish was raised in captivity and doesn't know the stress or danger that would cause him to puff up. If he did, he would kill all the other fish in the tank with his poison, even other puffer fish. All he cares about is the red bowl that the tour guide carries.

This is the red bowl, full of shrimp, sardines, tilapia, and other assorted tidbits that make aquarium animals happy. When you do a private tour at the World Aquarium, you don't need to pay to get into the City Museum. Our guide met us near the entrance with the bowl of fish goodies.

Here's a happy stingray begging for a snack. The World Aquarium has several species of stingray. Some are small and more docile while others are pretty big and like to splash.

These are doctor fish, which you may have seen at a nail salon, especially if you have traveled in Asia. Doctor fish don't have teeth, but they like to nom your dead skin. The Extreme Tour is very hands-on.

Except when it's not. The moray eel has two mouths, and the one inside its throat has teeth. You don't want to stick your hands in an eel tank, ever, which is why we fed the eel with tongs.

This guy had a tumor on his face and had surgery, and now his bite is weak. Sea turtles can only be kept in captivity if they have a serious injury that would prevent them from getting enough to eat on their own. If they heal from the injury, back to sea they go. Sea turtles can't be bred in captivity because they have to return to the beach where they were born to lay their eggs!

This is not me holding the scorpion. I'm not big on touching bugs and fishes, but worse, you can kill a scorpion by dropping it. I didn't want to be that klutz.

I held a ball of bull snakes, though! Bull snakes get their name from pretending to be rattlesnakes. Full of bull, get it? Holding a ball of snakes is way creepier than just one snake because you can't see the far side to know where all the heads are.

Of course, I don't want to give you the WHOLE tour. You'll have to go to the City Museum for that. Admission to the World Aquarium is $8, $6 for members of the military, and $6 for groups of 10 or more. They have several private tour options, and you can often find them on Groupon. Check out their website for all the details!