One Fish, Two Fish, Red fish, Blue Fish

This morning we had a family outing to the New York Aquarium, just off the boardwalk in Coney Island,


with mixed results.

The first tank you encounter upon entering is a large, lovely, tropical display, with elaborate coral and fish in every color of the rainbow, and Clio did the appropriate shrieking, pointing and squealing. When we pointed out the beautiful (And big!) cownosed rays (like giant sting rays, but not that big), she was really into it for all of five seconds, until one of them did its graceful glide right towards us, and Clio started saying "I don't want it. No ray." over and over again. Chanting, really.

And this became a common refrain: The walrus (huge, magnificent) and its calf (pride of Brooklyn, advertised all over the subways): "No want it. No Walrus."

Furry seals? No.

Adorable family of penguins? A dozen varieties of sea horse? Billowy, ethereal jellyfish? Not even they.

And forget about the sharks, giant turtles, and other large swimming things.

You know what Clio did like? A murky tank of tiny, tiny snails.

I kid you not. These things were so small, at first I thought they had just forgotten to put the "exhibit closed" sign behind the glass. But there they were. The tiniest snails, with the tiniest shells, I have ever seen.


Clio hung out in front of that tank for quite a long time, and it seemed to break her of her "No want it" mood: she ran around this last exhibit with gusto, insisting we take off her jacket so she could get comfortable, stay a while. She grabbed us by the finger and led us through the darkened corridors. I think the kid's got a thing for subtlety: after the snails, the showstopper was the sandfish display, with little wisps of nearly-transparent white fish that skim the water's bottom and cover themselves with sand to blend in. This sophisticated camoflauge was no match for one eagle-eyed toddler.

My favorite? The moon jellyfish. There were giant tanks of them, backlit in neon colors, in a portion of the exhibit called "Alien Stingers." I wouldn't want to encounter them in the wild (see Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself - okay, so those were man-o-wars, but in my childhood mind's eye, they all got clumped together into something very scary), but they do make a beautiful sight to behold.