If you like sharks, eels, piranhas, and all different kinds of fish, then the BGSU Aquarium is a place you'll want to see. Housed on the second floor of the Life Sciences building on the main campus, the lab was started in 1963 by Cynthia Strong, Steve Toth and John Young to house marine animals they had collected on a trip.
The aquarium now houses many more than the five 10 gallons tanks originally set up by Strong, Toth and Young. There are coral reef tanks, cold water tanks, salt water tanks, freshwater tanks, and a wave tank. There is even a touch tank where anyone can pick up the creatures and play with them. The facility remains the only such aquatic laboratory at an Ohio university.
Overall the lab maintains more than 60 aquariums, holding over than 3,000 gallons of seawater and providing homes for a diverse mix of marine organisms, such as: starfish, corals, sea urchins, snails, crabs, lobsters, algae, sharks, eels, and a large variety of fish. And just as with the first creatures in the lab's first tanks, most of the marine life at the aquarium is collected by students in their field work.
The students and affiliates who have worked with the aquarium program have benefited from the skills they learned there dealing with aquatic life. Many have gone on to earn positions at universities and marine institutions, and in government departments and environmental firms, and some even to owning their own pet stores.
There is a always research going on at the aquarium. Research is currently underway in the areas of habitat selection, feeding dynamics, predator/prey interactions, and algal community dynamics, among others.
