Meet Our Animals
Shreveport Aquarium is home to over 3000 creatures made up of over 300 different species of marine life ranging from turtles and eels to seahorses and sharks. Here is a sneak peak of just a few of them...
Baby Epaulette Sharks
Sharks that can WALK on the LAND! Epaulette sharks have nocturnal habits and frequent shallow water on coral reefs or in tidal pools. Rather than swim, epaulette sharks "walk" by wriggling their bodies and pushing with their paired fins between coral heads at low tide, along the seafloor, and even on land when needed. For that reason, it is often called the "walking shark." These baby epaulettes hatched in Fall 2019 from egg casings called mermaid purses. As with most sharks, they have very low reproductive rates and are vulnerable to population decline if overfished.
Meet Sunshine! Sunshine is a rescue albino red eared slider turtle. One in a million, their survival in the wild is almost impossible. Thanks to an observant citizen who brought Sunshine to us, Sunshine now lives in an environment safe from predators. We are not sure if Sunshine is a male or female as he or she is too young (only the size of a half dollar) to tell. Sunshine is now on exhibit so come on down and say hello!
A beautiful but destructive fish with a voracious appetite, lionfish have no natural predators beyond the Indo-Pacific, so invasive populations swell when unchecked by nature. Hear more about these ornate invaders from our Education Manager, Tanner and come check them out in person
Did you know the threatened American Paddlefish dates back over 300 million years, nearly 50 million years before dinosaurs first appeared? Come visit this prehistoric species at Shreveport Aquarium as we rear them to help repopulate Caddo Lake, a location where they were once common, but had completely disappeared after the upstream dam at Lake O’ The Pines was established!
The Sea Nettle's movement is mesmerizing! It's bell can grow up to 30 inches wide and their tentacles have been documented as long as 16 feet! While feeding on zooplankton, this jelly uses light-sensing organs to help it travel from dark, deep water to sunlit surface water!
The male seahorse tops our list as the best animal dad. Not only is he monogamous, but this creature is actually the one who gets pregnant, carrying up to 1,000 babies at a time! However, before anyone nominates the male seahorse for Father of the Year, this dad has been known to eat a few of his offspring as well. Hey, nobody's perfect!