Ellie, a marine biologist, is drawn to her chosen field because she loves to learn and knows that there is always something new to discover about the ocean.
Although she worked for Sea Life in Manchester for about seven years, six of which were on her animal care team, Ellie felt that "never the same day". , she still loves her job.
During this time, she helped arrange a wedding for her beloved pair of turtles, provided countless lunches to hungry sharks, learned, I came to love She has a wide variety ofmarine animalsin her care.
I went backstage with Ellie to see what her daily life was like. She was very surprised to find out how much the turtle actually eats in a day.
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Speaking to the mirror, Ellie revealed: She is fed daily, but there are animals like the seahorse where she can be fed four times a day.
According to Ellie, seahorses have small stomachs, so despite their reputation as "eating machines,"they need to "constantly feed," unlike basking sharks inaquariums. .
I was asked to measure a kilogram of food each for my resident green turtles, Ernie and Cammy, who like lettuce, seafood and cauliflower. In the wild, they would have fed on jellyfish for moisture, but here you get a similar effect from a refreshing cucumber snack.
Ellie explains how much an aquarium can help her in a day. He also indicated exactly what kind of food he was eating and added:
"On an average day, we can eat over seven kilograms of fish, krill, etc. We are a very small aquarium, so larger aquariums, like twice as much as we
"For example, sharks are young, but they are obviously scared of us. Absolutely not.”
UnprofessionalI was not allowed to feed the stingrays.Ellie fed while wearing protective gloves.
According to Ellie, stingrays have a very "polite" disposition by nature, which is why they often feed their tank mates, while turtles Arnie and Cammy are the true bosses of the tank. is.
The pair tied the knot at her Turtle ceremony with her broccoli cake. It's clear that Cammie is in a pants-on relationship, apparently biting Ernie's tail to show her superiority.
Arnie is Ellie's personal favorite because of her comedic and "cheeky" personality. One of the things that surprised her most about this work of hers was how diverse the personalities of marine animals are.
About her favorite part of the job, Ellie said:
But it's not as simple as rinsing the tank at home, it requires an aquarist to dive or snorkel inside the tank using something called a siphon.
Ellie explained: To describe a siphon, it's like a hoover in water: take the sand and remove all the dirt. The siphon returns to the floor, removing all dirt and scrubbing the bedrock as well.
"This is nice. You can also take the dirt out of it and make sure the glass is clean. We also have a lot of external filtration devices that take water in, filter it, and put it in Enter again."
One of the biggest misconceptions about working in an aquarium, Ellie warned that it's not all about "feeding animals all day."
She said: "What I think people don't really know about us is that we are actually plumbers too. So we put all the water in all the tanks."
"That's probably about half of my role, and I don't think people realize that. Also, who wants to do this job?"
Giving advice to anyone looking to follow in her footsteps, Ellie continued. She smells like fish when she gets home. So it's not as attractive as people think.
Tell us any interesting behind-the-scenes facts about your work. Please email julia.banim@reachplc.com.
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