One of the biggest thrill that people get out of scuba diving is interacting with sea creatures. Not everyone can just take a trip to a sea side town and hop on a boat to go scuba diving somewhere so the next best thing to looking at sea creatures would be in aquariums.
Image: flickr.com/photos/diverslog
For Malaysian scuba divers and sea lovers, there’s the Underwater World Langkawi that can help them get close to their beloved sea creatures without getting wet.
Marine Life Exhibit at Underwater World Langkawi Malaysia
What will delight sea lovers who go to this aquarium is their marine life exhibit. What could come closest to the experience of diving with these animals is a walk through a 15-meter long tunnel in this exhibit. Guests can get close to sharks, giant groupers, and giant rays in this exhibit.
Other creatures in this exhibit include the sea horse, sea anemones, giant clam, pufferfish, and hermit crabs.
Fun facts About the Sea Creatures Featured in the Underwater World Langkawi Malaysia
The sea horse are monogamous and mate for life. The male of the species bears the unborn young! Just like kangaroos, the male sea horse has a brood pouch where the female deposits her eggs into and where the male seahorse also fertilizes the eggs. Sea horses also have a wide range and are found in tropical seas.
You may have seen the film Finding Nemo and fell in love with the title character. Nemo is a clownfish and these are native to warm waters including the Indian and Pacific oceans and the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea. Clownfish have a symbiotic relationship with anemones where both protect each other from predators. The clownfish is just one of the many sea creatures that can be found in the Underwater World Langkawi Malaysia.
The giant clam is another fascinating creature that any scuba diver would want to get close to. Giant clams are the largest living bivalve mollusc and are found in the Philippines as well as in Malaysia. These can grow to as big as 47 inches across and weigh as much as 200 kgs. and can live as long as a hundred years in the wild.
Pufferfish are called by different names and these include blowfish, balloonfish, bubblefish, and many others. Aside from their defense mechanism of blowing themselves up with water so that they can become a spiny ball, pufferfish are also poisonous so predators will not find them much of a treat.
The giant grouper is the largest bony fish that lives in coral reefs. These are popular fishes in aquariums such as the Underwater World Langkawi Malaysia but scuba divers have the best chance of seeing these creatures in the wild at depths of 100 meters at reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
Wrasses can also be found in the Underwater World Langkawi Malaysia’s coral exhibit. This is a family of colourful fish there are over 600 species in this family.
Other Exhibits at the Underwater World Langkawi Malaysia
The Underwater World Langkawi Malaysia that will let scuba divers appreciate creatures living in other environments. The aquarium also has a temperate section that features southern fur seals. They also have an exhibit that features blackfooted (African) penguins! The aquarium has feeding sessions for penguins and there’s a schedule at around 11 in there are two sessions scheduled every day.
Their tropical rainforest exhibit lets visitors observe tropical fishes like the pacu, giant gourami, arowanas, and the knifefish. There’s also mute swans, flamingos, mandarin ducks, and even a marmoset in this section of the aquarium.
The freshwater section of the aquarium features the garfish, matamata, and stingray. They also have snapping alligators and even the world’s largest freshwater fish – the arapaima in one of their tanks.
Image: langkawinow.diveasianow.com
Location and How to Get There
Underwater World Langkawi is in Pantai Cenang on Langkawi island. Those who are going there by car will have to take the ferry from either the Kuala Perlis Jetty, Kualah Kedah, or the Penang Sweetenham Pier in Penang after leaving their car on the mainland.
Entrance to the Underwater World Langkawi Malaysia costs RM40 for adults and RM30 for children. There are lower rates for those with a MyKad card and Malaysian senior citizens.
Since the aquarium is in a popular beach town, those who want to get a room at one of the hotels and enjoy the beach can surely do so. Don’t forget to bring your credit card so that you could conveniently pay for your hotel accommodation and for your meals at one of the many restaurants in the area.
There are also nearby attractions that you might want to visit. There’s the Langkawi Cable Car or visit the Kilim Geo Forest. There’s also the Langkawi Wildlife Park and the Telaga Tujuh Waterfalls. Visitors to the aquarium can complete their trip to Langkawi by also visiting the attractions in the island.
International travellers to Langkawi can also better protect themselves from any costs related to travel inconveniences by getting travel insurance. However, for those who plan to scuba dive in Langkawi, they should check first if their travel insurance plan does not exclude this activity in their coverage. However, a travel insurance can help with sudden expenses related to the traveller’s hospitalization if they were doing something else on the trip.
Author's box:
Ian G. Elbanbuena is a blogger and infopreneur who writes on various topics mainly finance, self-improvement, business and marketing. At present he works on behalf of Compare Hero, the country's leading comparison website. This portal helps individuals in saving money by comparing travel insurance in Malaysia.
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