Traipsing Around Toronto with a Toddler: Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada

When our son was about five years old, we decided to drive to Toronto one long weekend to basically traipse around, do fun things, and be kids again.

On the list were the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Vaughn Mills, the Toronto Zoo, and Ripley’s Aquarium. This trip was going to be all about our son and the things he was crazy about (at that age) – LEGO, animals, and aquariums. We did not plan anything else, as for sure, the three fun places alone would tire us.

Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada

No visit to a major city would be complete without going to its aquarium attraction. I love fish and sea life. And the only pets I have ever kept personally were fish, mostly Siamese fighting fish, because they are low-maintenance (the dogs, rabbits, budgies, and exotic pigeons we had when I was a kid are not counted as personal pets, because they were cared for collectively by my whole family and the household help) and did not require a lot of space. Our son has caught this love for fish from me, and I think it’s also partly because of Nemo and Dory.

The Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is conveniently located in downtown Toronto, just southeast of the CN Tower. It boasts of 5.7 million litres of marine and freshwater habitats from across the world and features exhibits with more than 16,000 exotic specimens from more than 450 species.

We started with the exhibit on Canadian Waters, to see our resident wildlife from up close. With three oceans surrounding this great land (that is why in Canada we say “from coast to coast to coast”), and several great lakes (shared with the United States), Canada is a treasure trove of extraordinary habitats and animals, such as the giant Pacific octopus, the American lobster, sturgeons, cods, paddlefish, and wolf eels. We also saw a kelp forest. At this exhibit, we learned that the impressive biodiversity of the Great Lakes accounts for 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.

We enjoyed the colours of the Rainbow Reef that was a recreation of the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific Ocean. If there is an ocean equivalent of a tropical rainforest, it would be this. Featured fish include the Harlequin Tuskfish, with their bright blue-lined orange bands; the Picasso Triggerfish whose bodies look like the famed artist’s canvass with their white background and splashes of orange, black, olive green, and aquamarine blue; the Lunare Wrasse, with its turquoise scales decorated in cream-coloured swirls and crescent moon-like tail fins; the Batfish, Batman’s fish version; the Unicorn Surgeonfish that sport horns on their heads like unicorns; and the Sailfin Tang whose fins look like boat sails. It was like being in a marine theatre with all kinds of performers in spectacular costumes.

My boys, however, had a blast in the Dangerous Lagoon where we came face-to-face with a wide array of sharks, sea turtles, green sawfish, and stingrays. These dangerous creatures appeared even more looming because the gallery is designed like an underground tunnel with a conveyor belt. It would make one feel like he’s under the sea surrounded by these intimidating predators.

My son’s favourite was the Discovery Centre because it had a lot of interactive activities. It was designed to present the dynamics of the marine environment through play. My son pretended to be an ocean explorer in an interactive submarine, slid down the clownfish slide, and played with a water table that replicates the complex lock systems of the Great Lakes.

There are underwater viewing bubbles and touch exhibits where he was able to feel the skin of living fossils and interact with sting rays and horseshoe crabs. Best of all, he encountered lots of “Nemos” (Clownfish) and “Dorys” (Palette Surgeonfish) which made him realize that the Disney characters were actually based on real-life fish. We also saw sea anemones (“Nemo’s home”), Blacktip Reef Sharks, Zebra Sharks, and the masters of disguise – the Wobbegongs that blend seamlessly with their environment through their unique body shape and colour.

The Gallery Exhibit, also called Mother Nature’s Art Gallery, features some of the most delicate underwater species from all over the world. There were seahorses (and we learned that its actually the males, and not the females that carry their young), piranhas (and contrary to popular belief, they rarely attack humans, but prefer to feast of shrimps, molluscs, and worms), electric eels (and we learned they can produce enough electricity to power a Toronto streetcar), mudskippers (said to be “true amphibians” because they skip on the surface of the mangrove swamps of West Africa but can also breathe well on land), lion fish (sporting spectacular “manes” and clearly the most regal-looking of them all), and pipefish that look like striped underwater worms. My son enjoyed playing “hide-and-seek” with them as they are difficult to spot due to their shape. The gallery also features a Living Coral exhibit, with live corals grown only onsite.

At the Ray Bay, we watched a diver feed the stingrays. There were several species housed there – the Spotted Eagle Rays (covered in beautiful spotted markings), Cownose Rays (with frontal lobes resembling a cow’s), Ocellate River Stingrays (known for their camouflaging skills in the sandy bottoms of the river), the Southern Stingrays (that can bury themselves in the sand in a split second), and the Roughtail Rays (characterized by their long, slender tails with rows of thorny plates). The bay is also home to one species of shark – the Bonnethead Shark, with their iconic round and narrow heads.

The top of the Ray Bay is called the Shoreline Gallery where visitors can have the opportunity to closely observe and even touch the stingrays. My son shrieked in excitement as he gently patted the swimming stingrays. Some of them even stopped to interact with the kids. I think they are already used to visitors “petting” them.

My favourite was Planet Jellies that feature the alien-like jellyfishes. Several species, in different shapes, sizes, and colours, are beautifully exhibited in backlit keisel tanks. Keisel tanks are horizontal cylinders, created to eliminate elements in a regular tank that could compromise the life of a jellyfish, such as corners and bubbles. I learned that jellies are poor swimmers. They can easily get trapped in corners and bubbles can tear through their bells.

The jellyfish gallery houses Pacific Sea Nettles (they are brainless and eyeless and are 95% water…can you imagine that?), the Moon Jellies (found in the Atlantic Ocean and are capable of reversing the life cycle, where individuals grow younger instead of older), and the Upside-down Jellies (that lie in the bottom of the ocean upside down to expose their algae-covered arms to the sun). I just sat there, mesmerized by the play of lights and the changing hues. It was truly out-of-this world. I could just imagine how magnificent this spectacle is in a real ocean. Our son sat with me and he kept saying, “Wow!” 

Next, we went to the Life Support Systems Gallery. It is the part of the aquarium that shows visitors the pumping and filtration equipment used to maintain the complex environments within the aquarium complex. They are painted in different bright colours, that walking there makes one think he’s on a children’s TV show set. I had the feeling that it was my husband’s favourite, because while there, he had the opportunity to give our son a scientific lecture on how things work. There were “fun facts” cards everywhere and interactive displays where little kids can play “engineers.”

We stopped for coffee and snacks at the Ripley’s Café and then bought some fun items at the Cargo Hold gift shop. My son picked up a turtle stuffie and we bought mermaid dolls for my young nieces who were in their “Ariel” stage, and some sea creature-themed accessories for the older girls.

Our son declared that this was a “super-fun” long weekend. My husband and I agreed that it was indeed a different kind of Toronto visit this time, and though tired, the kids in us couldn’t have agreed more to our son’s rave review of this trip.