The Aquaria is an underwater world beneath the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia. It is located in the basement of the KL Twin Towers.

Whilst shopping in the Twin Towers we came across a sign board saying ‘Aquaria KLCC’. I said to my mum, “let’s go and take a look”, because we had been there many times but that was the first time we had noticed this sign. We went to look for the entrance to the Aquaria but we couldn’t find it, so I asked the security guard. He told us it was in the basement. So, we took the lift to the basement and found the entrance. We bought our tickets and started our journey.

First, we saw a big aquarium full of Red Bellied Piranha.  We continued on to the Gene Pool and saw black sea cucumber, chocolate chip starfish, brown banded shark and horseshoe crab. In this pool, we could touch the creatures with our hands if we wanted to. Next was the Electric Zone, in here we saw different kinds of electric fish, there were electric catfish, electric eel and elephant-nose fish. Together these three sections are called Evolution Zone.

The second zone was called ‘The Coast’. There was another big tank full of different fish and some stingrays. Crab, lobster, snake and mud-skipper are housed separately in different tanks.

We moved on to ‘The Stream’. In this zone we saw Asian small-clawed otters and Nutria water rats. The otters were so cute, one of the keepers took a baby out of the tank and showed it to us. The water rats were cute too, I thought they looked like large guinea pigs or giant hamsters.

Then we went to the zone called ‘Living Ocean’. A big tank full of fish, eels, stingrays and also sharks. I loved this zone because there was space for the fish to move around freely and I enjoyed watching the faces of the stingray.

Next up was ‘Shipwreck’, which included 5 sections: the Master of Ambush, Reef Venom, Living Fossil, Neptune’s Garden and Coral Walk. In this zone you can find small creatures such as razor fish, purple lobster, cowfish, crocodile fish and stonefish.

Later we went to the ‘Weird and Wonderful’ zone. It is separated into two, a tube tank and a glass bottom boat. In the tube tank you can see jellyfish, seahorses and the funny looking pinecone fish. From the glass bottom boat you can see lots of weird fish, some giant clams, eels and blue/yellow tang. It was wonderful seeing so many different kinds of marine life.

The last zone we came to was called ‘Deep Forest’, also separated into two, ‘Malaysian Flooded Forest’ and ‘Amazon Flooded Forest’. In the Malaysian Flooded Forest, you can find fish, turtles and crabs like those in the seas around Malaysia and there was a special fish called a Helicopter catfish (some people call it hem or tapah). The Amazon Flooded Forest had a fish that feed on nuts and seeds (apparently related to the piranha) and Alligator gar that lived on the earth at almost the same time as dinosaurs and Arapaima. It is the oldest and largest freshwater fish.

We finished our tour at the souvenir shop. If you have time you can go back to the first zone and watch the feeding shows, according to the timetable. Or, if you get hungry you can leave the Aquaria and make your way to the food courts of the Twin Towers, there are lots of stalls to choose from.

I recommend this place to those who love to discover underwater creatures. AND all in this wonderful capital city of Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur!