National Zoo and Aquarium's new display designed around the fact jellyfish are actually 'really bad swimmers'

Every morning when staff unlock the doors at the National Zoo and Aquarium, they find one of the creatures has been busy doing some interior decorating overnight.

”Dora” the Pale Octopus “really loves” her clay pots, according to aquarium curator Matt Bolland.

“She tends to move it around and redecorate her enclosure every single night, picking up the pots and moving them to wherever she feels most comfortable depending on the day,” he explains.

Dora is among several new marine attractions at the National Zoo and Aquarium, which also include a circular jellyfish tank and a temperate saltwater pond full of small sharks and rays.

As you may have guessed, she’s named after the children’s TV character, Dora the Explorer, as a “great ambassador for wildlife conservation”.

Pale octopi originally hail from the Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, so to keep Dora occupied in her new cylindrical tank, staff like Matt feed her “enrichment” every day.

“Just like with the other animals out in the park … every day we’ll have a playtime and give her things like bottles with lids to undo or LEGO bricks with food shoved in them. She really enjoys that,” he says.

A few steps away are the first jellyfish species to ever be displayed at the zoo, which also has Matt “really excited”. They’re from Sea World on the Gold Coast, and are now housed in a specially designed circular tank that cycles the water around to help keep the jellyfish moving.

“They’re not typically very good swimmers – they’re really bad swimmers, especially our moon jellyfish – so they need to be in a circular tank with circular flow to make sure they don’t get caught in corners like you’d get in a fish tank,” Matt says.

Moon jellyfish don’t last long, with a life span of only six to 12 months in the wild. But rest assured, a smaller tank on the other side of the room houses jellyfish polyps, which – much like coral – are how the creatures start off in life.

“There’s been so much research into jellyfish over the last 10 to 15 years into the design of the systems and how to build the tanks so we can now learn how to actually sustain their numbers through fishing activity and learn about their importance in the wild,” Matt says.

The aquarium is the oldest building on the zoo site, opening in 1990 as the National Aquarium. It housed about 30 different marine species, a large restaurant and function area, and – as its major attraction – a world-first 1.5-million-litre aquarium tank.

However, it changed hands a couple of times due to financial struggles before 1998, when the site was bought by the Tindale family and expanded into the National Zoo and Aquarium we know today.

National Zoo and Aquarium director Renee Nasserpour describes the aquarium section as “a vital resource for our educational programs as well as visitors”.

“It really is one of the first places Canberra kids come and experience marine life,” she says.

“It’s such a small footprint so we can’t really expand, but any small change or new exhibit – like jellyfish – is such an amazing attraction.”

Renee says there are already plans to grow the jellyfish collection by introducing different species.

“And we’re always looking to revitalise some of our older exhibits.”

The National Zoo and Aquarium is open every day (except Christmas Day), from 9:30 am to 5 pm.