The largest panel in the OZEANEUM measures 9.5 x 5.5 meters

Mecklenburg-West Pomerania’s biggest showcase

The five-meter wide panel for OZEANEUM’s largest aquarium was installed in September 2007. After five hours of careful work, the panoramic window to the schooling fish tank was at last in place and the sealing work could begin. The 22-metric-ton colossus floated before the eyes of many onlookers and cameras from above by crane and was slowly lowered into the North Atlantic tank and fitted with the greatest level of accuracy. Only after the panel was installed could the roof be completed. After all, you can’t exactly fit a 50 square meter panel through a door. There was talk of “the biggest showcase in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.”

Panels of this size are not available in Europe. The 30-centimeter-thick acrylic panel was manufactured by Reynolds Polymer from Colorado in the United States. It was first transported by sea to Hamburg. From there the precious cargo was carried by heavy trucks to Stralsund on specially-made steel plates.

The tank shows a habitat typical of the open Atlantic and is designed so visitors can observe the natural behavior of schooling fish. But to do this, fish need one thing in particular: lots of space! And that is just what they have in abundance with 2.6 million liters of salt water. The water is nine meters deep. Only then are schools able to choose between different depths to swim in, as they do in the wild. Different species swim apart from other species and withdraw in spectacular formations from the threats living alongside them in the tank.