SEA LIFE Orlando celebrates Valentine’s Day baby boom

Animals give birth at aquarium at ICON Park

ORLANDO, Fla – SEA LIFE Orlando Aquarium is celebrating the arrivals of several new additions inside some of its tanks.

Officials said ahead of the Valentine’s Day weekend, axolotls and potbelly seahorse babies have given birth to a number of new babies.

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The new arrivals have now been gently relocated to a nursery system where they will be monitored by aquarists.

An axolotl is a type of salamander known to inhabit lakes and canals in Mexico. What makes them different from other salamanders is that in some rare cases, when they mature, they have the ability to come out of the water. Some even call the amphibians a walking fish. When axolotls lay eggs, SEA LIFE Orlando’s aquarists pull them to a nursery system so they can hatch and grow. SEA LIFE Orlando said Axolotls naturally breed about once or twice a year. When they’re born they have a tadpole like dorsal fin, which they keep for their whole life.

Axolotls at SEA LIFE Orlando (Merlin Entertainments)

Meanwhile in another tank SEA LIFE is celebrating the arrival of potbelly seahorse babies. Officials said seahorses are unique because the female lays her eggs in the pouch of the male seahorse. He holds the eggs until they hatch, then releases them into the habitat. Potbelly seahorses are born looking exactly like their parents.

Potbelly seahorse at SEALIFE Orlando (Merlin Entertainments)

SEA LIFE Orlando is located inside ICON Park along International Drive in Orlando.

Florida Residents can walk through SEA LIFE and then strut their stuff at Madame Tussauds Orlando for a star-studded date night this Valentine’s Day weekend.

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