Acuario Inbursa — Attraction in Mexico City

If you want to witness the wonders of marine life, go somewhere else. If you want to witness animal cruelty in a dark, smelly, poorly maintained, expensive place, look no further than Acuario Inbursa. It is a testament to the power of the Slim family and the corruption of this country that this so-called aquarium is still open. Most of the animals are cramped in tiny tanks with water so dirty that the filters are black with filth. The alligator looked so seriously depressed or sick (probably due to lack of space and natural light) that my little sister started sobbing uncontrollably. We thought the penguins would cheer her up, but we were wrong. The penguins were all standing in a tiny platform that was completely covered in penguin shit. I have gone to many aquariums in many places in the world and I had never seen such a dirty living environment for any creature, let alone for some of the most beloved and popular animals. Penguins in other aquariums swim, play and seem to enjoy a comfortable life. Inbursa penguins looked as miserable as any Victor Hugo character, as did all animals in the aquarium. We're certainly not the first ones to point out that the living conditions of these animals are inhumane and most likely even illegal, as there are multiple signs around the place with disclaimers that the animals are well-looked after. This is most noticeable in the case of Larry the lobster (picture included), whose tank has a sign saying that his space, food and water quality are adequate. One can only wonder how many people have been horrified at the state of poor Larry for them to put the effort into making this sign, considering they seem to avoid any effort for the upkeep of this place at all. In summary, DO NOT GO to Acuario Inbursa if you care at all for...

Terrible, awful, infuriating, ghastly experience!

No air conditioning whatsoever in the middle of summer, in tiny rooms packed to the gills!

The escalators do not work and there are no stairs or elevators!

No benches! No seating at all! Not even at the food stand!

No tour guides!

Zero organization! Pure, sweaty chaos! Dozens of people stumbling around, tripping over each other in the dark looking at fish!

The aquarium itself is fine, it's a little dull. Less fish than you would expect.

All the jellyfish are tiny. The penguins need a better enclosure. The alligator exhibit needs to be much bigger since the crowd around it was 4 people deep.

The sea turtle and manta ray pond was nice.

The big floor to ceiling tanks were nice but a bit empty and it's difficult for small children to see into many of the smaller tanks since they are built so high up.

The food stand inside is expensive as expected but there is literally no where to sit, no tables, no benches, no stools. Just people half sitting crouched into a decorative rock wall.

The gift shop is huge, naturally.

The workers only ever yell at everyone to move faster through each room, "Keep moving! Faster! Let the next people in! Keep walking! There's no need to stand still!"

I really, truly hated this aquarium. It's a sweltering, poorly planned, poorly managed, unkempt cash grab. You can't sit and look at the fish. You don't learn anything. You wait an hour or more to get inside, you're forced to speedrun through the building, you get spat out into a giant gift shop and they try to sell you silly pictures.

Honestly I should never have expected any better from such a miserable company. I won't be making the same...

Speaking specifically to the saltwater aquarium habitats as a hobbyist: The filtration on the displays seemed to be sufficient, however the aquariums appeared TOO clean, lacking established beneficial bacteria or microfauna. The saltwater tanks had only lackluster artificial decorations.

Many tanks had the same species repeated in them, it would have been more interesting to have more variety, or tanks set up to mimic specific ecosystems in different parts of the ocean.

Eel exhibits appeared lacking sufficient hiding spots. Urchin exhibit seemed alarmingly clean of algae to support the amount of pencil urchins in there, not surprised none appeared to be moving. The color of many of the fish seemed off, for example several foxface rabbitfish were very pale and blue chromis almost gray. However this could also be due to the poor/lack of lighting used on the aquariums.

They ought to hire marine biologists to consult on their exhibits, for both the well-being of the specimens and to make them more visually appealing & accurate to real ocean ecosystems. My biggest disappointment was that there was ZERO live coral in the entire building. (Past review photos show live coral, but I looked at every tank and saw none. Perhaps they have taken it all out.)

The terrarium and freshwater exhibits were decent, however those made up a smaller majority of...