What to See and Do
The aquarium's heart is now the stunning Wonder of Water exhibit, opened in December 2024 in the historic rotunda. Two towering habitats—one freshwater, one saltwater—face each other across the octagonal space, each holding 28,110 gallons of living, growing ecosystem. More than 5,000 freshwater fish school among lush plants reaching seven feet tall, while vibrant coral colonies host 1,500 reef fish on the marine side. The restored Beaux-Arts crown moldings, marble features, and the original Sterling Bronze Company clock with its sea-creature numerals frame these habitats, and periscopes offer fish-eye views of hidden corners. The space even offers daily water tastings so visitors can experience varying salinity levels firsthand.↗
Wander into Amazon Rising, an 8,600-square-foot walkthrough flooded forest that recreates the Amazon River basin. The air grows warm and humid as you pass through jungle-like corridors past green anacondas, red-bellied piranhas, electric eels, freshwater stingrays, caimans, and South American birds among more than 250 species. The exhibit's highest water level reaches six feet, giving you the sense of wading through a flooded rainforest.↗
Descend two levels below street level to Wild Reef, a 525,000-gallon Philippine coral reef ecosystem recreating the waters around Apo Island marine reserve. Its centerpiece is a 400,000-gallon shark tank behind twelve-foot-high curved windows offering a diver's-eye view of sandbar sharks, zebra sharks, blacktip reef sharks, spotted wobbegongs, and critically endangered bowmouth guitarfish. Humphead wrasse, Kuhl's stingrays, and Queensland grouper swim among living corals that are also propagated here for conservation purposes.↗
The Abbott Oceanarium—opened in 1991 and the largest indoor marine mammal facility in the world—is impossible to miss. Its 2-million-gallon Whale Harbor tank features Pacific white-sided dolphins, beluga whales, and sea otters, with the main habitat backed by a wall of windows looking directly out onto Lake Michigan. A 1,000-seat amphitheater hosts educational marine mammal presentations, while the lower level offers underwater viewing of belugas and dolphins gliding past. The sea otters include rescued survivors of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and an open estuary tank nearby displays cuttlefish.↗↗
The oldest galleries in the building are home to Waters of the World, showcasing the Great Lakes and global freshwater and saltwater habitats side by side. Here you can meet an American bullfrog, a giant Pacific octopus, a lake sturgeon, lined seahorses, and an alligator snapping turtle. Families with children gravitate toward the Polar Play Zone, an interactive area with penguin colonies, moon jellyfish tanks, and underwater viewing of belugas and dolphins, plus a starfish touch pool. During the warm months, seasonal Stingray Touch on the South Terrace lets guests reach into a 20,000-gallon outdoor pool and feel cownose rays glide over their hands.↗↗
