The 7 Best Aquariums in Texas

Dallas is the place to be if you and your family are yearning for an aquatic adventure. Best believe that you will have a fun and educational experience. From majestic sharks to giant tarantulas, explore interactive exhibits, learn the importance of protecting marine ecosystems and the ongoing conservation efforts and appreciate the hardworking aquarium staff who protect these sea creatures.  

1. SEA LIFE Aquarium

Dive into the underwater world at SEA LIFE Aquarium inside the Grapevine Mills Mall. Open for all ages, this attraction offers a great chance to teach your child about sea creatures in a fun and interactive way. Make your way to the Stingray Bay Exhibit, which features rays and other types of fish. Learn why the team leaves the "barbs" intact and get an immersive peek through the viewing glass under the stairs.

Visit the Sea Turtle Rescue Center to learn about the rescue and rehabilitation efforts of the Sea Life staff. Once healed, the team releases these sea turtles in the wild. However, those who are seriously injured remain to receive lifelong care.

Walk through Texas' only 360-Degree Ocean Tunnel and enjoy the sights of fish and the world's famous water predators gliding above. The Interactive Rockpools offer a face-to-fin experience—pet different sea creatures such as anemones and sea urchins.

Visit the Seahorse Exhibit, where nine seahorse species call the aquarium home. The aquarium runs a unique breeding program which helps prevent their extinction. Note that the aquarium doesn't take any from the wild. Instead, the team undertakes the entire breeding process from this location.

Catch live feedings and talks throughout the day at different exhibits. Also, visit the Pollinator Garden for in-depth lessons on conservation and how to protect pollinators at home. With 5000+ creatures, you’ll have a vast number of aquatic species to explore, including flashlight fish, jellies, caiman and sharks, using the interactive monitors stationed in the displays.

2. Texas State Aquarium

Located in Corpus Christi, the Texas State Aquarium opened in 1990 and is one of the largest in the U.S. - it's famously known for its two primary areas, the Caribbean Journey and the Gulf of Mexico area. These two areas hold 10+ exhibits waiting for you to explore and several touch tanks that will bring you up close to mesmerizing creatures. The aquarium has daily talks and presentations, so we recommend planning your visit around these times.

Take the Caribbean Journey and learn about this glass-domed area's regions and ecosystems. Understand the importance of mangrove swamps and watch flamingos lounge while macaws and shorebirds scavenge. Check out the portholes that offer overhead views of the aquatic species, including vampire bats and sharks. The unique wildlife, sounds, and tropical trees will make you feel like you have just entered the Yucatan Peninsula.

The Blue Hole exhibit will transport you to the Mesoamerican barrier reef, where nurse sharks and other breathtaking sea creatures live. Experience more of the Caribbean's beauty at the Coral Reef exhibit, where you'll learn the fragility of this ecosystem that feeds all kinds of colored fish, including grunts, angelfish, and parrotfish.

The Dolphin Bay exhibit is another undersea paradise holding 400,000 gallons of saltwater that the Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, including Merlin and Shadow, call home. Learn about the enrichment program and the Environmental Enrichment Devices (EEDs) the team at Texas State Aquarium uses to provide a protective environment for these dolphins. You will also dive into the various threats these species face, including pollution and fishing line entanglement, and what you can do to mitigate them.

Learn more about sustainability in the Aquatic Nursery, an exhibit that will give you a glimpse of aquaculture. Use the HD cameras for a rare look at the growth cycles of jellies and bamboo shark eggs. Interact with the cow nose and southern stingrays at the Stingray Lagoon exhibit. And if you're lucky to catch the feeding presentations, you, too, get to feed these vibrant creatures.

Marvel at the prehistoric Megalodon shark at the Saving Sharks exhibit and dive deep into these species' habitats and why you should work towards protecting and not fearing them. The Islands of Steel exhibit is the largest section of the Gulf of Mexico area, holding 125,000 gallons of water, and is home to various fish, sharks, and sea turtles. Learn how important oil rig platforms are in preserving marine life and what you can do to protect this ecosystem.

3. Downtown Aquarium (Houston)

Boasting hundreds of aquatic species and plants, the Houston Downtown Aquarium is one of the best aquariums in Texas. Its history is as interesting as its exhibits, arising from a redevelopment project involving the Central Waterworks building and Fire Station N.o. 1. Today, the aquarium sits in a six-acre complex holding 500,000 gallons of undersea creatures.

The magic begins when you enter, where you'll spot the main tank on the first floor where sand tiger and blacktip reef sharks and various tropical fish swim. The aquarium also has interactive tanks where you can touch and feed the rays and sea urchins. Learn about the importance of reptiles in the ecosystem in the Texas Bayou exhibit.

Encounter eels, clownfish, and giant octopuses at the Shipwreck exhibit, located inside a 17th-century Spanish galleon. Explore life inside the Rainforest exhibit, where venomous rays, rainforest frogs, and piranhas forage. Feast your eyes on the Sunken Temple and get a feel of the "El Dorado" in this lost civilization featuring electric eels, Lionfish and Tarantulas.

Are you brave enough to swim to the bottom? Watch as professional divers swim in the Underwater Rig and be amazed at the sight of diverse marine life. Come eyeball with seahorses in the Discovery Zone and explore the deep ocean and coral reefs through the interactive monitors. Learn about the aquarium's efforts to protect tigers in Maharaja's Temple exhibit. And interact and feed stingrays at the Stingray Reef exhibit.

The fun doesn't stop there. The aquarium offers family marine biology programs, including a dive show, guided tours, and animal feedings. A meet and greet program for those looking for a closer encounter with the sea creatures includes training and taking selfies with them.

4. Moody Gardens

Those unfamiliar with Moody Gardens on Galveston Island might wonder whether you are referring to an amusement park, a hotel, or a golf course. Well, it is all of those things and more. Moody Gardens also has one of the best aquariums in Texas, with a collection of three pyramid exhibits.

The Rainforest Pyramid is a lush jungle featuring tropical plants and animals that will transport you into the rainforests of the tropical Americas. The exhibit is immersive, from the resident animal species to the temperatures. The humid setting and birds chirping sounds will make you feel like you are in a Jumanji film. Walk across the skywalk to the first floor of this pyramid for an overview of the world's rainforest. The ground floor has several tanks with animals, including Komodo dragons and snakes.

The Aquarium Pyramid holds various tanks, with the blue one being the largest holding 1.5 million gallons of water. Enter the oil rig to view the diverse marine life from multiple levels. Visit the two penguin habitats, the new Humboldt Penguins and Arctic Hangout, to watch these breathtaking aquatic birds lounge on rocks.

Interact with the California sea lions, friendly sea animals that love to blow kisses. Next, you'll see the Jellyfish Gallery, an exhibit featuring six species of jellies, including bioluminescent ones that glow in the dark. There's even a touch tank, and it's entirely safe to touch these jellies because of their low stinging power. Interact with more aquatic species in the touch pool room. The Caribbean exhibit is a must-see featuring Pride, a model of the shipwreck believed to be similar to that of Galveston pirate Jean Lafitte's ship.

The Discovery Pyramid, also known as the Discovery Museum, is perfect for younger kids as most displays feature the earliest phases of nature and science. The exhibits in this pyramid are ever-changing, so you might want to check out the website before your visit. Currently, visitors can explore the Sharks In-Depth section, which explores these creatures' anatomy, habitat, and behavior. The Planet Earth: Deep Sea Adventures exhibit sheds light on the behavior of marine life existing in the deepest parts of the oceans, including the evolution of their organs.

5. Austin Aquarium

Also located in Texas, the Austin Aquarium features thousands of aquatic species, including amphibians, sharks, lorikeets, and stingrays. It also includes interactive displays where you can feed and pet them. In case you didn't know, this aquarium is one of the only two in the U.S. where visitors can pet and feed Lemurs. Other animal encounters include feeding presentations with sharks and tortoises.

You may also participate in the morning rounds, especially if your little ones are interested in biology, aquatic science, or even herpetology. This program is available for children ages eight and up and entails shadowing one of the staff to see how they prepare the aquarium and its undersea occupants for the day.

6. Stingray Reef

Dangle a few shiners and watch stingrays swim hurriedly towards you to taste these silver-coated fish. The rays at Stingray Reef in Houston are friendly and happy to receive pets from visitors. And, of course, they'll happily flap and splash once you bring baitfish into the equation. Expect to leave the exhibit damp after encountering these intelligent species featured in the 50,000-gallon exhibit.

The staff is happy to show you the right way to pet them. Avoid using nails, as this will hurt them. Instead, open your hand and use your fingertips to pet the rays on their back slightly down the middle

7. The University of Texas Marine Science Institute

Located on the Texas coast, The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute is a research facility focusing on improving people's understanding of the ocean ecosystem and marine life. The institute features multiple educational displays which you can visit on specific days.

The Patton Center for Marine Science Education is open for all ages and features eight large aquaria and thrilling displays. The center is open from Tuesday to Saturday with no entry charges. The kids will have fun learning about the research that goes on. Be sure to stop and examine the "interdependency," a sculpture by renowned artist Kent Ullberg, at the institute's entrance. You'll notice that the giant fish boasts over fifty plants and animals joined in, mimicking a tarpon.

A fun fact about this sculpture is that the artist chose this shape to symbolize Port Arkansas, which was once known as Tarpon. The use of multiple plant and animal life depicts the diversity of the marine environment.

The Wetlands Education Center sits in a 3.5-acre space between the Marine Science Education Center and the South Jetty, open every Tuesday and Thursday at nine a.m. A short walk along the boardwalk offers a view of the seagrass landscape and vegetation, which gets water from the Aransas Pass Ship Channel. The staff offers guided tours and encourages visitors to watch migratory waterfowl and the center's marsh birds. An exciting fact about the center's visitors is that they become Windows to the Sea and are encouraged to protect wetlands, ecosystems useful in mitigating erosion and quelling storm surges.

Learn about Texas estuaries in the Estuary Explorium, a 950-square-foot space with immersive displays aimed at improving public awareness of the benefits of the estuarine environment. The Explorium provides self-guided exploration. Therefore, you only need to use the interactive monitors to listen and watch informative content on local estuaries.

Your trip to the institute isn't complete unless you have visited the Bay Education Center. Catch the daily afternoon "Science on a Sphere" presentations. The center also has programs for homeschooling children and K to grade 12 students.

Explore One of the Best Aquariums in Grapevine

If you want an educational and thrilling outdoor activity, we encourage you to bring the kiddos to SEA LIFE Grapevine. With 10+ exhibits, interactive rockpools and a VR experience, your family will have the time of their lives. With the busy season approaching, you might want to get those tickets as soon as possible, and that's easy-peasy. Visit our tickets page to purchase admissions for you and your loved ones today.