A Quickie Guide to the Best Las Vegas Aquariums

Story and Photos by Scott Roeben

Sure, Las Vegas is in a desert, but many of its most mesmerizing attractions involve water. Aquariums are the perfect example. Here’s a quick look at some of Sin City’s most notable.

Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay is far-and-away the monster of Las Vegas aquariums, with 14 exhibits and more than 2,000 animals. Sharks are stars of the show, with more than 15 species on display. A highlight is the 1.3 million-gallon shipwreck exhibit where visitors enter through an acrylic tunnel and experience an almost 360-degree view of the sharks and fish. See more at Sharkreef.com.

Sharks also steal the spotlight at another exceptional Las Vegas aquarium, the Golden Nugget’s “The Tank,” which does double duty as the hotel’s pool! The hotel invites guests to take a three-story waterslide through (yes, through) a 200,000-gallon aquarium filled with sharks and 300 other denizens of the deep. While “The Tank” gets most of the attention, don’t miss the gorgeous aquarium inside the Golden Nugget in its Rush Tower lobby.

Among Sin City’s other remarkable aquariums is the 20,000-gallon tank behind the check-in desk of The Mirage (photo below). The saltwater aquarium features about 1,000 animals and is more than 50 feet long, with walls four inches thick.

Just south of The Strip is the Silverton Casino which boasts a saltwater, 117,000-gallon aquarium with more than 4,000 tropical fish. Interactive feeding shows take place daily at 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., and there’s even a live mermaid swim.

More fishy fun can be found at aquariums inside Caesars Palace. The Atlantis Aquarium in The Forum Shops (below) is a 50,000-gallon circular wonder with about 1,000 coral reef animals on display. Other, smaller aquariums can be found near the Caesars Palace casino, including an eye-catching aquarium at the Seahorse Lounge (yes, it has seahorses) and the giant tanks teeming with hundreds of goldfish inside the hotel’s Beijing Noodle No. 9 restaurant.

The custom aquarium at the “Mob Experience” attraction at Tropicana, that features submerged TVs inside the tank, is also worth a look.

It’s time to dive into all the great aquariums in Las Vegas! Figuratively. Security’s picky about that kind of thing.