Nototenia fish from Antarctica swims in Plovdiv

Regional Museum of Natural History – Plovdiv invites you to its next interesting and fascinating event – a meeting with Professor Hristo Pimpirev and the team of the second polar mission of the Bulgarian military research ship “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”. The event will take place on April 25, 2024 / Thursday / at 16:00 in the Museum’s Planetarium Hall.

We remind you that in February, the new “Poles” exhibit and the first ever “Ice Festival” opened in the Museum of Natural History, created under the project “Building a living exhibit Antarctica”, financed by the National Fund “Culture”.

The idea of ​​creating the hall arose spontaneously, after a meeting of the museum’s team of aquarists with Prof. Hristo Pimpirev, and the goal is to present species from the North and South Poles there. This is the latest module to open in the museum as an exhibition area and is an important part of the team’s educational program.

“The hall will be dynamic and will be constantly updated with new residents. The project “Building a living exhibition Antarctica” aims to upgrade the capacity of the museum by building the first in Europe, and in the world, an exhibition of live specimens, rare species of fish and invertebrates from the Antarctic continent. The total cost of the aquarium is BGN 200,000, part of which is self-financed from the museum’s revenues. The project is innovative and includes several stages – construction of an exposition, delivery of living specimens of the Bulgarian polar scientists from Antarctica, holding a Festival, creation of specific content for the exposition and work with target audiences. The partner in the project is the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute”, said Chief Assistant Dr. Ognyan Todorov, Director of RPNM.

A fish of the species “Nototenia” from the continent of Antarctica has successfully adapted in the newly built base of the Regional Natural History Museum Plovdiv. The exposition in RPNM – Plovdiv with a live specimen from the Antarctic continent is the first in a continental city in Europe. The aquarium in which the fish is placed is in an isolated environment with a temperature of minus 5 degrees. The water is purified by reverse osmosis and enriched with salt. Nototenia feeds on crustaceans. Her stress is very high, as she hides most of the time. Scientists are yet to study the behavior of the fish.

“The necessary conditions have been created in the museum, which are: temperature minus one to minus five degrees, strong aeration and very clean water. For the preparation of the aquarium, they were consulted by scientists from Chile, who have a similar research aquarium. The newly built base at the museum, in addition to receiving visitors, will be used for ecological and biological studies of the species to be delivered, and the project from a museum-expositional one will turn into a scientific one. It is planned to include a team of the museum in the next polar expedition”, said Chief Assistant Dr. Ognyan Todorov.