Sea Quest Interactive Aquarium Plus Otter Experience

Sea Quest is a small interactive aquarium located in Layton. I’ve been meaning to check it out for a while, but when I learned that, on top of the other experiences they offer, they now had an Otter Experience I just had to go. I just adore otters so that sounded absolutely amazing! It’s quite a bit smaller than the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, but it is still pretty neat.

Quick Details:

Time Needed: You get a half hour for the Otter Experience. Plan another hour, to hour and a half for the rest of the aquarium.
Cost: $14.95 for adult admission, $9.95 for kids under 12. $19.95 for the Otter Experience. (recommend reserving in advance).

To Get Here:

This is in the Layton Hills Mall just off exit 331 from i15. It is located below the food court which is the northeast part of the mall. Best to enter through the food court and head down stairs.

The Adventure:

The otter exhibit is right up front, but they were not out at the moment. So we moved on to the lizards.







Cute iguanas.



Next we entered the tide pool area and saw some starfish and anemones.



And a random lobster. Although seeing it with it’s claws tied makes it seem like this is someone's dinner just chilling here. o.O



Moray eel.







Jellyfish. Unfortunately they are moving too fast to get a good picture of them.

Then we moved on to the Creatures Of Light exhibit.



Some axolotls.





Tiger Salamander. These are Utah’s only native salamander. We have seen them in places like Cecret Lake.

Then we moved on to the California Coast exhibit.



I didn’t catch what type of eel this was.



Neat boat aquarium.



The fish are used to being fed so they come up if you approach. You can buy food tokens at the beginning and purchase food to feed various animals along the way.

Then we moved on to the Egyptian Desert exhibit.



Neat lizard.



Turtles.



I wasn’t sure if they were fighting over the heat lamp or uhm, trying to mate.









More lizards.



Chickens. These didn’t seem to match the theme in the room, but okay.



Some frogs.



Large python.



If i remember right this was a boa constrictor.

Then we moved on to the Mayan Jungle exhibit.



There are 2 bird enclosures they let you go into. I forget what they were exactly, we skipped the more packed with birds and went to the less crowded side.



One of them landed on Landis shoulder and scared him to death haha.





I got to hold one on my finger.



Then we passed the sloths. As with the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium they just slept.



Some river fish.



I forget exactly what these are, something like garden eels?



Another weird fish.



Pretty fish.

We made our way into the Caribbean Cove exhibit.



Stingray.



I think this is a pufferfish? But not sure. Looks a little scary coming at me like this.



Fishies.





Stingrays.



They are also used to being fed and will crowd the side of the tank if you approach it.

Then we moved into the Shark Lagoon exhibit.



Megalodon Jaw. Similar to the one we saw in Oregon.





Sharks.

This is cool, but not as cool as the shark tube at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.



Shark statues above.

Well, that about did it for the aquarium. Crap, we still have about an hour before our otter experience appointment. So I pulled out the map to see if we maybe missed anything, I found we missed the octopus! So we went through again.

The octopus was in the tide pools withing the Amazon Rain Forest exhibit.





We found him hiding just to the side of the viewing window.



Anemones again.



I tried to get a better picture of the jellyfish and well, it just was not happening.



Back in the Creatures Of Light exhibit we found the tree frogs.



This guy between stages of development.



In the California Coast Exhibit I found this neat shellfish of some sort.

We glanced over into the Sea quest Bay party room and noticed this a giant turtle! We skipped this room last time because, well, it looked like a party room.



Well hello there guy!





He was just pacing around the room.

I think he is normally in the Egyptian Desert exhibit, but they have let him stretch his legs in here.



A smaller turtle that looks very similar in a little enclosure.



Little snake.



Some roaches.



Tarantula.



Rose tipped tarantula? Didn’t quite catch the rose color.


.
Little crab.



Back in the Egyptian Desert exhibit the boa constrictor is moving around a bit.





Back to the random chickens.



Back to the Mayan Jungle exhibit these are the other birds they have.



Sea urchin? I think.



I found a clown fish near a sea anemone. Finding Nemo anyone?



Back in Caribbean Cove we saw the mermaid.

Well, we still had some time to we decided to grab a quick snack from the food court and head back. 2 hours was definitely too much time.



While waiting to start our experience we noticed the otters were now in their enclosure. Hi guys!

On to the Otter Experience!

They limit the group size to 4 people so it’s quite special. The first 15 minutes is spent learning about the otters and what they do to keep them entertained. Then you spend some time constructing toys to hide food in. We learned that their 2 otters (sadly yes, only 2) have always been in captivity and don’t really like how deep the water is so they don’t really swim.

Then you spend 15 minutes feeding and playing with them. You do not get to actually snuggle with them, but you do get a much better view of them.



I wish I had taken a video hearing their excited “food!!!” chattering was amazing.



Eee!!!! They are so stinking cute!



You can feed them from your hand.





So cute.



Adorable little paws.



Having the time of my life!



Then it was time to give them the puzzle toys we made.





So cute watching them reach in looking for food.



Cuties.





I think I caught him just after popping the food into his mouth.

Then we were moved to the back of the exhibit where we got little bit of a better view.







This is so awesome.







Cute little guys!



Sorry buddy! All out of treats!

I managed to pull myself away before they had to drag me away haha. But I was definitely lingering.
We were all able to wash our hands from the nasty fish smell. Their food appeared to be various bits of seafood. They provide tongs to pick it up with, so you don’t have to touch it. But, eh, that was a pain.

Well, this aquarium is a little smaller, and not as nice as the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. But the exhibits are nice and I love the different interactions we had with different animals. I also was absolutely thrilled to get to interact with some otters! They are such adorable, inquisitive little critters. I still wish I could have snuggled one, but I did enjoy getting high fives and feeding from my hand.