"Monster" brindle bass, pilchard bait balls and a huge ticklish turtle called Bob - there's a lot more to Cape Town's underwater world these days than kreef and shipwrecks.
A vast new exhibition tank at the city's Two Oceans Aquarium will feature some colourful new characters, including yellow-fin tuna and a guitar shark.
The newcomers will join fish from the aquarium's main attraction, the predator tank, which is being turned into a "sharks only" exhibit. It currently accommodates both predator and prey, ogling each other while circling a giant hollow rock.
The renovation project involves the tricky process of removing sea life from the predator tank, including ragged-tooth sharks.
The first two sharks were removed yesterday using the novel "plastic sleeve" method.
A team of divers herded the sharks with wooden sticks into the waiting sleeves, which were then hoisted to the surface and transferred into holding tanks.
Meanwhile, a second 1.7million litre "ocean exhibit" is shaping up to accommodate less predatory creatures, among them a friendly turtle called Bob.
Aquarium curator Maryke Musson said Bob had been found in bad shape but he thrived in captivity and had a "ticklish" shell.
He will be joined in the new tank by several other crowd-pleasers, including the guitar shark.
