This month Sea Life Arizona Aquarium and the Phoenix Zoo partnered on an aquatic animal transfer from Tempe to Phoenix, welcoming baby rays and a shark to their new home in the zoo’s Stingray Bay exhibit.

Roosevelt (“Rose” for short), a 4-year-old male epaulette shark, as well as Castor and Pollux, 9-month-old twin male bluespotted ribbontail rays, were all born at Sea Life Arizona and have called the aquarium home since 2019 and 2023, respectively.

The Sea Life team prepared the ribbontails and shark for their transfer from their home at the Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe by first moving system water to large containers that were able to maintain temperature for the transport. They also added air bubblers to the containers to ensure oxygen was available for the ribbontails and shark at all times.

They carefully relocated the ribbontails from their holding pools to the transport containers using a transfer bucket, and then monitored the ribbontails and shark to ensure they had enough space and were comfortable.

Once in their transport containers, they made the eight-mile journey to the Phoenix Zoo, at 455 N. Galvin Parkway, inside Papago Park in Phoenix, whose ectotherm team was on standby to help the Sea Life team move the transport containers from the vehicles to Stingray Bay.

Before Rose, Castor and Pollux could make the big splash into the pool at Stingray Bay, the Sea Life and Phoenix Zoo teams worked to get the shark and ribbontails ready to move into the bay in a process known as acclimating. The acclimation took about an hour and involved slowly adding water to the transport carriers until the temperatures, salinity and pH levels matched.

The new species then made their official splash into the bay.

Residents can catch Roosevelt, Castor and Pollux exploring their new home at the Stingray Bay exhibit at the Phoenix Zoo, while Castor and Pollux’s proud mom, Dipper, can be visited at Sea Life Arizona where she glides around the Bay of Rays area of the aquarium.

Roosevelt, a 4-year-old male epaulette shark, was at Sea Life Arizona but recently was moved to a new home at the Phoenix Zoo.