Pass the tape measure! Aquarium begins annual health check of 6,600 creatures – including 15 baby seahorses and a poison dart frog weighing just 0.4 grams
By Published: 11:31 GMT, 31 July 2014 | Updated: 13:44 GMT, 31 July 2014

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adverts.addToArray(“pos”:”leader_wide”)Advertisement Staff at the London Aquarium kick have begun the task of performing health checks on every single one of the 6,600 animals in their care.Armed with clipboards, measuring tape, calipers and weighing scales, the ‘aquarists’ will have monitored a total of 6,600 creatures by the end of the health check, which they expect to take around a week.Starting with one of the newest additions to the attraction, the gentoo penguin chick, that stands 21cm tall, the team moved on and next measured the shell of an impressive 1.2m long rare Green Turtle, before weighing in each of the 25 terrapins.And it’s not just the large animals that need to be checked: each of the 15 baby seahorses were examined, including the youngest addition – a tiny two-month-old measuring just 1.5cm.Twenty crabs in the new CLAWS!

Crab attraction were also assessed, as were baby poison dart frogs, which were each weighed alongside their parents, with their combined weight reaching 8 grams.
Even the tiniest fish in the attraction, the thousands of tetra fish and all eight square metres of colourful coral will get the once over.

‘We’re constantly monitoring the health of all of our animals, but after several months of breeding successes it seemed a good time to update the health logs of all of our creatures at once, said Jamie Oliver, curator at the attraction.
The Sea Life London Aquarium on the ground floor of County Hall on the South Bank of the River Thames in central London, near the London Eye opened in March 1997 and hosts about one million visitors each year. Stand still ducky!

Aquarist Rowena Kennedy measures the height of a 50cm tall two month old gentoo penguin chick as part of the health check at the London Aquarium Deadly cute: A tiny poison dart frog is measured up at 1cm in the lab, but you’d have to have very good eyesight to even find its younger brothers and sisters… ‘That’s right, just float there a minute’: Two aquarists don scuba gear to measure the 1.2 metre long shell of Phoenix, one of the enormous 130kg rare green sea turtles at the aquarium Hold still and don’t get crabby!

Aquarist Matt Howarth measures the 4.5cm shell currently sported by a land hermit crab, left. Once fully grown, these crabs choose the shells they inhabit based on which looks the most attractive.  Right,  the aquarium’s shark feed requirements are listed on the wall behind one of the tanks
Feeling blue: A 8.3g poison dart frog is weighed on a special spoon. This sapphire-blue species of frog is highly toxic.

Their brilliant colour serves as warnings to potential predators to keep away. Spot the protective gloves Tickle you under there: London Aquarium curator Jamie Oliver examines a 20 year old bull ray.

The ray eats mainly crustaceans such as hermit crabs, swimmer crabs and shrimp, as well as molluscs and other sea creatures All together now, just say awwww: A tiny 0.4g baby poison dart frog is weighed on special scales.

How you might check its blood pressure or heartbeat is not clear Get your specs on: A tiny 1.5cm two month old baby seahorse is measured.

a tiny 1.5cm two month old baby seahorse is measured. Poor swimmers, seahorses are most likely to be found resting with their prehensile tails wound around a stationary object. Their long snouts are used to suck up food, and their eyes can move independently of each other Unimpressed: The 1.1kg yellow bellied slider terrapin (left) doesn’t look too pleased with his eight, while the minuscule 0.8cm two week old baby axolotl – which is critically endangered in the wild – is barely visible to the naked eye
How are moo doing?

Under UV light, Wasserpflanzen aquarist Rowena Kennedy logs six alien-like long horn cowfish. Their unique method of swimming causes them to look as if they are hovering and as they are such slow swimmers cowfish are easily caught by hand, making a grunting noise when captured…