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It might have been just one fish amid thousands in Ocean Park's Atoll Reef, but the death of a rare Chinese sturgeon from the bite of a barracuda has pitched the park's managers into the centre of a national row.
The theme park came under fire yesterday from mainland experts who questioned whether staff  had given enough thought to the effects of introducing five sturgeon - including the one that died - into the mixed environment of the  aquarium.
The fish were a gift from Beijing symbolising the five Olympic rings.
Liu Huanzhang, a Wuhan-based hydrobiology researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences,  said it was a huge mistake to put sturgeon and barracuda together.
'Sturgeon don't co-exist with barracuda in the sea. The docile ancient fish would have no place to go when encountering the carnivorous barracuda in an aquarium,' he said, adding that all sturgeon in mainland aquariums were raised apart from other species.
A  three-year-old example of one of the world's most ancient and rarest species died on Monday, just three days after  going on show with its four companions.
'It might indicate that there were issues not sufficiently thought through,' said Zong Minqing, of the National Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Association.
Ocean Park, which is bringing in mainland experts to reassess its facilities, said Sea World in San Diego, California, had raised sturgeon with freshwater species. But Ocean Park is the first to place the fish with  marine species -  a bid to learn more about the 18 years the species spends at sea before it enters rivers to breed.
The park said that during a wild sturgeon's sea travels, it should come across barracuda, which are common in the South China Sea.
Susanne Gendron, the park's director of zoological operations and education,  said the placement of the fish was agreed with mainland experts who had been visiting the aquarium since February. 'We discussed all husbandry aspects and the experts came to look at the facilities and found them acceptable with the current mix of animals in the aquarium,' she said.
Dr Gendron said that in future all new fish would be acclimatised in quarantine tanks and in enclosures adjacent to the main aquarium to get used to the other fish.
Another member of the  conservation association, Li Yanliang, sympathised with Ocean Park, saying many docile fish got along well with barracuda in the aquarium and  the  one that attacked the sturgeon might have felt  its territory was threatened.



One country, two systems covers aquariums too, as Ocean Park discovers to its cost