The next time you walk into Center in the Square, a flash of light may catch your eye. 

Although it could be anything from new set decorations for a production at Mill Mountain Theatre, or the glint from a pinball machine or the kiddie carousel, it’s most likely coming from the silver sides of our new aquarium residents!

Swimming in the current in our two beautiful cylindrical aquariums near the Candy Store are more than 50 fish commonly called “Monos.”  That’s short for the Latin monodactylus argenteus.  Some people also call them silver moonyfish, silver moony or diamondfish.

All of those nicknames make sense.  The fish are both silvery, and diamond-shaped.  Perhaps the “moony” part comes from a derivation of the name mono.  Who knows?

These fish are open water swimmers found in the wild in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans as well as the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.  Just as they do at Center in the Square, the fish loves to swim in schools in the open water.

Although monos can live in fresh water or even brackish water, they do better as they age in full salt water – or that with a specific gravity of 1.026.  Here at Center, we house them in salt water, which we make in the life support center beneath the atrium floor.  There, we process city water to make it pure – or as we call it RODI for Reverse Osmosis Deionized water.  To the pure water we add salt that is specifically made for the aquarium trade to create water so perfect, even the fish can’t tell.

While marine aquarium fish are still collected from the wild, the monos in our aquariums were hatched and raised in captivity.  

Of course, you might not need to know any of that – only that there is a stunning new and yes – eye -catching attraction waiting for you at Center in the Square.