Most species in an aquarium

Situated in Chicago, Illinois, USA, and containing 18.9 million litres of water, the aquarium with the greatest number of species on display is the Shedd Aquarium, which presently exhibits no less than 1,500. These include not only hundreds of species of freshwater fishes, saltwater fishes and aquatic invertebrates but also marine mammals, birds, snakes, amphibians and insects, numbering some 32,000 individual animals in total. An indoor public aquarium, it is named after Chicago-born retail leader John G. Shedd, who gifted 3 million dollars to the city to design and build it, but, sadly, did not live to see its official opening on 30 May 1930.

Located on Lake Michigan, this was the first inland aquarium to have a permanent saltwater fish collection, and in terms of annual visitor numbers is the most popular cultural attraction in Chicago. In 1987, it was formally designated a National Historic Landmark. Moreover, in 1999 its Seahorse Symphony attraction, in 2001 its Amazon Rising attraction, and in 2004 its Wild Reef attraction garnered for it in those respective years the much-coveted "Best Exhibit" award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).