Nurse Shark
The gentle giant
Calm, powerful and one of the sharks guests love seeing glide through our larger habitats.
Open 11 am - 4 pm
Adopt an Animal
Symbolic Animal Adoptions at Mertailor
Choose Your Favorite. Become Part of Their Story.
Symbolically adopt one of the animals that calls Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium Encounter home. Your adoption helps support the everyday care behind our aquarium—from food and enrichment to water quality, habitats, veterinary care and more.
Adoptions start at just $35. Choose from sharks, stingrays, clownfish and macaws, then select the adoption package that fits you or someone special.
Adopting as a gift? Your adoption can be personalized for someone special, making it a memorable choice for birthdays, holidays, children, classrooms and animal lovers.
Who Will You Adopt?
Find Your Favorite
Maybe you have a favorite from a recent visit. Maybe you're shopping for someone who loves sharks. Or maybe one of these faces simply wins you over.
Zebra Shark
The spotted showstopper
A shark famous for changing from a striped juvenile into the beautifully spotted adult most guests recognize.
Cownose Ray
The social swimmer
Graceful, active and often seen moving together in groups throughout our ray habitats.
Southern Stingray
The graceful glider
A Florida native built for life along sandy bottoms, with a wide disc-shaped body and smooth swimming style.
Clownfish
The little reef favorite
Small, colorful and famous for the unusual relationship clownfish share with sea anemones.
Macaw
The colorful character
Intelligent, social and full of personality, our rescued and rehomed parrots are unforgettable members of the Mertailor family.
What Does "Symbolic" Mean?
Your Animal Stays Here. Your Connection Comes Home With You.
Your adopted animal remains right here at Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium Encounter, where our team continues providing its daily care.
A symbolic adoption does not transfer ownership of an animal. Instead, you receive an adoption package celebrating the animal you choose, while your purchase helps support animal care throughout the aquarium.
A Real Way to Support Real Animal Care
Every day our team prepares diets, monitors water quality, maintains life-support systems, cleans habitats, provides enrichment, observes behavior and works with veterinary professionals when animals need additional care.
Your symbolic adoption helps support that work 365 days a year.
Choose Your Adoption Level
Three Ways to Adopt
Choose the package that fits what you'd like to receive. Each option allows you to select from the animals available in our symbolic adoption program.
Seashell Supporter
$35
Digital Adoption Package
A simple way to make a difference.
- Personalized digital PDF adoption certificate
- Digital animal fact sheet
- Digital photo of your adopted animal with Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium logo
Great for: a simple adoption, last-minute gift or animal-loving child.
Choose Your Animal — $35Coral Champion
$75
Digital + Mailed Package
Give them something to open, too.
- Personalized printed adoption certificate
- Personalized digital PDF adoption certificate
- Digital animal fact sheet
- Digital photo of your adopted animal
- Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium stickers
Great for: birthdays, holidays and someone who would love a little Mertailor arriving in the mail.
Choose Your Animal — $75Ocean Guardian
$125
Complete Adoption Package
Our biggest symbolic adoption experience.
- Personalized printed & digital adoption certificate
- Printed & digital animal fact sheet
- Photo of your adopted animal
- Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium stickers
- Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium magnet
- Plushie of your adopted animal
Great for: the ultimate animal lover or someone who wants the full adoption package.
Choose Your Animal — $125Your Adoption at Work
Your Purchase Helps Care for Our Animals
Animal care involves real, ongoing costs. These examples help show what different adoption amounts can represent inside the aquarium.
$35Can help provide about two months of food for our cownose rays
$75Can help provide about two months of food for our macaws
$125Can help produce about 1,000 gallons of artificial seawater
These examples illustrate some of the real costs involved in caring for our animals and maintaining their habitats. Symbolic adoption proceeds support Mertailor's overall animal-care programs and are not restricted to the care of one individual animal.
Behind Every Adoption
There's a Lot Behind Every Animal You Meet
What guests see is only part of the story. Behind every exhibit are diets to prepare, water to test, filters and life-support systems to maintain, habitats to clean, enrichment to provide, records to keep and animals to observe.
Some animals at Mertailor were rescued or rehomed when previous caretakers could no longer provide for them. Others were born or hatched in human care, including sharks produced through our own breeding efforts.
Symbolic adoptions help us continue the work that happens every day—whether guests are watching or not.
Meet Your Possible Match
Meet the Animals You Can Symbolically Adopt
Adopt a Nurse Shark
Nurse sharks are bottom-oriented sharks with small sensory barbels near their mouths that help them locate food. Their calm swimming style and impressive size make them unforgettable aquarium residents.
Adopt a Zebra Shark
Zebra sharks begin life with bold stripes and transform dramatically as they mature, developing the spotted appearance seen in adults. Their long tails and gentle movement make them easy to recognize.
Adopt a Cownose Ray
Cownose rays are social swimmers often seen moving together in graceful groups. Mertailor has also welcomed cownose ray births, giving our team firsthand experience caring for young rays.
Adopt a Southern Stingray
Southern stingrays are native to Florida waters and spend much of their time close to sandy bottoms. Their broad bodies and smooth, wing-like swimming are part of what makes rays so mesmerizing to watch.
Adopt a Clownfish
Clownfish are famous for living closely with sea anemones. Their bright colors, small size and unique social behavior make them one of the reef's most recognizable fishes.
Adopt a Macaw
Macaws are intelligent, social and long-lived parrots that require extensive enrichment and specialized care. The birds at Mertailor came to us through rescue or rehoming and now help guests understand responsible parrot ownership.
A Gift They'll Actually Remember
Give Someone an Animal—Without Needing a Bigger House.
Shopping for someone who loves sharks? A child obsessed with stingrays? A grandchild who can't stop talking about the aquarium?
Symbolic animal adoptions make memorable gifts because they're personal, educational and connected to real animal care at Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium Encounter.
BirthdaysHolidaysGrandchildrenAnimal LoversTeachersClassroomsJust Because
Simple From Start to Finish
How Symbolic Adoption Works
01
Pick a Package
Choose the $35, $75 or $125 adoption level that works best for you.
02
Choose Your Animal
Select a nurse shark, zebra shark, cownose ray, southern stingray, clownfish or macaw.
03
Personalize It
Provide the name you would like included on the personalized adoption certificate.
04
We'll Take It From There
Your adoption materials are prepared according to the package you select.
Before You Adopt
Symbolic Adoption Questions
Do I actually own the animal I adopt?
No. This is a symbolic adoption. The animal remains in the care of Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium Encounter.
Can I give an adoption as a gift?
Yes. The adoption can be personalized for someone else, making it a great birthday, holiday or special-occasion gift.
What animals can I choose?
Current options include nurse shark, zebra shark, cownose ray, southern stingray, clownfish and macaw.
Does my purchase only support the animal I choose?
No. Symbolic adoption proceeds support animal care throughout Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium Encounter rather than being restricted to one individual animal.
Do I receive anything in the mail?
The $35 Seashell Supporter package is digital only. The $75 Coral Champion and $125 Ocean Guardian packages include mailed items.
What does an adoption help support?
Animal care needs can include diets, veterinary care, water-quality management, life-support systems, habitat maintenance, enrichment and other everyday operating needs.
Ready to Choose?
So... Who Are You Adopting?
Shark? Stingray? Clownfish? Macaw? Your symbolic adoption supports the animals of Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium Encounter and gives you something special to remember your new friend by.
Symbolic Adopt an Animal Program
Join Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium Encounter in marine conservation by symbolically adopting one of our enchanting creatures! Each adoption tier offers a special way to connect with and support the animals that call our aquarium home. Choose your level, enjoy exclusive gifts, and help protect these magnificent animals and their habitats. Your support will provide dietary needs, veterinary care, water quality management, habitat upkeep, enrichment activities, and more!
See Adoption packages below. There is something available for everyone, with various levels to choose from! Perfect for holidays, birthdays, or any special occasion, each package lets you select an animal to support.
Seashell Supporter - $35
As a Seashell Supporter, you're a true ocean friend with a caring heart, helping creatures near and far by doing your part. Your kindness shines like waves at play.
What’s Included (digital only):
- A personalized digital PDF certificate of adoption
- Animal fact sheet
- A beautiful digital photo of your adopted animal with Mertailor’s Mermaid Aquarium Logo
Your donation of $35 can help us feed all the cownose rays for two months!
Coral Champion - $75
As a Coral Champion, you're a hero of the deep, offering care and support to ocean life. Your commitment helps protect our vibrant underwater world, bringing joy and health to creatures great and small.
What’s Included: (print and digital)
- A personalized printed and digital PDF certificate of adoption
- Animal fact sheet (digital only)
- A beautiful photo of your adopted animal with Mertailor’s Mermaid Aquarium logo (digital only)
- Mertailor’s Mermaid Aquarium stickers to showcase your support
Your donation of $75 can help us feed all the macaws two months!
Ocean Guardian - $125
As an Ocean Guardian, you are a true champion of the sea, devoted to preserving the wonders of marine life. Your support nurtures our ocean’s most precious creatures, ensuring they thrive in a safe and healthy environment. With every ripple of your kindness, you help protect the vibrant beauty of the underwater world for generations to come.
What’s Included: (print and digital)
- A personalized printed and digital PDF certificate of adoption
- Animal fact sheet (print and digital)
- A beautiful photo of your adopted animal with Mertailor’s Mermaid Aquarium logo
- Mertailor’s Mermaid Aquarium stickers to showcase your support
- Mertailor's Mermaid Aquarium Magnet
- An adorable plushie of your adopted animal to remind you of your ocean friend every day
Your donation of $125 can help us make 1,000 gallons of artificial seawater for our exhibits!
Cownose Ray
Known for its playful and social nature, this gentle glider of the seas is always curious and friendly.
Macaw
Colorful and chatty, these social birds add a splash of tropical energy to our aquarium!
Southern Ray
A graceful swimmer with a flat, diamond-shaped body that’s built for life on the sandy seafloor.
Clownfish
The clown of the reef, known for its symbiotic relationship with sea anemones and its bold, vibrant colors.
Zebra Shark
With beautiful stripes as a juvenile and spots as an adult, this nocturnal predator is a true wonder of the reef.
Nurse Shark
A calm and peaceful bottom-dweller, recognized by its whisker-like barbels that help it sense the world
around.
