Thom Demas on The Tennessee Aquarium
Thom Demas is the Vice President and Chief Husbandry & Exhibits Officer at the Tennessee Aquarium, where he leads animal care, conservation initiatives, and the creation of engaging exhibits that connect visitors to the natural world.
About Thom Demas
Thom Demas is the Vice President, Chief Husbandry & Exhibits Officer at the Tennessee Aquarium, where he’s spent nearly 30 years helping build one of the country’s most beloved and respected aquariums.
Originally brought on to manage the aquarium’s dive program, Thom has since helped lead major exhibit expansions, conservation initiatives, and animal care programs that have made the Tennessee Aquarium a true standout—not just in the Southeast, but nationwide. Today, he oversees the full animal collection, the freshwater and marine exhibits, and a team committed to connecting people to wildlife and water.
His science background gives him a unique lens into both the care of animals and the design of experiences that educate and inspire. His work touches everything from shark health to penguin breeding.
Over the years, Thom has also seen the broader impact the aquarium has had on the city of Chattanooga—where the opening of the aquarium helped spark a downtown revitalization and new wave of economic growth that continues to this day.
Did you know?
The Tennessee Aquarium generates $187 million annually in economic impact for Chattanooga and Hamilton County. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all revenue goes back into conservation, education, and facility upkeep.
Resources
The Tennessee Aquarium
The Aquarium’s Live Cameras
Aquarium Events
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Spencer: Thom Demas. Welcome to Signature Required. Thank you. We are not in our normal. Studio here. We are here in Chattanooga at the 50/50 Wine and Martini bar. We're on the road to come and talk to you about all things Tennessee Aquarium. We're gonna have a good time today.
Thom: I can't wait.
Spencer: You have an incredible title. Okay. You are the Vice President at the Tennessee Aquarium, but you are Chief Husbandry and [00:01:00] Exhibits officer there. That's right. Is just fantastic. Right away, I feel like your title in a game of Two Truths and a Lie would really serve you well.
Spencer: So do you just lead, like when people are like, what do you do, do you say, oh, I work at the aquarium, and you kind of talk your job description? Or do you say, I'm Chief Husbandry, and just like, leave it right there?
Thom: Yeah. No, no, I'm totally, uh, I work at the aquarium. I, I, you know, I, I don't. I don't want the attention on my title, so I tend to stay away from it.
Spencer: Well, I'm gonna encourage you to lead instead with Chief Husbandry. Yes, please. And please just leave it there and then make them dig for more. Okay. So I'm going to dig for more because what I have now is that your Chief Husbandry, and I could take that in a lot of different directions. So tell me what Chief Husbandry and Exhibits Officer at the Tennessee Aquarium, what do you do?
Thom: Uh, pretty much everything. Uh, we don't do finances. Uh, we, we, we [00:02:00] focus primarily on everything related to the animal collection. Um, we have over 12,000 animals. Uh, we have two buildings, fresh water and salt water. We tell the story of the Tennessee River. We have a department that's not reflected on that.
Thom: Our operations department, that they're not the maintenance crew. We have an amazing maintenance staff that doesn't report to me, but the operations crew does report to me, and they're the folks that run the lights. They run the pumps, they make sure the big filtration systems are functioning. They backwash 'em, they clean 'em.
Thom: Um, they're there 24 7, 365. They're always there. Uh, so when you think about what does it take to keep a critter. The folks that that I work with are the ones that do everything. Veterinary diving, animal Husbandry, which is the care of an animal breeding, whatever. So yeah, everything related to taking care of the animals.
Thom: How
Spencer: long have you been [00:03:00] there?
Thom: It'll be 28 years in March.
Thom: Yeah. It, you wanna know a little bit about that, that stuff? I do, yeah. Yeah, so, so I'm gonna go way back and in my, I like to call it my first life I managed. Restaurants and eventually that moved into, uh, auto parts stores, and I, at the time was had, was in Tampa, Florida, and I had managed the number one and number two stores in the Tampa Bay area.
Thom: For our auto parts chain, Rose Auto Stores, which has since gone out of business. I like to think it's 'cause I left and we got held up at gunpoint and it was scary as it happened, but the way we were treated by the company afterwards, I just realized, you know, this is not where I'm headed. So I went back to school.
Thom: Fast forward quite a few years. I take a job in Chattanooga, and I think to myself, I don't know anything about the Tennessee Aquarium, and [00:04:00] I know less about Chattanooga. Three years, five years max. I'm gonna get some experience. I'm gonna be out of that hole.
Carli: Huh. So what made you stay for 28?
Thom: It's not a hole.
Thom: I absolutely love the city of Chattanooga. It's one of the best places I've ever been. It's definitely the best place I've ever lived. And the Tennessee Aquarium, hands down. Has been the best organization I've ever worked for. We're not perfect. My head's not in the clouds. We have things I wanna see change and do better, but it is clearly the best organization I've ever worked for.
Thom: They take care of staff, they take care of the animals and they take care of the guests and it's wonderful.
Spencer: I don't wanna bring up a sensitive subject, but holding up an auto parts store at gunpoint. Did they want the cash or did they want auto parts or both? It's
Thom: a great story. You have not lived until you've hit someone in the head with a gallon of antifreeze.
Thom: Wait, wait. It's very exhilarating. I need to like tuck
Carli: in for a second. It's very exhilarating. Yeah. From the beginning, please.
Thom: [00:05:00] From, okay, so these two gentlemen came in and it was late one evening, I think it was in the fall actually, and it was dark outside and they spent, I don't know, 15 or 20 minutes picking out a quart of oil.
Thom: So myself and two other workers were there putting away merchandise. They went up to the register and one of our guys, Walter, went up there and they set their quart of oil down and a $5 bill. And Walter rang him in and the minute the drawer opened, kid pulled out a gun and put it at Walter's face and said, lay down.
Thom: Now, we were trained, given him what they want. Yeah, we carried the register out and put a bow on it. You know, there was no hero here. Walter, when he heard lay down, thought they were gonna execute him, and Walter got scared and panicked and Walter spun around and grabbed the gun. I hear the commotion and go run into the front and see Walter in the fight.
Thom: [00:06:00] En suing as I go by, I picked up a gallon of antifreeze and the one guy is being pulled over the counter by Walter and his partner's trying to pull him back and I. Come running up with this gallon of antifreeze and I've roundhouse and unfortunately I didn't get a good follow through. I had a hold of the guy, but my feet are in antifreeze and I'm stuck on the rail, so I can't get over the rail.
Thom: I can't pull him. He comes out of his coat. I can't, he gets his buddy over the wall and they leave. So we've, we've got the oil, we've got their $5 bill, we've got their gun, we've got their jacket, and of course the police come. District manager comes, they do all their stuff. I don't know. It's probably seven 30 now and they all leave.
Thom: They sent Walter home as well. They should have, and they made me and the assistant stay and close up the store. Now this is a store lit up like the sun with all glass windows and it's nighttime outside, and we're [00:07:00] thinking they're gonna drive by.
Sure
Thom: we were not allowed to close. They made us stay and close the store, and that, that's what they did.
Thom: That made me realize this isn't about me at all. This is about the company making a profit, and I'm, I'm outta here. So that's the story. That's why I made the decision. Wow. Wait, wow. So,
Carli: so that experience is what made you realize you'd rather work with fish
Thom: Yeah. Than human
Carli: beings?
Thom: Well, there've been a lot of reasons to work with Phish, but that pushed me over to go back to school and, and go after it.
Thom: Yeah. Wow,
Spencer: wow, wow. That's amazing. Well, I got way more than I bargained for. Yeah. Sorry about that. I'm really thrilled to have heard that that was not
Carli: Yeah.
Spencer: Wow. So what, what kind of. Going through managing restaurants to auto parts to aqua. What was your training and education along the way? Because normally when I think of people that are at an aquarium for 28 years, I'm thinking marine biologist.
Spencer: Yeah. And like really science heavy education. Was that you and you just had an intermission?
Thom: Yeah, I, [00:08:00] I, uh, I guess the intermission for me was going back to college. Um, I came outta high school, college didn't work out. I dropped out a couple times, uh, and then realized I just, I really need to go back and make it happen.
Thom: So I graduated college at 28. Uh, but my degree is, uh, I'm a. Biologist. I have my um, uh, bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in chemistry. I'm two classes shy of having a major in chemistry. I was gonna stick around, but. They alternated the classes. So I had to state a year instead of a semester, so I just left with a minor, but chemistry and biology and I, I used the chemistry probably more than the biology, to be honest.
Spencer: And, and was the, the robbery and this, was that after college or No, you, you. You did that and then said, all right, I'm gonna go back to school and then came out.
Thom: Yeah. No matter how hard college is, it's not this hard. Okay. I'm going back.
Spencer: That timeline kind of fits for me. Absolutely. That makes, that makes sense to have you assess.
Spencer: Okay. So speaking [00:09:00] specifically to the aquarium, it's kind of unbelievable that Chattanooga has this kind of facility. I, I'm born and raised in Tennessee. Yeah. I've taken a number of field trips to the Chattanooga Aquarium. Yeah. So I know. How special that facility is. Not just one building, but two buildings.
Spencer: Yeah. Why is it here? How did that happen?
Thom: Foresight. Um, you know, the Lupton family, you. The, you know, people call it the older money in the area years ago had the foresight to see industries going away. We're at a major crossroads of 24 and 75 people pass through here if we can get them to stop. I mean, rock City has survived.
Thom: Ruby Falls has survived. They've all, they believed if they could open this aquarium that. If it was a good enough aquarium, it would help revitalize downtown, and that is exactly what it's done. Hmm.
Carli: For people that are passing by that maybe weren't born in Tennessee, don't [00:10:00] have this familiarity, give us your pitch.
Carli: Right. What is makes the Chattanooga Aquarium so special?
Thom: The, the Tennessee Aquarium. We, I, I, I go to conferences, I visit other facilities, and when people find out I'm from the Tennessee Aquarium, they always say that's my favorite aquarium. And I, I'm not talking about people on the street, I'm talking about people that do what I do.
Thom: Um,
Spencer: it is really special.
Thom: It it is. It is. And we're so different. We really, really focus on our region and we're not on the ocean. So our ocean journey building is there to complete an experience, but our bread and butter is that river journey building and we focus on the Tennessee River, a drop of water from the mountains to the sea.
Thom: Tennessee River water ultimately goes all the way to the Gulf. So, so it's about that journey, and then it's about comparing freshwater ecosystems from other parts of the world with what we have here. So that's our river journey building, [00:11:00] and we do. We do a lot of things at a very high level of quality and it, the people are what makes our organization special.
Thom: Those people are why I've chosen to stay here,
Carli: not the fish.
Thom: The fish are fantastic wherever you put them.
Spencer: And you, when you think about your role as Chief of Exhibits, talk me through what you're trying to accomplish. And the story that you tell in the exhibits.
Thom: Yeah, so that's a good question. You know, the overall story that most visitors never pick up on is that drop of water from its origin in the mountains through the river to the sea.
Thom: It's a great story, but I don't think the average guest picks up on that. But when it comes to the individual exhibits. 98% of our exhibits are a geographical location, and we try to tell the story of that location. So when you look in there, [00:12:00] it's not an amalgam of pretty animals or pretty fish, pretty plants.
Thom: It's plants and animals from that region. What my goal is, what our goal is when you stop and begin to appreciate what you're looking at and able to compare it, I want you to recognize the importance. And, and the big thing here, it's water.
Hmm.
Thom: If these fish are thriving in nature, in the water, that's the same source water that we're drinking.
Thom: Right. So if, if I can get someone to pick up that their, their actions and their behaviors actually make a difference, then I feel like I've done my job. Hmm. That's, that's what's important.
Spencer: Just as we're talking about the facility itself, can you talk, you mentioned earlier about the maintenance crew that's there.
Spencer: Sure. I can't keep an aquarium that is just like 50 gallons clean. I can't keep anything alive in there. The, like the whole work. The pumps break. Yeah. I can't imagine [00:13:00] what goes, you might get some judgment
Carli: over here. Yeah. We can't even keep a small, like gold fish tank alive. Please don't judge us in this podcast right now.
Spencer: Yeah. So what. What really is behind the scenes there, because I would imagine the cost and the maintenance of that. And you can't have it go wrong, right? Because you have something go wrong and you've got animals that are dying.
Thom: Absolutely. And, and we don't have a product for our guests to come in and see.
Thom: Yeah. So we've gotta be spot on. So, so it's, it is a, a multifaceted team. Maintenance specifically, they're the ones who will replace pumps, rebuild pumps, replace lights, install lights, all that mechanical stuff. The Husbandry team, the folks that take care of the animals, they're the ones inside the exhibits, cleaning the windows, vacuuming the gravel.
Thom: You know how you're tanking home? Mm-hmm. You have a little gravel vacuum.
Yeah.
Thom: So we build big ones with pumps and we go in on scuba and we. Vacuum the botThom of the, just, just like you do at home. It's just on a much [00:14:00] grander scale. One thing we have in our favor, the larger the volume of water, the more stable it is.
Thom: Okay. Right. It's gonna change temperature slower. Mm-hmm. It's gonna change pH slower. Mm-hmm. So it, that is something that's nice. The bigger it is, the more stable it is. Having said that, now you're steering a ship, not a speedboat. So when things start going south, it can be bad. So the trick is. Stay on top of what you need to stay on top of the operations team.
Thom: I mentioned, they're the ones that keep an eye on flow rates, temperatures, as well as Husbandry. Keeps an eye on those as well. And they're the ones that do the back washes on all the giant filters. We have filters that would fill this room up, so yeah. And so it's do your maintenance, do your homework.
Thom: Cleanliness is next to godliness in, mm-hmm. In keeping fish at, at home or at an aquarium. And you have to have a, a watchful eye. And look for animal behavior, look for changes in behavior, general health, that kind of thing.
Carli: So you mentioned diving. So [00:15:00] is a huge portion of your team dive certified? Is that a big part of what it takes to be in Husbandry?
Thom: Yeah, so our Husbandry staff is broken into two groups. There's the Aquarius that take care of the aqua, and then there's the forestry staff that do. Plants, turtles, lemurs, all the other stuff. So all the Aquarius are scuba certified. Several of the operators are SCUBA certified. Several of the maintenance staff are SCUBA certified.
Thom: A few of the forestry staff are SCUBA certified. And then we have about, I think right now we're running about 150 volunteer divers. They come in and do basic cleaning maintenance for us every day. They scrub the rock work, the artificial rock work. They clean windows. We've trained them to do dive programs with our guests where they chat with the guests on a full face mask with communications in it, and then they also will do a feeding and feed some of the fish because when you've got fish that eat on the botThom and fish that eat midwater and fish that eat at the top.
Thom: You can't get food to everybody just [00:16:00] throwing it in. You gotta put someone in to make sure they're getting what they need.
Spencer: That's amazing that you have 150 volunteers. Like there's a lot of really compelling nonprofits out there. Yeah. That struggle to get five people to show up. Yeah. Yeah. Now you're talking hundreds of people and you know, they're cleaning some nasty stuff down there, there, now they're getting to do some cool things too.
Spencer: How do you do that? Is it just people that are so passionate? I mean, what, what's the, what's the pitch for that?
Thom: You know, well, we, first of all, we have, oh gosh, a lot of volunteer opportunities. Probably right now running around 250 volunteers total. The volunteer divers are about 150 of that, and they are highly passionate.
Thom: They want to dive, and quite frankly, we're the best dive in this part of the country. When you. Scuba dive, you have to pay attention to your depth. One additional atmosphere of pressure is 33 feet, so there's a nice safety margin there. We're just shy of one additional atmosphere of pressure, so that's.
Thom: You know, at the end of the day, [00:17:00] probably a helps on the insurance premium. A little strateg safety. A little strateg there for you. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Spencer: All right, so let's go to the exhibit. Oh, yes. So what is a favorite exhibit? What's just an exhibit? That was a disaster. Walk me through those. Yeah,
Thom: let me tell you the disaster first.
Thom: All right. And because, but yeah, so we have a gallery we opened, it was before the pandemic, I guess it would've been 2018, I think. And it's called Island Life. You know, this was all done in house. We came up with the concept, we designed the layout, everything, and we decided we wanted to do flashlight, fish, flashlight, fish are super cool in apac, Pacific region.
Thom: Little fish, they live quite deep. There's two species that have pockets below their eyes and in these pockets, live bacteria that bioluminescence. And one species of flashlight fish, it's open all the time, so they're glowing all the time. And then it'll close and [00:18:00] reopen, like it blinks. The other species is closed all the time, and then it'll open and close.
Carli: So they're like strobe light fish. They,
Thom: they are, and they, and they blink like a raise. So it's really, it's really cool. So they need dark. So we put this exhibit in and we created this hallway you would go through and the goal was to have it dark enough for the fish. Just enough light so the guests could get through.
Thom: Okay. I, I don't think anyone really got hurt, but it was so dark in there. I'm surprised no one broke their neck or ankle or something. Meanwhile, it was way too bright and all the fish were huddled down in the corner. Oh, no, it, it was terrible. Nobody was happy. The fish weren't happy. Nothing. It was a colossal failure.
Thom: But, but, but we saved it. We, we brainstormed it and we built this wall in front of it. So now we can brighten up. The walk space and in the wall are holes with curtains, and you put your head in the hole and move the curtain. The fish are in total darkness, and now you can see the flashlight fish swimming about the [00:19:00] tank and blinking and Oh wow.
Thom: Doing their thing. So we, we pulled ourselves out of it, but it, it took a few months to, to get it resolved. That, that, that was
Carli: scrappy. Yeah. Well, and you build all your own exhibits, right? You hire Yeah, we design,
Thom: we hire contractors a lot of times to actually build the tank. Yeah. Or do the rock work in it, but it's all based on our designs.
Thom: Wow.
Spencer: Yeah. And then what's the feature exhibit that is just can't miss it?
Thom: I am, in my opinion, this goes back to our bread and butter and the fish we have here locally. It's in our Ridges to Rivers Gallery, which kinda looks at animals in our region. Not necessarily Tennessee, but regional animals. And we've never been able to show stream fish, the little guys very well, and they have this really incredible behavior.
Thom: There's one fish in particular called a river chub that will swim around and he'll pick up these rocks and he'll build this big, beautiful mound and he gets these little white bumps all over his head. Those are called tubercle. When the [00:20:00] tubercle are showing he's ready to mate and he builds this big, beautiful nest and he'll mate on it.
Thom: But you know what else happens? It spawns an entire mating time feeling in all the fish in the area and all these other shiners and minnows come in and will spawn on that same nest. Wow. It becomes a communal, spawning ground. We years ago, paid photographers to go out, find it, get photographs for us. You can now see it happen in our exhibit.
Thom: We opened this exhibit in 23. One full year season came around. Chubb built the nest. All the other fish came in communal spawn, just like in nature. Wow. And so that, to me, that's one of the biggest things.
Carli: How many people come through the aquarium on a given year?
Thom: Our goals for attendance typically are that 750 to 775,000.
Thom: I think this year we're budget, I think we're at [00:21:00] 7 68 this year is the number we forecasted and. You know, that includes school groups. I, I mean, that's,
Carli: I mean, that's a lot of people.
Thom: It's a lot of people. Prior, prior to Georgia Aquarium opening and Ripley's Aquarium and Gatlinburg opening, the first five years, we averaged 1.1 million a year.
Thom: So. When they envisioned the Tennessee Aquarium revitalizing Chattanooga, that is exactly what it has done. And, and even though now in, in the four hours between Atlanta and Gatlinburg now, now there's three aquariums instead of one, and we're the ones stuck in the middle. We've settled around that seven 50 to 7 75 mark.
Thom: If we do new exhibit, we'll see a bump, but. The, the secret is keep it fresh, keep the experience fantastic. That's what we have to do. That's our, that's our home run is making sure the experience is fantastic.
Carli: So what is your biggest diva in all of your aquariums? Like which one? I know you love all of your animals, but which [00:22:00] one gives you the most heart attacks?
Thom: You know the sh the big sharks, I worry about them a lot when sharks mate. It is not a tender, gentle thing and they don't have arms. So imagine how they grasp each other with their mouths. So, but that's what they're designed to do. The skin on the female. On her back is thicker and on their side because that's what they do in nature.
Thom: They bite each other to, hold on. So I, I have, I have a lot of heartburn. Sometimes I'm up at night worried about the sharks. Our penguins, they are show Steelers. But, you know, one of the things when you, when you have these animals, like we do in our collection, there's no predators. Mm-hmm. They live longer than they do in the wild.
Thom: So we have some geriatric penguins and we have geriatric otters, and you see 'em getting arthritis, our beautiful Otter exhibit with this beautiful rock work. And here's this wooden manmade ramp [00:23:00] so that the otters can get up and down easier because. 'cause they're really old. Wow. Wow. So, you know, there's, there's those kind of worries.
Thom: Those
Carli: are quality problems though. They,
Thom: they are, those are the you sharks that wanna mate
Carli: and you have geriatric otters. Yeah. That's, that's quality. Absolutely. Quality problems. That
Thom: is the kind of problem you want. Uh, okay.
Spencer: I, I wanna uncork a, a controversial one with you because I hear often criticisms of aquariums and zoos to say, oh, these.
Spencer: Animals or fish are being confined and what kind of life is that? And, and it's construed in a negative life. Yeah. But what I know about anyone that I've ever met that works inside of an aquarium or a zoo is you will find no greater animal lover, right. Than the people that work inside of there. And so I really.
Spencer: I've never had the chance to ask somebody that has sat in your seat as long as you have of how you view [00:24:00] that conversation and how you might answer to someone that says, well, you know, the aquarium is just monetizing off of these fish and it's. It's all about the money. Yeah. How do you have that conversation?
Thom: Yeah, that's, that's a great question and that is something that comes up a lot. I'll just touch on it real quickly. We do a ridiculous amount of research and conservation, so we're doing true work and we can talk more about that later. But regards the question specific to the animals that we have. You know, we study their natural history, we know what they need.
Thom: A good example is we hear people make comments about the penguins. They don't have enough room. We, we could put those penguins, uh, on the biggest glacier anywhere. And you know what they're all gonna do? They're all gonna huddle up together. That's what they do. Yeah. Uh, so we do our homework. We, we learn the natural history of the animal.
Thom: We learn what they need. If we can't feed that animal the right food [00:25:00] or, or an equally healthy substitute that they like, that's probably not an animal we need to be keeping. I'm not gonna, you know. Talk bad about any other facility, but for us at the Tennessee Aquarium. We, we don't really want to get into the marine mammal side of things.
Thom: We don't, you know, the, the, when you think of dolphins and porpoises and sea lion, you know, they have family structures. They're a little more, they're a little more evolved mentally, emotionally, how they care for their young, and that that's just something we, we choose not to work with those animals. We stick with the animals that we feel like we can provide what they need.
Thom: Based on their natural history. So that's what's really important.
Spencer: That's really good. Thom and I, I think that captures the spirit really well, is that out of the 768,000 people they're gonna walk through on an annual basis, you are creating little future [00:26:00] conservationists. You know, people that wanna go out and be marine biologists and wanna go out and take care.
Spencer: And I really. I appreciate that spirit about it saying we are doing real scientific work here. We're doing real things. Yes, we have to make money and yes, we have to do these things, but we do so with real intentionality.
Thom: Yeah. Thank you. And that's, and going back to the making money part, that was one of the tenets when the aquarium was formed, that we wouldn't have to rely on the city or the state mm-hmm.
Thom: For tax subsidies or, or. Sure. We go and look for grants and we fundraise and try to find donors, of course, but we operate off our gate. We are self-sufficient. The Tennessee Aquarium is not subsidized by the state. There's not a quarter percent or millage rate somewhere that people don't. We are our own entity and I'm really proud of that.
Thom: That's another one of the reasons I've stuck around. It's, it's a nonprofit. I've, I've been involved in a [00:27:00] few, worked for a few. It's the one I've been with that I know how we spend our money, and I'm proud of what we do. And I feel like we contribute and we give back. Our economic impact is huge, so, so yeah, it's a place I'm really proud of and I think it's a model for what, what a not-for-profit should be.
Thom: Nobody's at the top getting rich off of us. The money that's left over at the end goes back to supporting what we do, either creating new exhibits. Just last year we replaced all the HVAC. In the two buildings, well, last year and this year, you know, 30-year-old building and the other one's 20, you gotta do something.
Thom: So we take care of what we have and very responsible about it.
Carli: Hmm. I'd love to know what you're excited about when you talk about your exhibits, and I'm sure you're that guy that has the 5, 10, 15 year plans of, Ooh, what other bioluminescent critter can I get in [00:28:00] here? So what are you really looking forward to that people can get excited about?
Thom: Well, we actually have a new gallery coming. We have a, a gallery right now called Boneless Beauties. That is a little boneless beauties. Boneless be, that's a beauty. It's all invertebrates and it's a little long in the tooth. It opened in 2005 when Ocean Journey opened, and this is one that we've fully developed in house next March.
Thom: We don't have an opening date yet. Scuttlebutt Reef. Do you guys know? Do you guys know the word scuttlebutt? Do you know what a scuttlebutt is? Tell me. This is awesome. So back in the old sailing days, they had a wooden vessel that held fresh water for the sailors to drink. That is a scuttlebutt. So when they would go back to get their water, of course everyone would have their little gossip, water cooler talk.
Thom: Ah, that's what scuttlebutt rumor. That's where that comes from. Yeah. So Scuttlebutt Reef is a fictitious place that allows us to do each exhibit within that space. Can be from anywhere. Hmm. [00:29:00] As I mentioned earlier, we tend to keep our exhibits geographically accurate, but in this exhibit can be, you know, place A and then as this exhibit can be place B, that's what Scuttlebutt Reef is gonna provide for us.
Thom: And we, we are doing a very large, our live coral tank is so popular we're. Uh, six times the size, something like that. It's gonna, it's about 20 feet long. We're gonna do a brand new living reef in that, and a lot of other cool animals that, that we can't currently show. So that's the next thing coming up that we had been working on.
Thom: It's kind of in production. Husbandry folks are getting animals. We've just sent out bid packages on the tanks. Select who's gonna build them for us, and then we'll do, when it comes, we'll hire a local contractor to help us and we'll rip out the old and put in the new, and it'll open next March. So that's one thing coming up.
Carli: Oh, I wanna see it. That sounds amazing.
Spencer: I have a funny exhibit question, Thom, that I just have to know. So. I have like most of us sat at the botThom of [00:30:00] some massive, expansive water. Yeah. And it's just glass separating me and just untold amount of, gallons of water. And there's part of those, you know, kind of just like those, those thoughts that flash into your head.
Spencer: What's some thoughts? Thank you. Oh yeah. Of like, you know, I have an intrusive thought of saying, you know. Could I break that glass if I needed to? Like, I don't know, not a good idea. Not going to, right. And I'm like, whoa, what am I even thinking about? Like, uh, you know, where are my kids? Don't tell
Carli: him that.
Carli: Yeah, he won't let you in the aquarium.
Spencer: So how thick is this glass? And if I needed to, Thom, if I had a good hammer, could I get through that thing? Or do you feel No,
Thom: you're not gonna get through it. Um, first of all, we don't. In very few of our exhibits do we use real glass. Okay. Almost all of it is acrylic.
Spencer: Okay.
Thom: Um,
Spencer: that makes sense. Yeah.
Thom: And, and so, and the thickness of that acrylic depends on the depth of the water. Okay. 'cause of the increased pressure, the, the deepest windows in our largest tank, which is [00:31:00] 32 feet deep, I think we're running about. 14 to 16 inches thick.
Spencer: Okay. Acrylic. Acrylic. So yeah, it's, it's over,
Thom: it's well over a foot.
Thom: And so they're very large. Um, the problem with acrylic is it's softer, so it can be scratched and we have to polish it 'cause people, you know. Inadvertently, I'm sure scratch 'em up animals or on purpose just to make you mad or on purpose. Yeah. Uh, animals on the other side, the alligators, they don't know.
Thom: They claw it, and so we have to get in periodically and repolish those. But the good news is it's very, very strong and it's very forgiving. So it's not gonna shatter. It's not gonna rupture, it's not gonna spider like a car windshield and fall out. That's, that's not gonna happen.
Spencer: That's the stuff of movies.
Spencer: Okay. Well that's good. I can put that intrusive thought. You can put it away. You'll
Thom: be fine.
Spencer: What about y all's water consumption? Like is it, mm-hmm. Is it just constantly new water that's coming in? I, I know you all are filtering it, but like what, what about your water and gallon [00:32:00] consumption? I can't imagine
Thom: what you all We do use a lot of water.
Thom: I don't have that number in my head. We do use a lot of water, but no. Uh, all of our exhibits are recirculating, and all of those filters we talked about have a biological component to them. They, they grow bacteria in 'em that works like the bacteria in your septic tank.
Hmm.
Thom: So, like for us, our, our metabolic waste is ammonia, and then our body puts it together and makes urea and we urinate.
Thom: Mm-hmm. Fish don't do that. Fish like us create an ammonia byproduct of waste that goes into their blood and then they. Give it off about 95% of it through their gills and about 5% of it through their skin. So, and it's a kind of a passive diffusion. So what that means is the amount of ammonia dissolved in the water has to be less than the amount of ammonia in the fish, or the fish can't get rid of it and they poison themself.
Thom: That's why when you start your fish [00:33:00] tank at home, you do it slowly. You're letting the bacteria grow to keep up with the waste. So what breaks down into ammonia besides the fish food you put in there? Any kind of organic matter, the algae grows, you scrub it, it falls off and dies. That's adding ammonia to the water.
Thom: So we're relying on this biological component to convert the ammonia. To nitrite. And then other groups of bacteria convert the nitrite to nitrate, which nitrate is a wonderful fertilizer, so that makes the algae wanna bloom. So we do have to do water changes to help manage the nitrates, but it's not like it's a flow through.
Thom: Everything is recirculating, renewing itself. In the case of our largest marine tank, when we backwash that water to clean the filters, we recover it. And we clean it, we sample it, check all the, the primary components we know to look for, supplement what's low, and then we reuse that water. So yes, we do use a lot of water, but [00:34:00] uh, our goal is to not use it if we don't Absolutely have to.
Spencer: That is so neat. I'm learning all kinds of things now that makes total sense. Like the ammonia levels of saying it's gotta be, the water level has to be lower so the fish can diffuse. Yep. And that makes total sense. And probably if you pulled out one of those filters, if you didn't know what you were looking for, you'd probably look at it and say, that's the grossest, most disgusting filter imaginable.
Spencer: But that's actually what it's supposed to look like. That's right. Because you need to be growing the type of bacteria to be able to go through it. Exactly right. So this is exactly why we wanted to have you here, Thom. This is amazing. I feel ready to open my own aquarium, Thom. Awesome. Oh my gosh,
Carli: that sounds fun, but maybe we,
Spencer: we
Carli: wait a beat.
Spencer: Thom, this is so fun to get to talk to you. A I feel like that I'm just like at a field trip where I get to ask a guy that knows so much all the questions and I haven't even come close to stumping you. I, I tried to get you with like the glass question and all the rest, but I mean, you're, you're uns stump.
Spencer: Oh, well thank you on all this and that speaks to how much you care. And that's consistent with [00:35:00] what I was talking about earlier, that to get to know someone that has dedicated a significant portion of their lives Yeah. To this mission, uh, your passion for this shines through in a great way. Thank you.
Spencer: And I think Chattanooga as a whole has been a huge beneficiary of having the Tennessee Aquarium here. Yeah. It has transformed downtown and I've gotten to see it since a kid. Yeah. Uh, and so, uh, one tradition that we do at the end of every podcast is I read, uh, three sentences. Uh, they have a blank at the end.
Spencer: Okay. And you just fill in that blank with a word or a couple words that come to mind. All right. You ready? I'm ready. Here we go. One thing people don't realize about aquariums is. Blank.
Thom: One thing people don't realize about aquariums is the level of effort that goes into creating something that looks so natural and effortless.
Thom: You know, a lot of people have a fish tank at home think, oh, this is pretty easy. [00:36:00] We often have species that want to eat each other. Yeah. That's what they do. So how do I keep those together and keep them from meeting each other? There's a lot of effort, understanding natural history of the animal. What do they prefer?
Thom: What do they like? How do I keep 'em satiated? To the point they don't wanna hunt? Yet they don't get overweight. 'cause when they gain weight, they have a lot of similar problems that we do. Mm-hmm. Their health goes down and then think, I have to put my sharks on a diet. What do you think they're gonna do then?
Thom: Then they're gonna want to eat everybody. Right. So, yeah. The amount of work that goes into managing it is, is, it's not rocket science, but you gotta know what you're doing and you've gotta be willing to learn. You've gotta be willing to ask for help.
Hmm.
Spencer: That's interesting. That feeds into the volunteer piece and all the stuff, and you all do a great job of creating community around that.
Spencer: Okay. Number two, the biggest impact the aquarium has had on Chattanooga is blank.
Thom: The biggest impact the aquarium has had on Chattanooga [00:37:00] is revitalizing the city and the industry. And I put quotes around that because tourism is an industry. Chattanooga was more manufacturing back in the day, and as, as that changed, I feel like the tourism has come in and supplemented what we lost from, from a financial perspective.
Thom: At our five year anniversary, 138 new businesses had opened in the downtown area, adjacent to the aquarium. Wow. 138 new businesses. I mean, that, that is. Huge impact. Right. Uh, so yeah,
Spencer: that is an incredible stat. Yeah. I love that. That shows entrepreneurial thinking. Yeah. Leads to entrepreneurial flourishing.
Spencer: Yeah. And gosh, doesn't that, that's the biggest change agent out there. Absolutely. That's so good. Okay. Number three. The Tennessee Aquarium is special. Because blank.
Thom: The Tennessee Aquarium is special [00:38:00] because we know our bread and butter is the guest we. We tailor everything we do to create the best experience possible, being stuck between two really good aquariums.
Thom: We're never gonna be the biggest. We're never gonna be the one more convenient to Gatlinburg and where everyone wants to go travel and spend a long weekend. We're stuck in the middle. We make sure when you come to our aquarium you have the best experience possible. Uh,
Spencer: I like that. It's like you're between kind of a rock and a hard place and you know, if you don't add value, you're not gonna be here around to, to, to see another year.
Spencer: That's, and so it keeps the thumb on you. That's
Thom: right. It, we had a little campaign we did for a while, and this slogan is always stuck with me. Bigger's not better. Better is better. So we just try to be better. Constantly.
Spencer: Thom, this was so fun. Thank you. I really, really enjoyed this. Thank you for sharing a little bit about your daily life and why you have spent so much time, uh, pouring into the community, the aquarium, and uh, just sharing a little bit with us to bring it to life.
Spencer: This [00:39:00] was super, super fun.
Thom: Uh, it's my pleasure. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you both. Thank you.
Spencer: First, we need to cheers to our host here, Clark Holt of 50 50 Wine Bar, wine and Martini Bar in Chattanooga. Um, this was a really special episode that we got to do interviewing Thom Demis. Of the Tennessee Aquarium. This was like a field trip. I feel like we got to learn and ask every question that I wanted to be able to ask to a guy that has spent like three decades of his life taking care of.
Spencer: Countless fish and animals. I mean, he was just uns stump as a human being.
Carli: Oh, and how it started hearing about his time running an auto parts shop and that he had to offend himself off at gunpoint. I mean, we know what that's like in our own business. We have gone through some of those same hardships and know how that [00:40:00] changes you and how it changes you as a business owner.
Carli: And that for him, it was a real catalyst. To pursuing a passion that he had maybe dormant inside of him. Yeah. And I thought, what a neat story. Something that could have been a tragedy, turned him back to going back to school so that he could study chemistry and biology. And he's been at the Tennessee Aquarium for 28 years.
Carli: I just thought he was fascinating.
Spencer: Yeah. That it really. The episode went just in impossible to predict direction. Right. Yeah. I didn't have any
Carli: of that on my Bingo card. Yeah. Like literally I was sitting there. I was also super glad we didn't have this wine beforehand because I felt like a teenage girl. I kept getting the giggles when he would talk about Husbandry and sharks mating, and I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get kicked off the podcast.
Carli: I'm not professional enough for this conversation. Like. Carli, pull it together.
Spencer: Yeah. We could have blamed it on being in the wine bar to start with in the podcast and said Your wine is too good. I just, I can't
Carli: keep a straight face for this podcast. It's too delicious. Yeah,
Spencer: yeah, yeah. [00:41:00] The title of Chief Husbandry, director of Husbandry is just super fun.
Spencer: That's, there's just a lot of things that you can do with that Head of exhibits. Talk to us about successful exhibits. But I always wanna know about the failed exhibits, right? Because that's what I'd be doing. I'd be like, well, let's put these two fish in there together and see what happens and be like, oh, well, okay, I guess that makes sense.
Spencer: That was predictable. Uh, so I just really appreciated how playful mm-hmm. That he was to, 'cause it would be really easy to get really scientific. Mm-hmm. And say, you know, I'm not gonna explain this to you. Like, it's the ammonia in the water. And it's like, none of us know what that means. Sure. And so the fact that he was so willing to teach that is the heart posture that I hope that we never lose.
Spencer: Mm-hmm. That we can always go back to put ourselves in the shoes of what it was like to be a baby entrepreneur, what it was like to get the first bank loan, what it was like [00:42:00] to take care of the first cusThomer. The moment that you lose sight of that. It's all lost. I was amazed at how well he embodied the culture of the Tennessee Aquarium.
Spencer: He didn't start the place, he didn't put a dollar into it himself to build the place. But gosh, did he ever embody what it meant to take care of a building, to be a steward of animals and of guests, and. It just came through in a great way for me.
Carli: Yeah. Well, it's definitely gonna go down as one of my very favorites, it was the best setting.
Carli: It was one of the best guests. Like he was just a really special interview and it's been a winner of a day. One more. Cheers.
Spencer: Mm-hmm. Yep. Cheers.
