Aquariums

Aquariums are one of Planet Zoo 2's headline additions, allowing a zoo to keep fully aquatic species for the first time in the series. Players build custom tanks and choose between freshwater and saltwater setups to suit the animals they want to display.

Aquatic habitats are fully customisable spaces rather than simple placeable tanks, and they bring their own husbandry demands. Tanks rely on filtration systems to keep their water healthy, and keepers pull on diving suits and pass through airlocks to enter the water, cleaning enclosures and tending to their inhabitants directly. The same construction tools used elsewhere shape the size and layout of each tank.

The fish themselves move through all three dimensions of a tank and hold their natural swimming depth rather than sinking to the floor, with schooling species treated as shoals. The water reacts dynamically to their movement, and players must manage which species share a tank, since predators and prey can be kept carefully apart or deliberately placed together. Aquatic species shown so far span reef predators like the Blacktip Reef Shark and Spotted Eagle Ray, open-water swimmers such as the Ocean Sunfish, and colourful reef life including the Red Lionfish, Schooling Bannerfish, Blackspotted Puffer, and Humphead Wrasse, alongside freshwater fish like the Brown Trout, African Tigerfish, and Blunthead Cichlid.

Aquariums sit alongside the new aviaries as the two fresh categories of habitat that distinguish the sequel, expanding the range of animals covered under Animals and Welfare.