An aquarium in Sevastopol biological station was opened in 1897. Originally it had only one hall with a central pool, where the inhabitants of the Black sea were demonstrated. Now Aquarium of Institute of biology of south seas in Sevastopol is the largest in Crimea and in Ukraine too. A central pool in the covered accomodation has a diameter 9,2 m and depth 1,5 m, and wall aquariums has height 1,1 m and volume to 7 sq.m. Annually about 100.000 persons visit Aquarium, and collection of tropical marine animals is considerably filled up with the rare representatives of ocean fauna.

A central pool and wall aquariums is filled with salt water which flows first from a bay to an underground desilting box and then in a pool. The visitors of the Sevastopol aquarium can see a score of Black-Sea animals and plants. Akvarium now is an original museum, which gives possibility to glance in an interesting and difficult life of underwater world. Aquarium has more than 180 species of animals are presented: invertebrates, Black-Sea and tropical fishes and reptiles.

There is a vast collection of fishes, dwellings among coral reefs in Aquarium. These are: predatory moray , charming anemonefishes, insidious ribbon seals and surgeonfishes, painting filefishes and real sharks. There are also freshwater fishes in the Aquarium: famous piranhas, predatory arawanas, knife-fishes. A collection of Black-Sea fishes includes beluga, sturgeon, tinker, bluefish, flounder and others.
Aquarium has 4 halls operating. The representatives of coral reefs are demonstrated in the first hall. Aquariums, proposed here, not very large and they allow to consider shallow fishes, shrimps and invertebrates in details. A hall speckles with the tropical fishes, their rich colours and unusual forms. Next hall is parted by 2 independent sections: Black Sea and Tropical. Deep round aquarium of Black Sea section is an inhabitation of majestic fishes: Russian sturgeon, black mullet, red-finned mullet and other, which float circle-wise deliberately. There is such a tradition here to give up stivers in a pool as a keepsake.

Other aquariums are placed along the perimeter of the hall. Thus every aquarium with a tropical fauna possesses the own system of water treatment, that allows to contain even tropical sharks in artificial terms. Large collection of tropical exotic animals is collected in the third hall of museum. You can find there inhabitants of Pacific, Indian, Atlantic Oceans. These are a caiman crocodile, giant tortoises, and also a collection of freshwater tropical fishes: gourami, velvet cichlid etc. Representatives of freshwater and reptiles are in the last hall.