Hurricane Sandy intervened, regulatory and safety hurdles arose, construction managers changed and the first glass oculus in the pavilion roof cracked — not that it had been easy, in any case, to create a four-turntable machine, 46 feet in diameter, for which few if any precedents existed.

But let’s get back to the fantasy.

An imperious 14-foot-high translucent fiberglass angelfish beckons, as do five stout butterflyfish, each seven feet high. A gorgeous pink crown tail belongs to an 11-foot Siamese fighting fish, outdone in its flamboyance only by the 12-foot yellow lionfish. Triggerfish, wrasses and a blue discus also await. There are 30 fish in all.

Climb in. Almost every fish is big enough to carry an adult with a small child. Youngsters 42 inches or taller may ride alone. Two stationary Siamese fighting fish have enough room for wheelchairs. Don’t expect a carousel ride like any you remember. The main turntable of SeaGlass rotates clockwise, as quickly as two-and-a-half revolutions a minute. Three 17-foot turntables mounted within the main turntable, each carrying six fish, rotate back and forth 120 degrees, up to five times a minute. Further, the 18 moving fish yaw 160 degrees, nearly four times a minute.

The 18 twisting fish also go up and down two and a half feet — except the lionfish and the largest angelfish, whose strokes were shortened so their fins would not scrape the ceiling of the carousel pavilion at their apogee.