New Jersey Aquarium Splashes on Color : Tourism: The $4-million make-over adds a few Technicolor fish and some Hollywood glitz. Design was spawned by Burbank company.

When New Jersey opened an aquarium in 1992, it looked like something dreamed up by a comedian: The fish were brown.

Three years later, with attendance lagging, the New Jersey State Aquarium is trying to lure visitors by livening up the place with $4 million in improvements, including the introduction of brightly colored tropical fish.

Electric blue chromides, yellow royal gramma and red cardinals now dip and dive where once only home-grown brown and gray flounder, cod and mackerel swam.

The spruced-up aquarium also includes new displays and interactive computer programs.

The goal, says aquarium President Judith L. Wellington, is to get people to make a second visit. The waterfront attraction drew more than 1 million visitors in 1992, but attendance has steadily dropped to a projected 500,000 this year.

Visitors had complained that the drab, mud-colored fish in the 760,000-gallon ocean tank were boring. The tank, which originally featured only those species native to New Jersey and the North Atlantic, has been spiced up with 1,500 tropical fish.

“There wasn’t enough reason for them to come back with what we had,” Wellington said. “They wanted more exotic animals than what we showed them.”

Changes at the aquarium also include mood music piped throughout the building.

Platforms have been erected outside for 250 spectators to view a seal tank. Even the seal show has been changed to add humor.

A one-man sub hangs from the dome in the rotunda, where laser lights create a rippling underwater effect. Visitors at the recent debut stood open-mouthed, gawking at the display above.

“It kind of felt like a parking garage before,” said Bob Rogers, chairman of BRC Imagination Arts, a company in Burbank that designed the make-over. “Now it feels like you’ve arrived somewhere.”

Visitors now can stand next to a seven-foot “Jaws” or reach into a tank to stroke a shark or ray. There is also a dark corridor featuring a 3,000-gallon coral reef tank, a simulated shipwreck and a TV studio where visitors can record ecology messages.

On the banks of the Delaware River across from Philadelphia, the aquarium has been touted as the cornerstone of efforts to revive Camden, a desperately poor city of about 87,000.

For a while, the aquarium was the only attraction on the waterfront, and visitors complained there was nothing else to do. But an entertainment amphitheater opened nearby in June, and an office building that will include stores is under construction.

“All the development around us will help,” Wellington said. “It is very hard being here alone.”