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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Jan 23, 2014 15:27:41 GMT -5
How's the tank doing now that the students have been back for a couple of weeks ? Also could you provide me with the name of the power filter and it's size. I somehow misplaced that information and I want to get a new filter for it.
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 24, 2014 18:07:29 GMT -5
Sorry we've been quiet lately. It has been report card time and all my extra time has been going to marking and doing report cards. The tank is still great. It looks good and clean and clear. The fish are still vibrantly coloured and their eyes clear, scales fine. We see a shrimp or two at one time so we don't know how many there are all together. They are being fed regularly with the store-bought stuff, supplemented with the odd baby red wiggler here and there.
I was cleaning out my lab yesterday and gave DT an old short hexagon tank I no longer wanted. That put a huge smile on his face. I have no idea what he is going to do with it, but I'll find out over time. He is the one kid above many others who has been loving the tank. He also likes our worm compost bin. The other day, he took some butternut squash seeds out of it and put them in plant pots on our window ledge to see what would happen. One cool kid.
I'm at home for the weekend, but I'll get you that information next week.
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Post by Ms. Walker on Jan 31, 2014 17:08:19 GMT -5
Just an update. The class aquarium is still rockin'. No death or signs of problems at all. The water is crystal clear, the fish still have their feeding frenzies. We regularly spot at least one shrimp who likes to hang out on the sponge and he is getting bigger. Students from other classes who are done their work now regularly ask to sit on the stool next to the tank and watch the fish. As this is science class I can easily justify this activity as learning about nature and honing their observations skills. That's one or two less students at times needing me so I can focus on others who might need help that given day.
Having the tank as an interest point seems to have increased student interest in other similar areas. That or I just have really curious and self-motivated students this year. For example, DT and ZB found some butternut squash seeds sprouting in our worm compost. So they potted them up and put them on the window sill to watch how they would grow. Seems like they are always coming up with mini experiments like that this year. I'm hearing a lot of "Can I do this?" and I am saying a lot of "Yeah, let's see what happens". I love it. This is a dream for a science teacher.
Anyway, I hope that everyone is doing well and that your tanks are as much fun to you as ours is to us.
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Post by guppyguy on Jan 31, 2014 17:23:28 GMT -5
My tanks are doing great but I am so happy that this tank is bringing so much excitement and joy to the kids and you. There doing a excellent job with the tank.
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Post by gabor129 on Feb 3, 2014 22:41:24 GMT -5
Good to hear that everything is doing well in the class tank!
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Feb 4, 2014 16:38:20 GMT -5
Just an update. The class aquarium is still rockin'. No death or signs of problems at all. The water is crystal clear, the fish still have their feeding frenzies. We regularly spot at least one shrimp who likes to hang out on the sponge and he is getting bigger. Students from other classes who are done their work now regularly ask to sit on the stool next to the tank and watch the fish. As this is science class I can easily justify this activity as learning about nature and honing their observations skills. That's one or two less students at times needing me so I can focus on others who might need help that given day. Having the tank as an interest point seems to have increased student interest in other similar areas. That or I just have really curious and self-motivated students this year. For example, DT and ZB found some butternut squash seeds sprouting in our worm compost. So they potted them up and put them on the window sill to watch how they would grow. Seems like they are always coming up with mini experiments like that this year. I'm hearing a lot of "Can I do this?" and I am saying a lot of "Yeah, let's see what happens". I love it. This is a dream for a science teacher. Anyway, I hope that everyone is doing well and that your tanks are as much fun to you as ours is to us. Just saw this post. Somehow it slipped past me. I just think it's awesome that the kids have this tank to help peak their curiosity . I hope it continues to do this and don't forget if you need anything for it just let us know.
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Post by gabor129 on Feb 4, 2014 20:54:32 GMT -5
I just found some Red Wag Platty fry, the same age as the ones I donated to the school tank, so who knows there might be a bit of a surprise for the kids soon!
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Post by Ms. Walker on Feb 6, 2014 20:01:38 GMT -5
Here's a student who finished his science test early today, and rather than make noise and cause problems for those still writing their tests, he asked to feed the fish. Then he hung out on the stool and watched them.
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Post by guppyguy on Feb 6, 2014 20:15:13 GMT -5
Here's a student who finished his science test early today, and rather than make noise and cause problems for those still writing their tests, he asked to feed the fish. Then he hung out on the stool and watched them. Excellent the fish tank helps again. Nothing is more relaxing that watching the fish.
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Post by Ms. Walker on Feb 13, 2014 17:23:08 GMT -5
Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Bad day for the tank. A little boy, who has an Educational Assistant with him at all times, came in to visit the tank. We sat him on a chair in front of the tank and I fed the fish so he could watch them. The Educational Assistant left him with us for a moment so she could get yogurt for my class snack time. I turned around to help a student, for only a second, and when I turned back the little boy had dumped a HUGE amount of flake food into the tank and the entire bottle of catfish pellets too.
My class sprang into action. They used sieves to skim much of the flake food out of the tank. They used the net to get the pellets at the bottom. Still, a LOT of food was clouding up the tank so they feverishly began emptying the tank pitcher by pitcher. They got it down to about half full. Luckily, we always keep the big water jug full at all times, so they were able to dump new water in. The topped up the rest with water from the tank. It was still pretty cloudy. Some suggested moving the fish. But, where to? Plus trying to catch them would stir up the food again. So we left them and hoped the filters would do their work.
Not looking forward to going in tomorrow. Hope the little guys will be okay.
We'll let y'all know what happens tomorrow.
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Feb 13, 2014 17:35:51 GMT -5
Try to do another water change tomorrow and rinse the sponge filters out in the used tank water. If you need help just let me know and I can come over.
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Post by Ms. Walker on Feb 13, 2014 17:49:06 GMT -5
Okay, thanks for the advice. We will do as you say, oh great fish expert.
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Post by guppyguy on Feb 13, 2014 18:21:12 GMT -5
Never fear this can be resolved. Water changes are your friend in this case. And Les wont let anything bad happen to that tank.
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Post by Ms. Walker on Feb 14, 2014 16:39:57 GMT -5
The tank was cloudy when we came in this morning and the fish did not look as happy as they normally do. One glass catfish was swimming at a 45 degree angle and from my limited experience this could predict trouble to come. So, we took the water down to about half again and replaced it with water that had been standing overnight. The tank looks better, but still not as good as it had been before all this happened. Hopefully the 3 day weekend won't be too rough on them. We have not fed the fish since this happened, figuring there is enough debris in the tank to keep them going for a while.
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Post by lesfromlakeshore on Feb 14, 2014 17:04:52 GMT -5
I'm sure today's water change will help. It's bad timing that this happened just before a long weekend but we will have to hope for the best and take care of it next week. If the tank still looks bad maybe you can arrange for me to visit and I can vacuum the gravel and do a thorough cleaning. The one thing we have in our favor is that the tank was very well maintained before the accident.
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