OK - Neale - here it is
05/24/09
Hi Neale,
Here is what I meant to write:
I am, by profession, a grant writer/fundraiser for nonprofit
organizations. I write for my kids' school as a volunteer. We have
been looking for a few grants for the science classes. Grades 4 and 5
are taught together as Cluster II and 6,7 & 8 are taught together as
Cluster III. When doing
research for possible funding, I will send available RFP's to the
teachers or they will come to me with project ideas and I will try to
find funding
to match. The school is very involved in the science community and
participation in science fair is mandatory for the students from grade 4
forward.
Anyway, we are interested in planning a classroom/school aquarium and I
wanted to get an expert's opinion and advice about a few things. This
will more than likely be a project for which we will seek funding over
the next few months and will not be actually set up for the next school
year as we are in the last year of our lease and will be in a new
facility in the fall of 2010 for the 2010-2011 school year. I know that
is a year away, but it's really not that much time, as you may already
know. If we set up for the classroom, it will likely be set up in the
grade 4/5 room. If it is
set up in a public area to benefit the whole school, we will post
changeable info posters for the different age groups to do "hallway"
learning. Some for younger grades, some for older grades relating to
chemistry, biology, etc....
Weekly activities could include water testing and graphing results and
figuring out what's going on in the system if there is anything out of
the norm on a given day? Perhaps if we get enough grant funding, we
could set up a webcam and broadcast on the web - the kids could write
the weekly
updates, etc....
Our local area is made up of many small lakes and water conservation and
water quality is a big deal here - as it may be elsewhere, but it's a
big
deal for our school. The school has adopted a nearby lake and the kids
do regular clean ups and monitoring, and study the ecosystem there. This
would be a nice element to add to that curriculum.
We also want the kids to understand why we didn't just put a bunch of
different fish and purple or blue gravel to match the fish, etc....More
background on the school's commitment to science education in the
attachment (offline, please) which I have included.
<Didn't work/open; would suggest/ask you send plain vanilla RTF files
rather than proprietary file formats.>
You will note a quote attributed to you there.
Questions: As far as an Asian biotope goes, what other fish and
fauna would you suggest to go along with Celebes Rainbowfish?
<Celebes Rainbowfish, and indeed Rainbowfish generally, mix well with
each other as well as other stream-dwelling species: Horseface loaches,
Cherry-fin loaches, Glassfish, freshwater Archerfish (Toxotes microlepis)
would all work well. For whatever reason, relatively few small, Asian
catfish are traded. >
Another thought was to introduce the kids to the Galaxy Rasboras, so
they could discuss live-caught endangered species vs farm-raising and
they could also try to breed them and return them back to a LFS. What
other fish or livestock would you suggest including with these fish?
<Wouldn't; best kept alone if for breeding purposes, or with Cherry
Shrimps and snails if you want a multi-species set up. They're just too
small to work well with other fish; Danios for example would likely
bully them. They're also quite specific in terms of water chemistry and
temperature.
With Galaxy Rasboras and Cherry Shrimps you can create very fun, very
busy aquaria by providing a thin sandy substrate below, clumps of Java
moss and Java fern for vegetation in midwater, and floating plants
above. Both species will breed freely in such an aquarium, and the
Cherry Shrimp "babies" at least are easy to rear with minimal
intervention on your part, so you can quickly have a tank filled with
shrimps of different sexes and ages.>
I am not at all opposed to a single species tank, but would like to
include a clean up crew - otos, snails, shrimp, etc.
<You don't need a "clean up crew" in ANYTHING other than a reef tank
with corals. It is ALWAYS better to manually clean a tank/remove algae
than to add another animal to the system in the (false) belief that will
fix the problem.>
I will be pushing for a larger tank in order to better ensure success
and will do everything possible to acquire high quality parts - filter,
lights, etc...
Big question - Would you, or perhaps one of the other WWM Crew Members,
consider being the classroom advisor for the kids regarding their
aquarium throughout the school year? It would be so wonderful to expose
them to someone at your level - perhaps 10 minutes a week? It would be so
great for them if they could Skype with their expert. The teacher could
have them submit questions to her and she could pick 1-3 questions to
discuss each week in their 10 minutes.....not carved in stone, but
something like that.
<Well, I'm in a whole other hemisphere, so anything "live" isn't an
option, and I already spend about an hour a day volunteering here at
WWM. I also have my own teaching commitments to deal with. So while I'd
welcome any questions for students -- within reason -- I can't volunteer
for anything more, or for that matter volunteer anyone else. Do review
fish magazines for the addresses of local clubs, and you may well find
someone from those prepared to visit your school. That's perhaps the
ideal.>
When these kids think fish tank in the future, they won't be thinking of
a Betta or a Goldfish in a bowl!
<Quite so.>
Any other suggestions you can offer would be most welcome.
<Do look for "The Compete Aquarium" by Peter W Scott as one of the best
books on biotope aquaria out there. It's filled with 6-page spreads on
lots of different habitats, each one describing the rocks, plants, fish
and substrate you need to pull the thing off. It's a very good book.>
Thanks again,
Sandy
<Cheers, Neale.>