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.>