Fish Rescue Team!
Apr. 30th, 2007 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ann_leckieSo someone gave the school a bunch of fish. And Paidhi Girl's teacher said, "Oh, I've been thinking it would be nice to have fish in the classroom!" So she dug out an old ten gallon tank, dumped water in and then added.....
....about twenty platys.
And some snails. Well, Thursday there were about twenty platys. Today there are three.
As it happens, Paidhi Girl really, really wants to keep fish, but can't until her room is finished being built in the basement. "Ask your teacher if you can help take care of the tank," I advised, "and you can learn that way." But as it also happens, the teacher? Who thought it would be cool to have fish? Has no freaking idea how to take care of them. She very blandly told Paidhi Girl so, and it's plain that she's not lying. The tank is sitting in an east facing window. There's a filter, but it's broken. There's a heater, but it's...yeah. There's no gravel siphon/vacuum. No fish food, just some rocks with algae that apparently someone figured would be all they needed. No dechlorinator. There is no outlet nearby. (I discovered this after we got a new filter and hung it on the back of the tank. The water is all cloudy, but there's nothing I can do about that until I get my hands on an extension cord.)
I changed out some of the water, and stuck in a cheapie ammonia monitor--I didn't want to drop another twenty or thirty dollars on a test kit for three platys that would likely no longer be with us in a couple of days. On the other hand, I just didn't feel like I could just leave them there. There is now a bucket and a siphon, and I bought a little bottle of bacteria, since the tank is new, and some dechlorinator/water conditioner. The ammonia seems to be all right, if the cheapie monitor is any indication. I did not get a heater, and am wishing I had. Paidhi Girl has been assigned the task of recording the temperature each morning and afternoon to see if they get too cold at night, or too hot in the morning. She is also to dole out the fish flakes I provided.
I also got Paidhi Girl a copy of Freshwater Aquarium Fish For Dummies although she has already read fairly obsessively on the topic. I find the dummies books often have the basics very clearly explained, and many of the books she's been reading aren't as clear or helpful in the matter of taking care of a tank as I'd like. My favorite ever was Sarah Fell Keppler's School of Fish but I have no idea where my copy went (I haven't kept fish since Paidhi Girl was a baby) and the book itself seems to have disappeared into the mists of time. Too bad--I thought it was very easy for beginners to understand and would recommend it to anyone interested in but unfamiliar with the basics.
Oh, did I mention there are only about five more weeks of school? She started a new fishtank, with too many fish and no idea how to take care of it, five weeks before the end of school.
I'm thinking I'm going to buy another copy of the For Dummies book and donate it, along with the equipment I just bought, to the classroom. It may prevent another fish massacre. Or maybe not, but I'll have done what I could.
....about twenty platys.
And some snails. Well, Thursday there were about twenty platys. Today there are three.
As it happens, Paidhi Girl really, really wants to keep fish, but can't until her room is finished being built in the basement. "Ask your teacher if you can help take care of the tank," I advised, "and you can learn that way." But as it also happens, the teacher? Who thought it would be cool to have fish? Has no freaking idea how to take care of them. She very blandly told Paidhi Girl so, and it's plain that she's not lying. The tank is sitting in an east facing window. There's a filter, but it's broken. There's a heater, but it's...yeah. There's no gravel siphon/vacuum. No fish food, just some rocks with algae that apparently someone figured would be all they needed. No dechlorinator. There is no outlet nearby. (I discovered this after we got a new filter and hung it on the back of the tank. The water is all cloudy, but there's nothing I can do about that until I get my hands on an extension cord.)
I changed out some of the water, and stuck in a cheapie ammonia monitor--I didn't want to drop another twenty or thirty dollars on a test kit for three platys that would likely no longer be with us in a couple of days. On the other hand, I just didn't feel like I could just leave them there. There is now a bucket and a siphon, and I bought a little bottle of bacteria, since the tank is new, and some dechlorinator/water conditioner. The ammonia seems to be all right, if the cheapie monitor is any indication. I did not get a heater, and am wishing I had. Paidhi Girl has been assigned the task of recording the temperature each morning and afternoon to see if they get too cold at night, or too hot in the morning. She is also to dole out the fish flakes I provided.
I also got Paidhi Girl a copy of Freshwater Aquarium Fish For Dummies although she has already read fairly obsessively on the topic. I find the dummies books often have the basics very clearly explained, and many of the books she's been reading aren't as clear or helpful in the matter of taking care of a tank as I'd like. My favorite ever was Sarah Fell Keppler's School of Fish but I have no idea where my copy went (I haven't kept fish since Paidhi Girl was a baby) and the book itself seems to have disappeared into the mists of time. Too bad--I thought it was very easy for beginners to understand and would recommend it to anyone interested in but unfamiliar with the basics.
Oh, did I mention there are only about five more weeks of school? She started a new fishtank, with too many fish and no idea how to take care of it, five weeks before the end of school.
I'm thinking I'm going to buy another copy of the For Dummies book and donate it, along with the equipment I just bought, to the classroom. It may prevent another fish massacre. Or maybe not, but I'll have done what I could.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 06:56 pm (UTC)Mithras, people, you can't just dump fish in a bowl of water and feed them every now and then! Sheesh.
I am wishing good luck to your friend's fish. A nice pond, while it's a lot of work, is a really cool thing to have. You were smart sticking with the coke, though!
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 12:28 pm (UTC)We're better with cats.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 01:00 pm (UTC)wow, and I thought I had aquarium problems
Date: 2007-05-11 06:18 am (UTC)Re: wow, and I thought I had aquarium problems
Date: 2007-05-11 11:47 am (UTC)She's apparently not the only teacher with...odd ideas about fish. Paidhi Girl told me just the other day that a student in the same grade, different classroom was asking why their fish were dying. "Tell me about the tank," I said to Paidhi Girl. No filter, no heater, tropical fish....no food.
Honestly. The teacher said they didn't need to be fed, they'd just eat the algae! I said to Paidhi Girl "If aliens scooped us up and put us in a room with a bunch of pots of soil with lettuces growing in them, how happy would we be? We'd get sick, wouldn't we."
I am not responsible for other classrooms fish. I'd like to be, but my money and my time are not endless. I think, though, that I am going to write to the school district and the principal--turns out this is part of a "pond" unit in science. They're supposed to observe classroom pond aquariums. Set up a month before school ends. With no food. And no bloody idea how aquariums work.
There is a long letter in someone's future.
Re: wow, and I thought I had aquarium problems
Date: 2007-05-11 04:35 pm (UTC)it's no wonder the ice caps are melting.