school tanks

Ah, the stuff we do. Last night I carried a 65 gallon tank and stand, with all its rocks (several buckets worth) to the second floor of our high school, so the kids in the planning room could have their fish back. I managed to get it there and install it on the stand solo. It was a workout.
It's full of malawis of various sorts now and should entertain the kids. It was a big hit last year.
I've also caught a lot of Ameca splendens, a critically endangered Goodeid from Mexico. My population was dropping, and I was concerned. I use them for ecological education, as they live in a classroom 75 gallon all school year, but oversummer in a pond. I have lots of young wandering into the minnow trap - things are looking good for maintenance. They are finally rebounding from I don't know what, and I should be able to supply other schools again.

It pays off. A lot of kids get involved and learn something useful. One of our grads from a few years ago is working for a major aquarium supply company now, and a few of my classroom fishnerds are now working their way through university or college through jobs in aquarium stores.

It's fun to take your aquaristic skills out into the community. People generally enjoy fishtanks.

That's a fantastic, and really great work. I wish I had had a teacher like you.

I wish I could have got into the hobby sooner, and perhaps a job at an aquarium store might have paid for some tuition.

CanadaAquariaAdmin wrote:That's a fantastic story, and really great work.

I wish I could have got into the hobby sooner, and perhaps a job at an aquarium store might have paid for some tuition.

I'm with ya! It woulda also been cool to have a teacher as cool as Gary who would take his own time to create an interesting atmosphere for the students. Although, my high school biology teacher was pretty good. He was definitely the most fun and interesting of the staff, but no fish tanks .

Good work Gary. It really shows when people actually care about their work.

My high school chemistry teacher had a marine tank set up in the classroom. I spent hours just staring at it after finishing off my work. Great memories.

GaryE wrote:Ah, the stuff we do. Last night I carried a 65 gallon tank and stand, with all its rocks (several buckets worth) to the second floor of our high school, so the kids in the planning room could have their fish back. I managed to get it there and install it on the stand solo. It was a workout.

Now that is dedication at its best! In years to come, I bet many of your students will talk about the cool teacher they had in high school!

I will never forget my grade 3 teacher, she had guppies who lived in our classroom during the school year. It was a fun learning experience for us. We all had cleaning and feeding duties that rotated each week - who would have thought a bunch of kids would actually look forward to cleaning a fish tank!

I have a 10 gallon in my office at work and a couple of the staff love to have break in there with the beta. They find it calming.