Homeschool project

[Maacc]

My wife and I are starting a study on marine biology. What better way to learn about these fascinating creatures a than to start a reef. Our new Red Sea E260 has just arrived!! We have it set up and filled and just received our first shipment of "the package" from Tampa Bay Saltwater. Richard was easy to work with and communicated effectively through the process. This first shipment already over exceeded our expectations. The sand alone had starfish, crabs and an urchin. The base rock is covered in orange, blue, yellow and red sponge. Super pumped to see this baby unfold. Pics of the aquascape on the way as we get it dialed in.

Always great to see little ones excited about the hobby.

 

[Maacc]

My wife and I are starting a study on marine biology. What better way to learn about these fascinating creatures a than to start a reef. Our new Red Sea E260 has just arrived!! We have it set up and filled and just received our first shipment of "the package" from Tampa Bay Saltwater. Richard was easy to work with and communicated effectively through the process. This first shipment already over exceeded our expectations. The sand alone had starfish, crabs and an urchin. The base rock is covered in orange, blue, yellow and red sponge. Super pumped to see this baby unfold. Pics of the aquascape on the way as we get it dialed in.

Always great to see little ones excited about the hobby. Apparently my phone likes multiples, can a mod please delete them?

 

[Maacc]

So.... there's a clicking sound. We definitely have a mantis shrimp. Do they also make the clicking noise like a pistol? Traps are set to remove this thing. Should we be worried about him?

You want to trap him asap, however once you do @Wiz would love to take him off your hands. Stocking wise keep in mind that the coral beauty can be a coral nipper and the leopard wrasse can be tough to get to eat prepared foods and might be a tough one out of the gate. Have you thought about a melanurus wrasse? Good for pests, lots of color and eats like a pig.

 

[Maritimer]

You might consider moving the mantis to your sump/refugium, at least for a little while. They're definitely one of those creatures that'll pop a youngster's eyes open! Take a look into the way they hunt, and perhaps more so, the way they _see_!

~Bruce

 

[dorky]

Wow this is really cool! I can't wait to share my passion with my son when he get older

 

[Wiz]

Very cool. Love that everyone's excited. Love hitchhikers. I agree you guys should check the mantis out. Awesome part of nature. And as always if there are any unwanteds you are willing to ship I'm your man. Good luck and enjoy

 

[reefbizkit]

Second part of the package from TBS arrived! Amazing package! The decorator crab is one of the most fascinating creatures I've ever seen. The kids have already researched, written and presented their first lesson on mantis shrimp and whether or not to keep him. We wanted to keep him but we all agreed the potential loss of other livestock wasn't worth it so we trapped him.

 

[reefbizkit]

We did pick up a leopard wrasse at the LFS because the second rock shipment didn't rock the boat at all. He was eating immediately upon his arrival

 

[SandJ]

Very nice setup!
We also homeschool I have a 15, 13 and 5 year old. My daughter (15) is doing the Apologia Marine Biology this year and has her own tank. Plus we have a few other tanks in the living room. The 5 year old wants her own tank also (have an empty tank in her room, just not sure it is exactly what we want).

Something neat to do with the tank....start a picture diary/index of the tank. Take pictures of everything in the tank and label them. Then every time you find something new, take a picture. These pictures can be used to a) keep track of the growth of the tank -take pictures of the coral once a month b) you can use the pictures like flash cards-identify what the organism is, group like things together, learn scientific names, ABCs of the tank, counting for younger kids, etc...

And if you don't already have a microscope, now is the time to get one (a decent quality one is well worth the money). There are so many amazing things at the microscopic level. One of the first things we found under the scope was a Tardegrade (water bear). Why had no one ever told us about these amazing littte creatures before!?!?

 

[Ravan]

So anymore updates on the tank? How's the kids enjoying and are they learning a bunch of different and new things?

 

[reefbizkit]

The kids are enjoying the tank! We just had a new baby so my updates have been lacking. Here are a few pics of the progress

 

[Ravan]

Looks great anything next on the list too add?

 

[reefbizkit]

We just lost our elegance so we'd like to try another, I just want to wait a nit to make sure everything else stays healthy for awhile. We got a little nutso stocking so quickly

 

[Ravan]

Yeah have to go slow! Slower the better at times. I go with the 1 per week unless it's a small group of fish then I'll add them at the same time.

 

[L. Petty]

Great idea for homeschooling project!

 

[reefbizkit]

Currently each of the children are researching their favorite tank enhabitant and writing a short essay and presenting facts and their opinions on the tank mates. Everything seems to be thriving, water quality is super and we witness fun things every day. Yesterday our star fish ate our peppermint shrimp. Some of the younger kids weren't super pumped about it but it was fun to see the circle of life either way..lol.

 

[Mike N]

It's quite possible your shrimp molted and the starfish ate the molt. If he molted, the shrimp will hide for a good while.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looking good!

 

[reefbizkit]

The shrimp was climbing up the wall, it fell and the starfish jumped it..lol. Pretty sure we have a casualty.

 

[Mike N]

Oh, gotcha. I didn't realize there were witnesses haha