My Students 10g Nano

[Isoprene]

I put in 1 last round of snails after a good amount of detritus had built up. The snails have been alive and well for over 8 days now. I think the mix between me being impatient and a faulty heater caused the snail deaths early on. Well onward, to get more livestock in the tank soon.

 

[Isoprene]

OK wow! A kid flicked the fish in the head today, the fish, a tank raised clown fish would swim right up to the surface and nibble my hands when i dip the flakes in for him. The kids loved it when he would come right up and say hello to them, he never hid or even showed any signs of being scared. I caught a kid dipping his finger in the tank in my 3rd period and making a flicking motion like he was trying to hit him and knowing the kid could have flicked him hard enough to hurt him. I immediately yelled at them The clown is only 1 inch maybe more but not big at all. The fish was FINE this morning, everything was fine, nothing has changed and the water tested out perfectly. After catching a group of student hovering around it I found the clown freaked! he was hiding under the cave, then 30 minutes later dead as a doornail at the bottom. I'm furious. IDK if i wanna continue this project. Ill take some photos and throw them up. My AP kids will want to have a proper funeral.

This clown has never showed any signs like he did today and nothing has changed.

 

[Isoprene]

 

[Isoprene]

its really the only thing I cna think of is that someone physically got him. It looked that way from what happened today and the amount of time he died in was really fast. Everything else in the tank is doing fine and it tested good for every parameter. Unless a kid dipped his hand in there with something on it that was specific to killing fish idk what else it could have been. He didnt show any signs of distress until after the kid was making a motion of hitting him and then died abruptly. Im just bad at this it seems

 

[Pkunk35]

Wow that totally sucks, but i'd say don't give up man!

Some netting on top of the tank will fix unwanted hands. It also keeps fish in, which i had to learn the hard way with a clownfish as well.

 

[Isoprene]

Yea well I am pretty disappointed in my group of students. Anyway I would like to continue but I might go a different route. First is a top of some sort for the tank. After that I was thinking of going Mantis Shrimp. The tank is already set up for it although I dont have macro algae or a light thats sufficient yet. IDK what to do to be honest.

 

[jedimasterben]

Got your PM, figured I'd just respond here now.

A small mantis would do well once everything stabilizes. They have a ton of personality, are incredibly intelligent, and easily trained to know who you are, when you normally feed them, and what you feed them with. I'd recommend not hand feeding them lol

Just give it a rock to live in (it will carve out a tunnel system through the rock and make a mortar to patch up other holes) and keep the water sorta clean (since they're so messy nutrients will build up fast, but add lots of macro and shouldn't be an issue) and one will do great! For mine, he feeds on copepods, baby mollies, and any food that makes its way to the sump, and occasionally I will grab a few dwarf ceriths from my display tank and toss to him to let him punch things. He also uses the broken shells to help fortify his house.

As long as you don't try to hand feed one, it shouldn't try and attack your hand if you have to stick it in for something, but mine has still snapped at me a few times, so you always have to be on your guard. Luckily, the mantids recommended for nano tanks stay pretty small (usually around 4") and won't do too much damage if they get you. There are several available from KP Aquatics, at Sea Life Inc.

 

[Exterminatank]

I don't recommend a mantis shrimp. If a child gets hurt what would the consequences be?


Mike

 

[Isoprene]

The kids are old enough that if they put their hand in the tank, they know the consequences. We have teachers with large snakes that are much more dangerous than a mantis shrimp. I should be okay, especially if I get a lid for it and I put it up closer to my desk, im in the processes of clearing a spot near my desk, and ill put a sign up that says do not put your hands in your tank or else you will be hurt type deal.

Another thing I think is beneficial is once I get my refugium set up at home (this weekend, fingers crossed!) i can transport the shrimp from the refugium at home (during summer and Christmas break) and back to school, as long as I can catch him!

Any thoughts on this? I have 0 experience with these shrimp, I need to do some reading.