New tank in classroom - suggestions?

[gforster]

My wife is inheriting an 80 gal tank for her 2nd grade classroom. The tank has a leak, but my in-laws own a glass company (big blessing) and will professionally repair it for free. My wife and I both think that when we stock the tank, we should put some rather interesting creatures in there for her second graders. She likes the idea of some "aggressive, pretty fish that would be fund to watch" (cichllids), a pleco, as well as some interesting "critters" such as frogs, crayfish snails, crabs, clams, etc. We are also considering putting in something like angels or other interesting fish instead of cichlids. Obviously, we can't put everything in there, so we are exploring our options and looking for suggestions. What do you think would be fun and interesting in an 80 gal tank for 2nd grade children? BTW, we want to avoid guppies or goldfish.

[CJC]

I know that some people like aggressive fish, I like peaceful fish myself. I have platies and they are very hardy, social, and excitable to watch. Platies come in a variety of colors too. The down fall to platies are that they are livebearers, so if don't want fry in your tank then you should go w/ all males or all females. In another tank I have swordtails, they are livebearers also, but they are fun to watch too.

I also have an angelfish; I got her when she was small and so she is pretty much used to the platies darting all over the tank.

Then I have a bristlenose algae eater. When my daughters friends come over they think he is the coolest because he has "whiskers". Bristlenose's don't grow to outstanding size either, and I have been successful in housing them in my aquariums and they keep the aquarium extremely clean.

Hope that helps.

[dorkfish]

Have a read here (http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_bigfish.php) before getting into the "agressive" fish. For that tank, I would put about 20 buenos aires tetras in there, not the prettiest, but really fun to watch(try feeding them and leaving the lid open).

If that doesn't fit your taste, click here (http://www.aquahobby.com/e_gallery.php) to find a huge species profile database to chose some fish from.Make sure to chech out the adult sizes, a lot of fish will grow into giants, including the majority of plecos. Also, be sure to read and find out if the fish you want will be compatible, not only in behavior but in water quality as well.

An aquarium is a bit more complicated than add fish and water, most newbies don't know that, so have a read here (http://aquafacts.net/showthread.php?t=415) before moving on and setting up your tank.

[Roan Art]

Frankly, for a second grade class I'd stay away from aggressive fish totally.

Young kids can be very sensitive to how animals react to one another and the last thing you would need is a kid going home to their parents crying about how this cichlid killed that cichlid, or that the angelfish ate all the tetras.

A teacher in my child's school set up a 55g tank for her 3rd grade class. She didn't have a clue as to what she was doing. She didn't cycle the tank, she threw this fish in with that fish and all the fish died. The kids were devastated. She finally got the thing going and had fish in there that lived and didn't kill each other, but it took her most of the school year to do so.

I know that, as a parent with a child in the 3rd grade, I would not appreciate my kid coming home and telling me that their favorite fish was killed by another fish. It's my job to educate my children on death and dying, even when it comes to animals. I watch Animal Planet all the time with my kids and I take care on which shows they watch. If there is anything "brutal" going on, I either say no to watching it or I watch it with them.

That doesn't mean to say that "community" fish don't kill each other. Sometimes they do. However, there is a marked difference between populating a tank with community fish that generally get along well and fish that are naturally aggressive to other fish.

If the kids were older, say fifth or sixth grade, that would be a tad different.

IMO stick with colorful community fish like platys, mollies, swordtails or go with a nice tank full of colorful peaceful tetras.

Just my opinion as a parent,
Roan

[gforster]

Thank you for your replies. Those links really help. I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a newbie when it comes to keeping fish, I am when it comes to aggressive fish like cichllids.

Our goal is to provide something intersting for young children that they could learn from. Not all kids have pets at home, and most children really like watching fish. Plus, my wife can incorporate the aquarium into many of her lessons.

I think the only reason we were thinking cishlids is the initial thought of "pretty and interesting." Of course, there are many peaceful & semi-aggressive fish that are pretty and interesting too.

Has anyone here ever planned a large tank with young children in mind? What types of critters did you put in there? We have a few months until school starts up again to get this tank going. Thanks for your help thus far.

***didn't see the post above as I was in the process of writing this. Thank you for your opinion, it means alot. Liek I said, we want to shoot for intersting, not boring.

[Roan Art]

Yes, actually, I have.

My 4 year old son has a 65g** tank in his bedroom. It is populated with schools of:

7 silver dollars (Finny, Silver, Copper, Penny, Little Silver, dunno the names of the rest)
7 rummy nose tetras
7 rasboras
Mystery snails
a Hammer's Cobalt Blue Lobster named Mr. Cleaner (these invertebrates *can* be aggressive to other fish, ours isn't)

My son LOVES the silver dollars. They are big and flashy, they are also very shy, retiring and skittish, but they come out when they see him and are very friendly. They have lots of places to hide in the tank which they need since they are skittish. However, with lots of hiding places they are always out and about. They are herbivores, so he puts pieces of Romaine lettuce in the tank and other veggies (kids could bring some from home and help "feed" the fish).

My daughter, going into Grade 4, also loves these fish and it's her job to feed Finny (the biggest dollar) every night.

**The 65g is too small, btw, we are moving them to a 75g+ tank in a few months.

Roan

[stingray4540]

Hi,
May I suggest malawi cichlids? there colors rival salt water fish( very pretty and bright) and they are very active. I think that the children would enjoy malawi cichlids for there color and all the action that goes on in the tank.

It is also interesting when the breed, first, to attract there mate the vibrate there whole bodies like they're having a spasm, very cool to watch. then when the do lay there eggs the female holds the eggs in her mouth until the babies are fully developed. I think that would be really cool for kids to see.

You could then add some catfish, like any kind of synodontis or pictus cats.
If you do decide to go with malawi cichlids, just do your research. some fish have different aggression levels and you wouldn't want any fish to get killed as mentioned before. I would suggest looking into some of the less aggressive mbuna and haps.


Some of the mbuna you could look into are: yellow labs, Melenchromis CYANEORHABDOS (aka maingano), red zebras, and rusties. All of these can be mixed, and most are probably compatible with some Haps.
You could also do a big group of one fish like Melenchromis Johanni. the females are yellow and the males are blue, so just that one species would make a nice contrasting tank.


Just make sure that whatever you get, you get at least 3-4 females per male of each species, or the male will pester the females to death, or the males will fight amongst each other for mating rights of only a few males. (e.g. 1m/4f or 2m/6-8f, etc)

If the malawi cichlids sound like something your interested in, post your questions in the cichlid forum, for a better response.
This is just my opinion, hope you find what your looking for.

[Canoe]

I think 2nd graders might be interested in an oscar -- a single big friendly fish that will swim right up to the glass and interact with them. I've never kept them, but have heard stories of owners being able to pet and even play catch with a ping pong ball with their Oscars.

Again, never kept them, so this might be a terrible idea -- but I think it certainly would hold their interest.

[dorkfish]

The tank will have to be moved twice a year, so I don't think a huge (they get huge really fast, will reach 12" in about a year if properly kept) fish will be the best thing for this setup.

maybe you could do some drawf gouramis(1 male to several females), about 20 guppies (start with a pair or two and let them reproduce to this number), 5 bronze corys and a bristle nose pleco? maybe some FW shrimps and larger snails as well?

[jennypenny]

Your wife is very lucky to get suck a great tank for her class.

Regardless of what type of fish you get I would recommend taking the class through the process of setting up the tank. They do not need to know about different chemicals, or totally understand the process. But seeing how long it takes to set up a tank and seeing your wife test the water every week could be a valuable lesson. They will see that there is more to keeping fish than feeding them. Maybe the class could even chart the chemical levels in the tank. All the early elementary teachers I know love charts.

When the tank is ready to go maybe she could let the class vote on one of two or three fish options. It will make the class feel like the fish are their fish.

[carriebourdeau]

Just my 2 cents - but you were asking about other "critters."

I think frogs would need a patch of dry space. I wouldn't plop them in a tank full to the brim. Same for turtles.

Maybe fish aren't your answer. My 3 year old's teacher is changing her fish tank (too boring for 3 year olds) into a crab tank. She plans to put gravel/sand low on one end covered with water, but mound it higher on the other end so that the crabs can come out of the water. She says she saw some in a tank and they were very active and fun to watch.

At my local store - there is an amazing tank of turtles too! They are active! In taht tank the turtles can swim in water in part of the tank but then there are rocks piled up gradually so they have a rocky "beach" area too.

BUT - - if you are really wanting fish, then perhaps consider recreating Disney's "Finding Nemo" and doing a salt water tank reef with a clown fish "Nemo" and the other characters, Gil, Dory etc. All the kids have seen that story and recognize the fish "characters."

Good luck!!

[twig]

I think for children it would be most fascinating to get a 'schooling' fish. Get a whole bunch of them and watch as they move as one. It's really fascinating =) It's why I love Cardinals so much :D

My cardinals, at least, are very active. They used to scatter around being all boring and lazy-relaxed just hovering around the plants but when I introduced a few guppies they started schooling more tightly. They swim back and fourth all the time as a big glob of sparkling gems.

:D

[greendeltatke]

I keep a twenty gallon tank for my son's preschool. I gave it a playground theme. It has neon gravel, translucent colored hamster tubes and a translucent hamster castle. The platties in the tank actually swim in and out of the tubes. Its pretty cool. The kids like the ghost shrimp in it alot. Some have gotten almost two inches.

If I had an 80 gallon to play with though I think I'd do a turtle, or if you wanted to go cheaper some really big hermit crabs.

[ftf1101]

Wow ill bet your wife is happy about getting a nice tank like that (and getting it repaired for free:) I think i might get a bigger variety of fish so the kids wouldnt get bored with the same things all the time. I think maybe some tiger barbs, definately a bottom feeder, a danio, and maybe a small rainbow shark. if you really wanted to keep the kids interested I would get an albino rainbow shark. They are pretty terretorial but they are very cool to look at and the kids will love it!

[gforster]

Thank you all so much for replies so far. Let me clarify a few things -

the tank will be permanant. We won't need to move it twice a year. That is because it is a private school that is part of our church where I am the assistant pastor, so I'm there all the time.

There is already one 10 gal. tank in the classroom with a couple of fish from one of last years' students (3 zebra danios, a betta, and a chinese algae eater). Not my favorite choice for a tank, but its what the second grader wanted and it was his tank. The tank is staying in my wife's classroom.

Almost all of the elementary classrooms as well as my office have some type of aquarium/terarium. We have everything from fish to praying mantis to land and water turtles.

There have been so many good suggestions. We are still considering from the folowing general tank setups:

some less aggressive cichlids,
a variety tank (many diff. fish and critters)
a tank of schooling fish
or something that hasn't been mentioned yet.

I have not had any experince with silver dollars. Do they school? Maybe some of those with a few other fish for color, a snail or two, a pleco, fiddler crab or blue crayfish or freshwater clam? How does that sound? Tell me if I'm way off track somehwere.

[RockabillyChick]

someone may have already said this, but Angel fish ARE a type of south american cichlid.

silver dollars do school very well, but they get rather large (6-8" diameter) fidler crabs need a way to get above water and do better in a half land/half water terrerium. any large agressive fish like cichlids would eat a crayfish

[joylynn]

I am still very new to fish keeping, but I love my tiger barbs for an active schooling fish. The big catch with tiger barbs is that you can't keep them with anything with long flowing fins as they are notorious fin nippers. But I have a school of nine of them and two pictus cats that interact really well with each other and are very entertaining for my child and other visiting kids to watch because both types of fish never sit still. Tiger barbs at feeding time are really fun to watch. Just my two cents, but like I said I am very new to this and may be way off base.

[khombre]

There is already one 10 gal. tank in the classroom with a couple of fish from one of last years' students (3 zebra danios, a betta, and a chinese algae eater). Not my favorite choice for a tank, but its what the second grader wanted and it was his tank. The tank is staying in my wife's classroom.

hello there gforster, sorry for this will be off topic but watch out for the chinese algae eater. Most of them become too aggressive as they grow. It might start harassing or even killing its tankmates. :OT:

anyway good luck with setting up the tank :D

[budrecki]

I have not had any experience with silver dollars. Do they school? Maybe some of those with a few other fish for color, a snail or two, a pleco, fiddler crab or blue crayfish or freshwater clam? How does that sound? Tell me if I'm way off track somewhere.

1 large apple snail would be fun for the kids to watch

NO pleco- PLEASE! do not get a pleco, common or otherwise. commons get much to large for an 80g and if you're thinking pleco for algae control think again

no fiddler crab- they are brackish water and need a "land" area

no crayfish- crayfish and lobsters are carnivores, they will eat whatever they can catch, this includes your fish. this may not be the kind of thing you want the children to watch, it's not pretty.

clams- notorious for dying and giving nitrate spikes

[pugwash]

Suprised no-ones suggested a South American tank:

A school of hatchet fish at the top, a massive school of cardinals/neons, a couple of pairs of dwarf cichlids (Apistogramma) and a school of corydoras. Would look visually stunning, with different shaped fish. Could put some Aquatic Dwarf Frogs in there too, depending on how tall the tank is though.

Mbuna is a good choice too, especially with the mouth brooding, as suggested earlier. Needs a cave per indiviual though.

What about rainbowfish? Active and very colourful.


Edit: Don't forget to cycle the tank either, ideally using the fishless route which can cycle quicker (2 weeks) and then add the fish.

[Ray Pollett]

I've found out the young children like the creepy-crawly things more than the fish. Things like snails, crabs, crawfish, etc... Next seems to be odd looking / acting fish. Upside down catfish, Bango cats, Bristlenose and plecos, farawellas and glass fish (the ones you see the skeleton inside). Everyone loves Corys "their so Cute!"

They should also like Puffers and eels.

[joylynn]

I have a peacock eel and kids seem to really love him. The downside is that he is nocturnal and all you see of him during the day is his head and tail sticking up out of the gravel. My daughter and I do play a game called "find the eel" every morning she finds very amusing.

[Roan Art]

I have not had any experince with silver dollars. Do they school? Maybe some of those with a few other fish for color, a snail or two, a pleco, fiddler crab or blue crayfish or freshwater clam? How does that sound? Tell me if I'm way off track somehwere.Yes, dollars will school quite nicely and an 80g is a goodly size for them. They are rather timid, so make sure you get some dither fish like rummy nose tetras -- which are schooling fools. Those are one type of fish that are almost always in a school and they are very eye-catching

I'd go with a school of six or seven dollars and a large school of rummys and perhaps some corycats. Kids love corycats because of their whiskers.

Roan

[ftf1101]

I agree the silver dollars are very cool the kids with like school of them. hope all of our info helps!!

[gforster]

Went to someones house today with a large 120 gal. tank. They had about 6-8 medium sized silver dollars and another 6-8 medium angels as well as some other misc. fish. The thing that struck me was that the silver dollars were scholing together and the angesl were schooling together and it was visually stunning. Do these two types of fish generally work well together or should I just thaink "That was neat, but don't consider it."

Again, all of the feedback received has been helpful. We really want to do a good job with this and make sure we've fully done our research.

[Roan Art]

I've never kept angels, so I can't comment on that. I just have silver dollars.

Roan

[ReefRaft]

this might be a good idea.. i have a Kuhli loach in my community tnk and he just loves swimming from the bottom top to the to the bottom and back very neat fish! also some green tiger barbs there different color is very cool in a tank! if you are really hooked on a pleco look at a clown pleco or my fav. algea eater a hillstrem loach. any kind of eel would be interesting for youre wifes 2nd graders like a peacok or a tire track ( although the tire's do get big)

i hope i have contributed some info. and i forget who said this but letting the kids pick the fish would be an awesome idea also here's is a cool link that will help decide ..... just click on aquatic live stock and you can look around( they do ship fish but i would not recomend this

http://www.thatpetplace.com/MainPro/IndexFish.aspx

[Roan Art]

Tiger/green/albino barbs are aggressive fin nippers. They need to be in large schools to lessen the aggression and you need to be *very* careful with what you put them with. No angels. No silver dollars. IME they will eventually tear the dollars apart.

Roan

[hmt321]

where do you live?

Have you thought about a Native tank? There are many types of fish that live in local waters that make excellint aquarium fish many of these are avaliable for order on line, also mant plants that are popular in aquarioums come from North America (im assumeing thats where you live) if you are interested in a set up like this send me a PM i can send you TONS of info on Native American Aquarium fish, and plants.

I will be setting up a 125 gal native tank at my office building next week, (i just bought the tank) and i have done a ton of research for this set up, i would be glad to share. this whole project will be DIY (except for the tank and pump) I would be happy to share my info with you.

my 2 cents