New tank in classroom - suggestions?

[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

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.

 

[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

 

[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.