Don't Stop Believing and Learning.. A Fishy Experience

A month or so ago I wrote a blog entry titled:  How to Fail Big and Come out Pirate.  It was all about our beginning adventures with the 60 gallon tank in our classroom.  The truth is, I bought myself a year of time with this project, as last year all we did was put plants and run water through it.  I didn't feel comfortable adding native critter species with WI DNR regulations, and I wasn't sure what else would work.

This year, water and plants wasn't enough for this group of students.  They spoke.  They wanted more. They wanted critters.  Truthfully, I spent weeks doing research talking to people about our current set up and looked for recommendations.  Unfortunately, I don't think anyone truly understood our situation and setup and I made a terrible mistake introducing what I did.

I should have known with the 6+ years of algae that was on the back of the tank (behind the plastic rocks) that the water wasn't safe.  I should have known that the river flow would be too stressful and strong for small tropical fish.  They aren't used to swimming against river currents.  I should have thought of having the
water tested prior to adding anything into the tank.  The truth is, no one offered and this is a very common practice at many fish stores as I found out after the fact!   I should have known that if the fish got to the top of the second basin that they could flow downstream and potentially get stuck in the plant on their way down.  I should have anticipated the crazy aquatic frogs to find the gap between the silicone seal and the plastic that was secured to the back of the tank.

But the truth is, I've never maintained a fish tank.  I grew up working at a garden center and horticulture has been my life.  I can pirate with any plant, but when it came to this fish experience, there was a lot of failure and a lot of learning, but I wasn't allowed to give up.  My students were counting on me to come through with this project. So I did....We started by tearing out all of the plastic and starting from square one.  The algae needed to be cleaned out, all gravel removed, the silicone removed, and the tank cleaned.

While this whole process was going on, I took numerous trips to various aquatic pet stores.  So many trips, that I have made friends and am recognized as soon as I walk in.   After this failure I did a ton of reading on what the ideal setup is and how to start a fish tank from the ground up.  I have asked any and every potential question one could imagine.  I have asked some of the same questions over and over again to get a second and sometimes third opinion.  What I have really gained in this experience is a new hobby, and a tremendous amount of confidence.

Upon purchasing what I would need for a Freshwater Tropical Community tank, in talking with one of the managers at the local pet store, he recommended I figure out my fish for all layers of the tank.  The recommendation is 1" of fish/gallon of water.  With a 60 gallon tank that = A LOT OF FISH!  We would have to cram the tank full of fish to be satisfied with the result.  I just happened to stop in at one of the other stores that same night and talked to a neighboring HS student and he recommended cichlids.  This was not something I had initially considered because they were labeled difficult.  They are messy, and are territorial, but he was confident in that we would be much more satisfied with the result.  I saw how they all came to the top of the tank for feeding and how they had personalities, and so I decided that I was going to have to PIRATE UP my game.  In talking with another HS student in an APES class at a neighboring school, he informed me that they just set up a cichlid tank and that gave me some confidence.

From my reading that night, cichlids meant a canister filter, plastic heaters, and a smaller gravel or sand substrate.  They also require a very specific set up in the tank that each fish has a place to hide or claim as his/her own territory.  This was going to be a lot of work, but I did the reading that I needed.  I approached students with the situation the next day and with an almost unanimous vote they wanted cichlids, except for a few boys that preferred piranhas.  That meant I had to exchange everything I had gotten for the Freshwater Tropical Community tank, but I was confident that this was the way to go.

After watching a YouTube video and sealing some gaps in the silicone at the bottom of the tank, cleaning off some of the hard water stains with vinegar, and rinsing the gravel and placing it in...we were ready to go.  I did take some help from my Dad setting up the canister filter.  This was something that was beyond my comfort zone and I wanted to know exactly how I would need to clean it in the future.  Today, we are clay pots, and fish away from a finished tank.  In this endeavor, I have secured my own tank at home that was the initial rescue tank, and another that my mom bought me for my birthday.  I have the confidence that "I've GOT THIS" and one would almost suggest that my winter hobby when the garden centers are closed, is now aquatics.

There are a few main things that I have learned from this experience:

1.  Pirates make the best of friends and won't let you quit no matter how badly you fail-as long as you're failing forward!  Thanks @TriSciCurious! They're along for encouragement the entire way.  Thank you to @steph_frosch for continued encouragement & support with this project and for fielding a frantic call in the initial rescue!
2.  Learning through failure is the best type of learning.  You learn how to ask the right questions and it builds confidence.  This has been the most rewarding few months of learning!
3.  Persistence is a skill that we need to demonstrate and help build in our students.