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Decorating Your Aquarium
Some Fish Need Schools and Some Schools Need Fish
An aquarium at school -- what a wonderful idea, and it can inspire the students to learn skills of observation bringing them closer to nature.
While an aquarium in a school needs to beautifully equipped, it should also require a minimum of care.
After this aquarium has been set up for a while, you will find a suitable group of students who will enjoy caring for it, under proper supervision of course. They need to be able to have access to the aquarium without obstruction while unauthorized people can be kept away from the tank.
In addition sufficient electric and water supplies need to be easily available to them, along with the basics of care for the aquarium.
The biggest advantage to an aquarium at school is the possibilities of observation to the students.
Fish that breed easily can give the students the opportunity to observe the courtship and care of the young for fish like the dwarf cichlids. Several types of fish work well in a community tank that are live breeders.
Class outings can supply an endless opportunity for observation in smaller tanks. These tanks can be used on a seasonal basis for observation of other animals including frogs (development of tadpoles), sticklebacks (courtship, laying of eggs and care of the brood), and newts (courtship, pairing, laying of eggs). These are all animals that can be watched during the spring; of course these need to be returned to the water where they were first found after they have grown.
For other seasons, the mouthbrooding cichlid or dwarf gourami are well suited for behavioral studies in school, as they willingly spawn all year long.
Since these species do not normally eat their young they are a wonderful tool of observations for courtship, pairing, and care of the young.
See Also:
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Thinning Your Aquarium Plants
Superseding and correcting the landscaping is part of the monthly care of your aquarium.
Using a scissors or your fingernails remove any dead or brown leaves from the plants.
Shorten plants that have grown too tall by cutting them below the stipules (joints of the plant), removing the lower leaves, and replanting the new shoots that have been formed by this trimming.
The less attractive lower leaf can be removed unless you wish to grow more of these plants -- in which case you should leave the stem parts in the soil, as they will usually grow new shoots. |
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Most aquariums now use fluorescent lighting, while the power consumption is the same; they provide about four times the amount of light.
While available in many colors, not all of these colors are appropriate for aquarium use.
Plants require the blue-violet (for cell division) and red (for individual cell growth) parts of the light spectrum for most efficient growth potential. The same lights that nurseries use successfully are also used by aquarium enthusiasts.
Mercury vapor lamps are being widely used now, while they are very economical to use, they hand above and separately from the aquarium. These are more expensive, but far more economical because the output doesn't diminish even after long periods of use.
An aquarium should be lit for at least 12 hours a day and not more than 16 hours a day; stronger lights do not make up for this time period!
Related Topics: Regular Care of Your Aquarium ,
The Importance of Plants in Your Aquarium , aquariums
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