Need ideas for a 29 gallon tank for a classroom

I was surfing my local freecycle group when I found a teacher who was looking for a 29+ gallon tank. This teacher works at a charter school where the majority of the students are from low income families and may never have had the chance to have pets, so the teacher thinks that this would be a good way to get the kids involved in the natural world while also giving them a chance to take part in the whole pet thing.

I'm going to get a tank, one way or another (if I have to buy the darn thing myself, I will), and set it up for this class.

So what we're looking for is easy to keep fish. The teacher is thinking something like danios and cories. These sound good to me, but the teacher also is up for any other suggestions.

As a side note, I've invited the class to join as kind of a collective entity, so they can ask questions about their fish as they think of them. I think it will be lots of fun both for them and for us (as we scramble to answer questions thought of by an entire group of 5th graders)

 

Go with a school of guppies or danios or barbs. Also leave some room for cories and some otos.
Tom

 

Out of the three that you mentioned (all of which were in my head as possibilities), will any of them work well with shrimp? I'm thinking that a shrimp or two would be a good for a "weird" factor in the tank.

 

I believe they will leave them alone, the shrimp are on the bottom and the fish are middle-top swimmers with the occasional visit to the bottom.
Tom

 

Excellent. Thank you for the quick response.

 

Excellent. Thank you for the quick response.

No problem.
Tom

 

What a great thing you are doing! I love freecycle As for a tank, have you tried the craigslist in your area? That's where I got my tank. You can get some pretty good deals on there. If you are near a major city you really luck out, there are a lot more to choose from.
Cories are a great option! They are always very full of life. Fish with a lot of color seem to be good for kids (I guess I don't know their ages) but my daughters fav. fish are the mostly colorful/active ones.
Good Luck!!

 

ld make sure to have cory cats and otos. maybe some tetras something that is not to small, something bright and lively and live plants to.

 

These are fifth graders, so at this point, the draw of the fish themselves will be greater than colors, but I will talk with the teacher about whether he/she wants color in the tank.

 

I think danios, corys, otos, and a couple shrimp is the best idea.

I don't think the guppy thing is a good idea. She wants an easy tank.. and as guppies are easy... fry is going to be a big deal and she'll have to do something about them.

 

These are fifth graders, so at this point, the draw of the fish themselves will be greater than colors, but I will talk with the teacher about whether he/she wants color in the tank.

Yeah, my daughter just turned 3, so she's a little more easily amused
And I agree with the guppy comment...unless you get all males. If the teacher is looking for an easy tank then it wouldn't be a good idea to get something that breeds as much as they do.

 

danios and corys are both good ideas. That takes of the top water and teh bottom so to speak even though they both venture into the other areas of the tank. Now you need something mid water. Something that schools would be a WOW factor for the kids.
my black skirt tetras in our 55 gallon swim around like they are joined at the hip and are enthusiastic feeders also.
A big good for you for doing this, we would love to have them come to the site.
sirdarksol - is there an aquarium club close by? If so maybe they could help.Some of the members of the Atlanta Aquarium Club just finished helping a teacher set up a tank for their science club. Just some thoughts.
carol

 

Good thought. In fact, I haven't checked their classifieds yet, either.

 

Get some schooling fish so that jokes about fish going to school will be real. A school in a school!!!

 

You could get all male guppies. They are more colorful than females and eliminate the multiplication factor. I love male livebearers, though I had to work around a bit of aggression when I first put two male mollies together. On the other hand, my mollies would come nibble my fingers if I put them right at the top of the water, which I found absolutely awesome - if your fifth graders are the kind who will follow directions to just leave their fingers on top of the water so they don't spook the fish, they'd probably enjoy that too. Unfortunately, if they get spooked too often it will make them shy and they'll stop doing it. Regardless - My vote goes in for male livebearers. They'll typically coexist with other peaceful community fish, too.