sophi
I hope this is okay to post here- it's kind of just a rant!
So today, I came close to losing most, if not all of my shrimp. Why?
Well, I teach music lessons as a part time job at my house, and my shrimp tank is in the room I teach. I thought it would be a nice addition and help calm the kids. All of the kids love it- they'll sit on the ground and watch the little shrimp swim around the tank and the snails just slowly inch their way across the glass.
All the kids are so good and respectful around the tank. Except one.
So I was teaching my most difficult student earlier... She has a hard time listening and is pretty disrespectful to me, but she loved the tank as well. I was hoping to use that to my advantage in hopes of it making her calm and using it as a "reward". Like "if you do good in today's lesson, I'll let you feed the shrimp!" etc. It never worked the way I wanted but I tried...
Well today, the lesson went horrible. She was completely out of control and just about sent me over the edge. When her mom arrived to pick her up, I asked her to step outside with me to discuss her daughter's behavior, leaving the girl alone with the tank. What possibly could go wrong?
Everything. When we finished talking, the girl and mom left and I headed to my kitchen to get a well deserved snack. A few minutes later, I decided "Lets creep on the baby shrimp again" so as I'm heading over to the tank, there are wafers EVERYWHERE. I believe about 6, which doesn't sound a lot but when you're talking about 6 wafers for only 20 adult shrimp in a small little tank like that, that's a disaster waiting to happen. And it had been in there for at least 20 minutes, so I immediately just started grabbing these things out of the water. Food was everywhere, littering the entire bottom. Of course, the shrimp weren't complaining but seeing that that amount of food could have killed my shrimp from over feeding or even cause an ammonia spike... I mean, if I hadn't walked by that tank to be a baby shrimp creeper, I guarantee you they would have died. Adults, berried females, babies, dead. I was so furious, I was swearing like a sailor. ^^; But knowing that something you worked on so hard and spent so much time and money on could have been rude because a kid simply refused to listen to what you have said in the past.... Ugh, I'm still raging. She's tried this before, and I strictly told her to never feed them without my presence or permission. And when she left, she acted as if she had done nothing wrong.
I'll be having a talk with her and her mother.... again. I hope I manage to keep calm, but when someone messes with my animals, I have little to no patience. I may have to refuse to continue teaching her just because she refuses to listen and is so disrespectful. I really don't know what I'll say though. My mind is dying to just scream but obviously I can't do this.
-sigh- okay, that feels better now that it's off my mind. If anyone's had any similar events do share hehe.
So today, I came close to losing most, if not all of my shrimp. Why?
Well, I teach music lessons as a part time job at my house, and my shrimp tank is in the room I teach. I thought it would be a nice addition and help calm the kids. All of the kids love it- they'll sit on the ground and watch the little shrimp swim around the tank and the snails just slowly inch their way across the glass.
All the kids are so good and respectful around the tank. Except one.
So I was teaching my most difficult student earlier... She has a hard time listening and is pretty disrespectful to me, but she loved the tank as well. I was hoping to use that to my advantage in hopes of it making her calm and using it as a "reward". Like "if you do good in today's lesson, I'll let you feed the shrimp!" etc. It never worked the way I wanted but I tried...
Well today, the lesson went horrible. She was completely out of control and just about sent me over the edge. When her mom arrived to pick her up, I asked her to step outside with me to discuss her daughter's behavior, leaving the girl alone with the tank. What possibly could go wrong?
Everything. When we finished talking, the girl and mom left and I headed to my kitchen to get a well deserved snack. A few minutes later, I decided "Lets creep on the baby shrimp again" so as I'm heading over to the tank, there are wafers EVERYWHERE. I believe about 6, which doesn't sound a lot but when you're talking about 6 wafers for only 20 adult shrimp in a small little tank like that, that's a disaster waiting to happen. And it had been in there for at least 20 minutes, so I immediately just started grabbing these things out of the water. Food was everywhere, littering the entire bottom. Of course, the shrimp weren't complaining but seeing that that amount of food could have killed my shrimp from over feeding or even cause an ammonia spike... I mean, if I hadn't walked by that tank to be a baby shrimp creeper, I guarantee you they would have died. Adults, berried females, babies, dead. I was so furious, I was swearing like a sailor. ^^; But knowing that something you worked on so hard and spent so much time and money on could have been rude because a kid simply refused to listen to what you have said in the past.... Ugh, I'm still raging. She's tried this before, and I strictly told her to never feed them without my presence or permission. And when she left, she acted as if she had done nothing wrong.
I'll be having a talk with her and her mother.... again. I hope I manage to keep calm, but when someone messes with my animals, I have little to no patience. I may have to refuse to continue teaching her just because she refuses to listen and is so disrespectful. I really don't know what I'll say though. My mind is dying to just scream but obviously I can't do this.
-sigh- okay, that feels better now that it's off my mind. If anyone's had any similar events do share hehe.