It’s Easter half term which means I have two weeks off work. I really appreciate the generous holidays of working in a school, but… I keep thinking about fish.
Just after Christmas, we bought a tropical aquarium for the library. I was a little apprehensive when the idea was originally pitched to me, but I’ve surprised myself by how attached I’ve become.
A group of pupils formed an Aquarium Team (AKA ‘The Fish Club’) and the idea is that they maintain the tank. Of course, I supervise, but never having kept an aquarium before it has been quite the learning curve! Last month the chemical analysis of the water was tested and I was told it was ‘practically perfect’; this is no mean feet for a beginner and I was so proud!
We have mostly Mollies, but other species include Platy, Danio, Gourami and (my favourite) Siamese Fighting Fish.
There are 15 ‘adult’ fish in the tank, which has a Sponge Bob Squarepants theme. There are also several snails (urgh) which reproduce at an alarming rate!
We had babies in February, which was quite a shock as we didn’t realise we had a pregnant fish – such was our lack of knowledge. I have since come to the conclusion that a Dalmatian Molly must have been pregnant before she came to our tank. Having now learnt about live bearing fish, I started to suspect that our Leopard Molly was pregnant, and we became proud parents once again in March. We currently have approximately 50 Molly fry living in two nursery nets inside the main tank. Due to various fishy deaths, we now have one male Molly to four female Mollies and my fingers are crossed as I hope against hope that we have no more Molly babies; the tank has become a den of sin and I don’t know how we’ll cope with any more additions to the family.
This post has absolutely nothing to do with work or libraries or books or literature or school or reading, but...
