It was a sad day for fish at Velma Jackson on Wednesday. I should have been tipped off by the water in my refrigerator. In order to be green I usually put water from the tap in my water bottle rather than buying more bottled water. I have done this every day at VJ since August 08. On Tuesday I drank the water and spit it out it tasted so bad - I thought someone had played a trick on me and put something in it or it was some liquid I had put in there for sampling. (It is a biology refrigerator - there are orange slices for the fish, cherry seeds chilling for six weeks before planting, frozen mice for the snake and my lean cuisine and water bottle) What I found out later was the "bad" water was from too much chlorine. Instead of just tossing it and drinking out of the other water bottle which was fine I should have investigated.
Before I tell why it was a sad day for fish, a little history will be helpful. When I started at VJ last year I was so excited about having a fish tank in my room and a greenhouse attached to my room. When I came to school to get things ready for school, the fish tank was disqusting, the water had evaporated below the recycling filters and was an ugly brown. Somehow three fish managed to survive without being fed all summer. One of the janitors and I spend the better part of two days cleaning the tank, putting in new filters and getting the
three fish settled (only one survived which I called survivor). During the course of the year I managed to beg for some money for more fish and for filters that needed to be changed every three weeks. My students adopted the fish quickly and took on their daily care of feeding and triweekly filter change. Later we got a syphon tube to clean out the water every month. There were lots of interesting dramas along the way including the time Ayonna brought 22 guppies to join our fish family. In a matter of moments there were only six left for the nine fish in the tank acted as if they were never fed. In a few days even the larger guppies were meals on fins for the cannibalistic fish. As you can see hours of care were given to get our fish group just right. As of Wednesday there three koi including a one eyed wonder that intrigued all who saw him, one oranda, two black moors, and one now very large algae eater.
When a got a little more money I bought a new oranda on September 5 and happily added her to the tank. On September 6 she was resting in peace in the stomachs of her carniverous mates. Lesson learned - those Koi will not tolerate any more goldfish, thank you.
On with the history. Over the past summer the janitors kept the fish tank in good order by feeding them, changing the filters and adding water as needed.
The students this year have taken on their caretaking role gladly along with Mo Jo, the hamster, Sister Isaac II, the bald python, and Benita who we now think is Benny, the bearded dragon, and the plants in the greenhouse. I was so impressed when some students came by my room while other students had gone to a fundraising basketball game that was a part of the homecoming actiivities - they wanted to see the animals and decided to take care of the siphoning the tank and refilling it. Like we had done many times before we siphoned the water, dumped it outside - one five gallon bucket at a time, and refilled the tank. Little did we know that we were adding toxic waters and sending them into certain death. I saw them turning upside down and swimming crazily and hitting the side of tank and laying on the bottom - it was awful and I was helpless. All those hours of love and care were floating on the top the next day.
I reported the bad water and found out students had been doing the same. The water inspector came out and found out water made the chlorine detection tablets turn bright red.
Another lesson learned - test the waters for chlorine. I am definitely a lifelong learner.
By Thursday, I managed to get some perspective. I scouted around for some perservative and specimen jars and saved five of them for further study and put the two duplicate species in the compost heap. This was a good lesson in the cycle of life and death and water purification.
Friday brought more challenges. I kept a colleague's class third block so she could see her sick uncle in the hospital. I showed them all the animals including the fish in specimen jars. I lastly came to Mojo. I have picked him up for the kids many times (mostly girls are attracted to him and want to hold him). These five guys wanted me to pick him up which I did - it takes some time to chase him down in his cage. I was holding him and talking to them and the next thing I knew I felt a sharp pain on my index finger - Mojo had lashed out at me with those cute little teeth and was holding on with gusto - I gently let him down into his home and went to the sink and washed and soaped my hand and put on some alcohol. Without knowing I had modeled for them my cardinal principal - love the animals or leave them alone. They wanted me to punish Mojo - it was clear I wasn't - he was just protecting his turf.
Finally I went outside to my oasis to have lunch and nurse my wounds and my losses - the beautiful pond I had worked on (see earlier blogs) was popped up in the air and all the water was in a mudhole underneath with the pump. Another day at VJ. While others were getting ready for the homecoming parade outside, I bailed a about 40 gallons of water out of the hole using the pump and as much ingenuity as I could muster. An hour and a half later the pond was all cleaned out and back in place with the fountain flowing again. Another lesson learned - turn off the pump at night if a storm or vandal redirect the fountain - all the water goes somewhere else and the pond tub is empty.
I am glad it is the weekend.
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