Zebra Danio Reports

So it sounds so simple, heck I'll just throw up a few of these photos on the blog and....well....it just took much longer than I thought...I'll stop complaining now.

We have been setting up our aquarium to support a small tropical community...and have been getting the water tested...to see when the water was healthy enough to take fish home. I used old gravel hoping that the bacteria that digest ammonia and nitrites would still be there and would rehydrate and flourish....and I guess I learned that 8 years in various hot attics might be to much for those bacteria to survive. At the first water test....we had high nitrites...which meant that the bacteria weren't thriving enough to absorb the impact of the plant that died in the tank the week before (our photosynthesis plant...died of stress and high expectations)... So we did a partial water change and added supportive bacteria.

On the second water test, our ammonia levels were high....this is a mystery...something was urinating in the tank....no plants, no fish....science just doesn't behave itself with explainable outcomes sometimes...

But the pet store did send us home with some optimistic looking zebra danio fish who are reportedly very hardy. So we added more friendly bacteria...and the fish were freed after a temperature equalizing stage. One of the fish promptly died...and had decomposed at least 2 days worth in two hours. Again...difficult to explain....

Four hours later another Danio had kicked the bucket and volunteered himself for dissection.

The kids began work immediately collecting information on this type of fish and creating outlines...Then today they wrote their first draft report...I posted their first drafts here. Dead Danio Dude spent the night uncovered in the fridge and thus was easy to handle, but he was a little too dry. It was still fun to cut him open, but his organs must have dessicated into oblivion...or else he was a robot fish posing as an organic being. So if we have any more dissection volunteers we will dissect them wet....stay tuned.

Below is Gabriel's report...read gently dear reader...Gabriel has a great flow of ideas and enjoys writing....grammer and spelling are usually not part of the creative process for him...but hopefully this is improving.





































































Here is Isaaiah's report....again, I have not corrected these...and I am working with their Allprep teacher to have him correct their writing, because I think they will work more diligently if they think he is reading the report , rather ...than if it is me...


Below are the oral reports that the children gave after writing and reading their reports on camera

I had to answer the phone...the rest of his report is below...



and here is the dissection report: