The Awesome Squad Question and Answer Thread

[deadtrout]

Very informative thread! Fun reading!

[Paul B]

Hey Awesome squad. Because I feel your class is so awesome and I wish I went to such a class when I was your age. I would like to donate one of these feeders to you.
You can feed that starfish and crabs with it or just blow stuff in the tank around. Just PM me your address.
Thanks for letting me participate.
Paul

[liverock]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Hey Awesome squad. Because I feel your class is so awesome and I wish I went to such a class when I was your age. I would like to donate one of these feeders to you.
You can feed that starfish and crabs with it or just blow stuff in the tank around. Just PM me your address.
Thanks for letting me participate.
Paul

That is awesome!

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

[brandoniscool]

Originally Posted by G_Sanab922

Hello Kristian,

Yes I did. I live in Key Largo, Florida. We are known around the world for our amazing reefs, which is found in the Atlantic ocean, and wildlife, which can also be found in the Everglades. With that, schools in these areas teach students the importance of our Ocean and Wildlife since we live very close to it all.

In my 3rd grade class, we had a saltwater reef tank as well as many other animals. Once I took that class, I attended many other classes throughout schooling that taught me about marine organisms.
Not only will you learn about the oceans and reefs, but also how to respect it because it is a major part of our environment.

Hi!My name is Giniah.I am in Mr.Rutherford's Third grade class.I am wondering that if you had a reef tank in third grade,was your tank so full,you could not fit anything else in it?I am asking this because my classroom tank has so many corals,that i can not fit not even one coral in my tank.Thank You!

[brandoniscool]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Here are some more cool creatures. You can see the tiny baby octopi or octopuses that are one day old and about as big as an ant. They hunt small fish and shrimps and when they wrestle with it, they shoot a little squirt of ink to confuse whatever it is they are wrestling with.

Hi I am Jenna from Mr . Rutherfords third grade class and I saw your picture and think it is really cool! But I don't know exactly what it is I think it might be an anemone but I am not really sure. If you could get back to me that would awesome thank you for your time and energy


-sincerely Jenna

[brandoniscool]

Originally Posted by brandoniscool

Hey RC, this is Brandon. For a long time I've wanted my students to take the next step and formally share their reefing skills with interested peers. To this end Awesome Squad will begin partnering with Mrs. Perez's third grade bi lingual class and expanding our reef project through the addition of a new tank set up in their room. With a bunch of my own money and a generous donations from Diablo Corals, Reef Dynamics, Tunze USA, Ecotech and more I had the tank setup but no live rock. Just when I was about to try to find some local dry base rock, Liverock (Richard) from Tampa Bay Saltwater PM's me on Reef Central and generously offered to hook me up with some of his special product.

His donation resulted in one of the most fun and surprising gifts I've ever been given (as it turns out we got a lot more than just liverock). I've only been in a real reef once and have never got to experience the complexity of the life on liverock until his 'ocean in a box' was shipped to me. The last two days have been very exiting.

I am still overwhelmed by everything that is included in his packaged deal and sleepless after spending my free time online reading up to make sure i take good care of everything.

For the next couple of day's I'll be posting and asking questions about what we received. I'll do my personal research on other threads. Please respond to my questions with my students as the audience and explain things in detail and keep your language simple. I want them to also be experts on our new livestock.

A slide show of all of our pictures can be seen on my website here.

Below are some pictures of the highlights.



Luckily some Awesome Squad members were able to come in from break. Tina is one of my most dependable students and the main reef boss (student expert) for my classroom.


My kiddos are hampered by their stubby arms.



We've watched videos on mantis shrimp already and it's awesome to have one of our very own.

http://mrrutherfordisawesome.weebly....91349_orig.jpg

Every bag had some kind of cool hitchhiker in it.


It took about 5 minutes for each bag to be opened, it had to be passed around and a million questions asked. It took over 2 hours just to unpack everything.



I made them start writing their ideas down so they would stop peppering me with them.



The urchins were one of the favorites, and apparently they can be hand fed, something my kiddos line up to do.



It was had to be patient while the bags were acclimating.



I know the big hermit crab will be a huge hit. Alex said he wanted to keep him for himself because he was shellfish, yuck yuck



Each piece of live rock was picked up and examined. It took two or three kids to move each one.



This is obviously not rock you can buy at your local fish store. Each one was covered with different kinds of sponges, tunicates, crabs, shellfish and more.

Hi my name is Allan. I am in Mr. Rutherford's third grade class. I am here for a question.What is the maximum size of an urchin? Urchins seem pretty big, so then I wondered what is the maximum size of an urchin. It would be a pleasure if someone answered the question. Thanks.

[Paul B]

But I don't know exactly what it is I think it might be an anemone but I am not really sure. If you could get back to me that would awesome thank you for your time and energy

Hi Jenna. Those little guys are new born baby octopi or octopuses. There are 6 of them in that picture, but they are hard to find.

Allen, I have seen urchins about 8" wide in the sea. I am not sure if they get bigger than that.

[brandoniscool]

Hey RC, this is Brandon. I wanted to share a memorable situation that happened yesterday. There's third grade student from a neighboring classroom that's very into science, particularly marine biology. His teacher isn't interested in collaborating with me but this student comes before and after school each day to talk with me and my students. We can't get him to shut up about the tank and I have to literally push him out the door so he isn't late for his bus.

After we got a bunch of inverts from Richard he was particularly intrigued with the crabs and kept insisting that I was wrong about the name of one of them. Apparently he walked across town on his own and checked out a book from the public library just to come in the next day and correct me. With great fanfare he proved that the crab I was calling a spider crab was in fact an arrow head crab. His sense of pride was pretty fun and modeled a healthy sense of skepticism to my class. He's been good naturedly rubbing it in every time I see him.

I can't list his name or show his photo without permission but I got a pic of him mostly out of frame and thought I would share his story.

[brandoniscool]

Hello RC, Brandon again.

I also wanted to introduce Mrs. Perez's student Lizbeth. She's the first reef boss (student leader) for her class and will be responsible for training her classmates after she is an expert on all aspects of reef aquarium science. I looked for a student with good grades, leadership skills and independence and she was at the top of the list. There will be more posts about her experiences and questions soon.

[Paul B]

Your Friend is correct, that is an arrow crab.

[Margoren]

My children are having fun reading this thread.

These students are lucky to have an excellent teacher! We need more like him.

[G_Sanab922]

Originally Posted by brandoniscool

Hi!My name is Giniah.I am in Mr.Rutherford's Third grade class.I am wondering that if you had a reef tank in third grade,was your tank so full,you could not fit anything else in it?I am asking this because my classroom tank has so many corals,that i can not fit not even one coral in my tank.Thank You!

Hi Giniah!

The reef tank that was in my third grade class had only some corals. We had more fish than corals. But yes it was full with fish and coral. Then when we had the opportunity to add something else, the teacher would decide on which fish to sell to the local fish store.
That's good you have plenty though, shows diversity. You and your class must be loving it!

Big applause to the members who have donated so far!

[brandoniscool]

Hi i'm Ashton from Mr.Rutherford's class and I was wondering what your favorite corral is? Mine is a fan corral. Thanks for the feedback!


Sincerely,

Ashton

[shifty51008]

I have a few favorite corals.
my toadstool leather


here is a wider shot of the leather


and devil hand leather


as you can tell I like leather corals

[brandoniscool]

Originally Posted by johnike

Nice critter Paul, here's one of my favorites in my tank.
It's a Spiny (or Pink and Green) Sea Cucumber. Unlike other Sea Cucumbers that eat things from the sand, these find a spot they like and filter their food from the water.

Hi my name is Emily. I am wondering if sea cucumbers are spiky because there is a lot of spikes on it. in our class room we have a 74 gallon reef tank. we have lots of corals and fish. my favorite parts on helping the reef tank is water testing ,water changing ,and feeding the corals and fish.

[johnike]

Emily, the spikes on my Sea Cucumber are actually quite soft to the touch unlike the spikes on a Spiny Sea Urchin, great question.

[ReeferKimberly]

Originally Posted by brandoniscool

Hi i'm Ashton from Mr.Rutherford's class and I was wondering what your favorite corral is? Mine is a fan corral. Thanks for the feedback!


Sincerely,

Ashton

Hi Ashton My favorite coral is the Duncan coral. I like fan corals like you do too! I want to get one. Back to my favorite: I went to a fish store when I was first starting out with my new tank and was just buying some rocks like you guys got donated. I found a little rock that had some slime on the end and I knew that was weird for a rock so I thought I should stand it up and see if anything grew from it. Eventually little tiny duncan heads grew! It is still my favorite coral today.

This is what it looked like when I got it.



And this was about a year later.



My favorite part of the hobby is the liverock because you can find so much life on it that you didn't even know was there!

Your class is very cool. When I was in third grade my teacher took us to the local salmon hatchery and got some baby salmon for us to raise. When they were big enough we let them go in a local reserve. I thought that was pretty cool but I think your reef tanks are even cooler!

[Cozwey]

This is an awesome thread! Cheers to all who are participating. Fabulous experience for the students, teacher and us at the RC. This made me smile this fine morning.

Thank you

[Cozwey]

I am not sure if this is possible but I would like to pay for a premium membership for brandoniscool. If it is, could someone let me know how?

[brandoniscool]

Hi. This is Will, again. I was wondering what is the most powerful seahorse in the world? I was wondering that because
1) I always like seahorse
2) I want to know also because I was thinking to get a seahorse when I grow up MAYBE






Thanks,
Will

[brandoniscool]

Hi,my name is Kaylee i'm in Mr.Rutherford's 3rd grade class. And I have been wanting to know what is the most rare and expensive fish you could find in the sea? I mean like a most rare fish and you would breed it than sell it how much will it be worth?And is it dangerous or friendly?If you can answer my question thanks for your time if not sorry for wasting your time

Sincerely, Kaylee I <3 RC

PS. Mr Rutherford wanted me to tell you more about what I like about our reef tank and how it has taught me about science. I want to be vet when I grow up and I've learned to feed the right amount and and not too much and to wait. I will have to learn how to make the medicin and I'll have to get it just right just like when I make things for the tank. Otherwise the animals will get sick.




Here is me and my sister.

[brandoniscool]

Originally Posted by ReeferKimberly

My favorite part of the hobby is the liverock because you can find so much life on it that you didn't even know was there!

Your class is very cool. When I was in third grade my teacher took us to the local salmon hatchery and got some baby salmon for us to raise. When they were big enough we let them go in a local reserve. I thought that was pretty cool but I think your reef tanks are even cooler!

Hi, this is Kaylee. I touched live rock before and notice there are little worms and bugs on them. I think that they help with the aquarium. and there's holes in the rock where the bugs live. Is it and option to have it in the aquarium? Mr. rutherford keeps talking about it.

[Sk8r]

Yes. You should wear doctor-exam gloves when handling it, because some of the worms have bristles that are so sharp you can hardly touch them without getting bristles stuck in your fingers. It's hard on the worm and the fingers! They don't mean to do it, but they kind of shed. Sometimes fish get a faceful, too, if they've had an argument with the bristleworm...and sometimes it takes about three times for the fish to learn not to bite a bristleworm. It's unpleasant for the fish, but the bristles fall out after about 3 days, so never worry about it.
Just always wear gloves when handling live rock.
The bugs are usually amphipods, which fish can eat much more safely---poor amphipods!

The holey rock [that's with an -e: it means rocks with holes, not that it's holy or sacred] has more surface area than ordinary rock---Get Mr. Rutherford to explain that one to you! ---but the fact it is so porous (has so many holes or pores) means that bacteria can more easily get all the way inside it.

Bacteria help break down waste in the nitrite-nitrate cycle. Mr. Rutherford can explain that too---which is how fish waste turns into bubbles of nitrogen gas that float up to escape to the atmosphere of our planet. Watch your tank for a while and you may see a bubble escape the sandbed.


And bacteria are so tiny they can live inside rock, in the very heart of rock, and deep underground in solid rock. When people say Earth is a living planet, they often don't know how 'alive' it really is. Scientists have found bacteria in rocks that make up Earth's skin, and they have found them way up in the atmosphere where you wouldn't think bacteria would be. We live in a 'shell' of living bacteria, under our feet and over our heads.

So your question about how live rock is alive is a very important question---basic to how the oceans recycle waste, and how our planet works!

[FTDelta]

Brandon - What you're doing is simply awesome for your students to learn about the world of saltwater aquaria. Keep up the good work.

[brandoniscool]

Hello. My name is Lyons. I am in Mr.Rutherford third grade gifted class. My question is how powerful is a pistol shrimp claw? Question because when i saw a video of a pistol shrimp in my class when it snapped its claw it formed a bubble and knocked out the other shrimp. Mr.Rutherford says that we might have a pistol shrimp in our new tank. I know we have a mantis shrimp.

Mr.Rutherford says I have to share what I like about the aquariums we have. I like,I like the clown fish because it has cool black and orange stripes and the blue green chromes because its skin color is a cool color.

Thank you and
sincerely,Lyons