Motivation Education

Lime Kiln Middle School is the flagship school for the CARES preservation program. We have around six hundred students, from grades 6 to 8. We are also connected with Cedar Lane School, a school for severely debilitated students that range from preschool to high school age. We are a recipient of the Green Schools award. We currently have over 2000 gallons of aquariums, ranging from 5 to 275 gallons. In these aquariums, we have at least 10 species that are at risk for extinction, with a few being completely gone in the wild. Here are some pictures of the fish we have.

This is the Paratilapia ‘east coast small spot’ male. You may recognize the picture from the 245th issue of the Buntbarche Bulletin, in which there was an article about Lime Kiln.

These are the baby Victorian Cichlids from earlier this year. Over 4 months, they have nearly tripled in size, with the largest fish going from half an inch to nearly an inch and a half.

These are the largemouth bass that we have recently acquired. We are using them in a workshop to learn how to sedate fish with clove oil and weigh them. It is really an amazing sight to see the fish completely lifeless one moment, and then completely normal within 30 seconds in a recovery tank. After Mr. Keddell caught some baby bullhead catfish, we are considering to keep one bass, and then when the catfish are fully grown, make a native species tank out of one of the 275 gallon tanks, which is currently empty. The bullheads are about 1 inch in length, but are exceedingly hard to photograph because they are so full of energy. The other bass will be released back to the pond they came from. They are being fed tadpoles from the pond, and eat like complete pigs .

This is a pair of Ptychochromis guarding their newly hatched fry. These fish are fantastic parents, as they viciously defend the fry but are exceedingly gentle when actually caring for them.

This was a poster drawn by a highly talented artist in the Aqua Havens CARES program. This piece of artwork was also featured in the article.

This is the reef wall in one of the 7th grade science rooms. Thanks to some recent help from Scales Tropical Fish Warehouse, we now have some of the coolest critters imaginable in these tanks. Though most of the attention will go to the pair of false percula clownfish, my favorite creature is by far the mantis shrimp. He is kept alone in a 20 gallon tank. He doesn’t come out much, but his incredible power is really fascinating to me. Other inhabitants include sea urchins, a type of starfish, and seaweed that is literally full of tiny organisms.

Aqua Havens CARES meets twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During that time, we change lots of water, feed lots of fish, take pictures, make observations, test the water, and then try out one of the many exciting and rather crazy activities that our teachers comes up with.

Aqua Havens CARES continues to have success breeding species at risk. The first year that we had species at risk, we successfully raised the fry of one of the Ptychochromis species. The next year, we successfully raised the fry of one of the species from Lake Victoria. The Paratilapia, a second species from Lake Victoria, and the Killifish have all bred, but the fry have not made it. Still, I personally am confident that they will.