Hypancistrus
New member
In addition to my "day school" teaching job, I also teach "night school," which is for students who are either expelled from day school or in need of extra or repeat credits that they missed in day school.
I knew it would be a stressful year when I walked into the classroom that I work out of in the evening and saw several "new" (to the room) aquariums and terrariums. In the past, I myself have kept over 300 gallons of aquariums, several snakes, lizards and frogs in my classroom, and done it well... but I also have firsthand and unfortunate knowlege of the fact that MOST teachers are not me and really cannot be bothered to properly care for their pets. I am pretty sure that most people here are familiar with the story of Lucky, my rescued Eastern Box turtle, who was abandoned with no food or water in one of my coworkers classrooms.
So knowing this, I felt rather trepidacious regarding this teachers new drive. There was already a 30 gallon fish tank going, and in it he had (I swear) a festivum cichlid, a rainbow Eartheater cichlid, a bristlenose pleco and a freshwater "tea cup" ray. The first weekend, the ray died, which did not suprise me. They need a bare minimum of a 75 gallon, heavily filtered, and they need super-strict water quality regimes, none of which the varsity soccer coach is going to be providing... hmm. The other fish seem to be okay for now, but they are going to get big fast, and again, no water changes is going to lead to bad things....
So last night I do in and the guy has a tall Exo Terra viv set up with a giant heat lamp and one of those spiral UV bulbs. I look inside and there are two very small baby crested geckos. I have a newly hatched one myself... these are slightly larger. Maybe a month old. He has a soil substrate covered with moss... not TOO bad... a shallow water bowl with a rock in it. Bamboo shoots for climbing.
But the temperature in the tank, midway down (not even right under the light) was 88.9 degrees. Temps over the mid-80's can rapidly become fatal to crested geckos, which are a temperate species. He also had large crickets in the cage, when small or week old would have been more appropriate.
I just could not believe it. I went on the net, printed our care sheet and Pangea's care sheet to back us up. It took me 30 seconds to type "Crested gecko care sheet," and bring one up. He can't even take 30 seconds to find out the temperature needs of a species he is going to care for? The worst part is that the HS has no A/C, so even without the heat lamp, the lowest the temp can get is 84 or so. I really don't think these babies have a chance.
But I printed both care sheets, highlighted the appropriate temps, left a note saying that temps in the upper 80's will kill his lizards, and I also stapled my card for my old fish forum to the packet. Hopefully this clown will take 5 minutes to actually read the caresheet, and maybe some more time to visit the fish forum and get help with that disaster too.
It just really pisses me off when teachers do this. By acting this way, the lesson you are teaching your students is that animals are disposable whims that can be treated any way you want and abandoned or discarded when it becomes inconvenient for you, the human. :realhot:
I knew it would be a stressful year when I walked into the classroom that I work out of in the evening and saw several "new" (to the room) aquariums and terrariums. In the past, I myself have kept over 300 gallons of aquariums, several snakes, lizards and frogs in my classroom, and done it well... but I also have firsthand and unfortunate knowlege of the fact that MOST teachers are not me and really cannot be bothered to properly care for their pets. I am pretty sure that most people here are familiar with the story of Lucky, my rescued Eastern Box turtle, who was abandoned with no food or water in one of my coworkers classrooms.
So knowing this, I felt rather trepidacious regarding this teachers new drive. There was already a 30 gallon fish tank going, and in it he had (I swear) a festivum cichlid, a rainbow Eartheater cichlid, a bristlenose pleco and a freshwater "tea cup" ray. The first weekend, the ray died, which did not suprise me. They need a bare minimum of a 75 gallon, heavily filtered, and they need super-strict water quality regimes, none of which the varsity soccer coach is going to be providing... hmm. The other fish seem to be okay for now, but they are going to get big fast, and again, no water changes is going to lead to bad things....
So last night I do in and the guy has a tall Exo Terra viv set up with a giant heat lamp and one of those spiral UV bulbs. I look inside and there are two very small baby crested geckos. I have a newly hatched one myself... these are slightly larger. Maybe a month old. He has a soil substrate covered with moss... not TOO bad... a shallow water bowl with a rock in it. Bamboo shoots for climbing.
But the temperature in the tank, midway down (not even right under the light) was 88.9 degrees. Temps over the mid-80's can rapidly become fatal to crested geckos, which are a temperate species. He also had large crickets in the cage, when small or week old would have been more appropriate.
I just could not believe it. I went on the net, printed our care sheet and Pangea's care sheet to back us up. It took me 30 seconds to type "Crested gecko care sheet," and bring one up. He can't even take 30 seconds to find out the temperature needs of a species he is going to care for? The worst part is that the HS has no A/C, so even without the heat lamp, the lowest the temp can get is 84 or so. I really don't think these babies have a chance.
But I printed both care sheets, highlighted the appropriate temps, left a note saying that temps in the upper 80's will kill his lizards, and I also stapled my card for my old fish forum to the packet. Hopefully this clown will take 5 minutes to actually read the caresheet, and maybe some more time to visit the fish forum and get help with that disaster too.
It just really pisses me off when teachers do this. By acting this way, the lesson you are teaching your students is that animals are disposable whims that can be treated any way you want and abandoned or discarded when it becomes inconvenient for you, the human. :realhot:
