William The Whippersnapper: William gets a new fishtank

therneau (58)in #steemiteducation • 6 years ago

A children's story series

William always enjoyed watching the beautifully colourful fish swimming around in Johnny’s fish tank.

Johnny had a lovely freshwater tropical fish tank filled with a small school of neon tetra’s, a few guppies and two zebra loaches. There were also some rocks and plants in the tank and William really wanted a fish tank as well.

William had quite a bit of pocket money saved up and he also received some extra birthday money from his grandparents the previous week. So, he decided to head off to the pet shop and go buy a fish tank.

William was looking around at all the wonderful fish tanks and fish at the pet shop.

“Good day young man” one of the employees greeted William with a warm smile. “How may I help you today?” he asked.

“Well, I’m here to buy a fish tank and some fish” William said excitedly.

“Oh, that sounds wonderful” replied the man. “My name is Eric and I can help you.”

“I don’t need any help” William snapped back. “I know what I want.”

Slightly taken aback by Williams’ response Eric replied “Have you owned a fish tank before?”

“No, but my friend has one and I know how to look after them” William stated.

“Very well then” Eric said “but remember there’s lots you need to do when preparing a new..”

“I know everything about fish” William interjected.

Eric was feeling a little bit upset by young Williams’ arrogance and decided to let him be.

William picked a lovely tank and also got some gravel, plants, rocks, a filter and some guppies.

When William approached Eric to pay for his new fish tank Eric told him “Oh dear, do you know you can’t put the fish into the new fish tank straight away?”

“Yes, I know” William said, lying to Eric.

“Then where are you going to keep them?” he asked.

William lied again and said that his dad had a fish tank as well and he said he can keep the fish in there.

“Oh ok” Eric said. “So your dad is going to help you then?”

“Yes” William replied.

This made Eric a bit more comfortable about the young man’s purchase since he didn’t want the poor fish to die.

When William got home he started setting up his new fish tank.

He added the gravel, plastic plants, rocks and filter then topped it up with some fresh tap water. He put the fish in and was so happy with his beautiful new fish tank.

Later that day William’s mom returned from work. William was so excited and couldn’t wait to show his mom what he had bought.

“William” she asked, “do you know how to look after these fish?”

“Yes mommy” he replied. “Johnny has fish too and I learned all about them already.”

William’s mom was a little bit concerned but the fish seemed to be ok and William had some food for them and a running filter. She decided she will research it a bit the next day since she still had lots to sort out that evening.

The next morning when they woke up two of the little guppies were just floating in the water. Those poor fish had died.

William cried and was very upset.

“Oh dear” William’s mom said. “I’ll have to speak to the pet shop about this.”

When she spoke to Eric at the pet shop he explained what happened and how William was being a whippersnapper and clearly lied to him as well.

“There are still four more fish left” William’s mom said worryingly. “Are they also going to die?” she asked.

“That is very likely” Eric said. “I suggest you get the fish back here as soon as possible so I can put them back into a balanced environment.”

William’s mom took the rest of the guppies and headed straight to the pet shop.

When she got there Eric carefully removed them with a net and placed them in one of the fish tanks.

William, still teary eyed, stood by his mom while Eric explained to them about a new fish tank.

“You need to get the water balance right first. Aside from the mechanical filtration there is the biological filtration as well.”

“Yes” William’s mom replied.

“The biological filtration assists with breaking down harmful chemicals such as ammonia and nitrite. Nitrite, unlike nitrate, is very harmful to your fish. Nitrate, on the other hand, isn’t harmful to fish at all” Eric said. “Even before this you need to get your pH levels right since normal tap water contains chlorine and this is harmful to both fish and bacteria. The bacteria is what helps with your biological filtration.”

“Do you understand why it’s important to listen when people want to help you?” William’s mom asked of her son.

“Yes mommy, I’m sorry” William said.

“What you need to do first” Eric explained “is to get your fish tank cycled. What that means is you need to get the water balance right first for the fish to live a happy life. You can do this by adding the correct stabilizers into the water that help balance out the pH levels as well as metals that may be present in your normal tap water. You test this with these special test kits.” Eric handed this over to William’s mom and explained how they work and what to add into the water to achieve the right balance. “Once these levels are correct you add a little bit of fish food, like shrimp, into the water. This will encourage bacteria growth and that is what helps with the biological filtration.”

“Oh dear” Williams mom said. “It’s quite an intricate process.”

“It’s not as difficult as it all sounds” Eric said smiling. “You just need to make sure you test the water regularly and you cycle your fish tank first. Here, I’ll give you some filtration medium from our fish tanks that have already been cycled. This will help to speed up the cycle since there are already live bacteria in it. Then it takes about two weeks before the ammonia and nitrites will be broken down by the bacteria since more bacteria needs to grow to help with breaking down these harmful chemicals. Then it is safe to start adding fish, but no more than two new fish at a time.”

After Eric had explained all of this to them William’s mom decided she will help him to get the fish tank set up properly since William felt really bad and apologised to Eric for not listening to him.

Two months later, William had a beautiful fish tank with all of his fish swimming happily about. He made sure he fed the fish, checked the water regularly and had learned to listen every time Eric made some suggestions to him to maintain a happy fish tank.

Please note:

There are alternative measures to cycling a fish tank. One method is using ammonia and the other using hardy fish. It is recommended that proper research be done prior to cycling a fish tank with any of the methods involved and stabilising your water to the ideal requirements of the fish you intend to keep.

There is more to keeping fish than mentioned in the story and it is advised that proper research be done relating to compatible species, water temperature, food, tank size etc.