Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson LXXXIV · Topic 12: The aquarium and pond insects
84. How to make an aquarium
Goal: Your child can set up a small pond-water aquarium and care for it, ready for the water insects in the next lessons.
You'll need
- A large clear glass or plastic jar or tank
- Clean sand and small gravel
- A bucket and a kitchen strainer or dip-net
- Water plants and water from a pond or slow stream
- Rubber boots
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
Lesson LXXXIV is a set of numbered directions rather than questions: which jars to use, a layer of sand, water plants and a layer of gravel, pouring in pond water gently, a window out of direct sun, a dip-net, and ten rules for collecting. Then six rules for the care of the aquarium and a list of references.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Spring (April and May) is the best collecting time; late summer works too. Any pond or slow, weedy stream will do. Ask first if it is private land.
Safety first
Water safety: an adult stays within arm's reach of young children at the water's edge. Keep back from steep or slippery banks, and wash hands after handling pond water, mud or water creatures.
Never drink pond water. An adult carries anything made of glass.
Set up the jar
Follow Comstock's first steps:
Place in the jar a layer of sand an inch or more in depth.
In this sand plant the water plants which you find growing under water in a pond or stream;
Place on top a layer of small stones or gravel; this is to hold the plants in place.
Tip the jar a little and pour in very gently at one side water taken from a pond or stream.
Then let it settle.
Go dipping
Dip deep into the edges of the pond and be sure to bring up some of the leaves and mud, for it is in these that the little water animals live.
Empty each scoop into the bucket of pond water and look for anything that moves: snails, beetles, wrigglers, little "sticks" that walk (caddis-worms), dragon-fly nymphs.
In introducing the water animals into the aquarium it is well to put but a few in each jar.
Where to keep it
Comstock says a north window is best, or to one side of another window, so it doesn't get too much sun and warm up. She liked the water cool.
Taking care
Read her care rules together:
If any insects or animals die in the aquarium they should be removed at once, as the decomposing bodies render the water foul.
As the water evaporates it should be replaced with water from the pond.
Ask your child why the plants matter. Comstock says they give off oxygen that the animals breathe and take up the gas the animals breathe out.
Nature notebook
Draw the aquarium and label each layer and each plant. Start a page called "Who lives here" and add each creature you find, with the date.
Afterwards
Look at the aquarium for a few minutes each day this week and add to the "Who lives here" page.
Tip
When the study is done, return the animals and plants to the same pond they came from. Never let aquarium animals or plants go in a different pond or stream: that can spread creatures that harm the life already there.