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Ocean Exploration: Dentists of the Sea! (Grades 3-5)

MASTER TEACHERS

Judy Blitch and Connie Leverett

OVERVIEW

This lesson is designed to introduce students to an unusual fish behavior while giving students the responsibility of making healthy fish transfers to a saltwater aquarium. Video is used to introduce an unusual fish behavior that keeps other fish clean of bacteria and parasites. Video is also used to introduce students to the proper way of transferring a saltwater fish to a saltwater aquarium in order to reduce the transfer of bacteria and parasites. Students then practice their skills in transferring fish using their videobased checklist. Students may also write letters to marine scientists or use telecommunications to communicate with these scientists in order to explore fish behaviors and verify proper care of fish in aquariums.

ITV SERIES

Seahouse Lesson 8, Part L The Cleaning Station

Wonders Under the Sea: Building a Saltwater Aquarium

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to

describe the behavior of a cleaning fish
reduce parasites and bacteria of a saltwater fish while transferring the fish to a saltwater aquarium

VOCABULARY

aquarium

behavior

fresh water

saltwater

hydrometer

dissolved

oxygen

cleaning fish

bacteria

parasites

salinity

MATERIALS
Part 1, per classroom:

toothbrush
butcher paper, chart paper
markers
student notebook

Part 2, per classroom:

2 one- or two-gallon buckets
previously established 30-gallon saltwater aquarium with dechlorinated water, aerator, and undergravel filtration system for the aquarium
synthetic sea salt (salt used for saltwater aquariums /purchased at aquarium shop)
dissolved oxygen, pH kit, hydrometer (Aquarium stores and scientific supply companies have such materials. Be sure to order such materials from a company that has an expert on staff who is willing to answer any questions you may have in using the equipment.)
saltwater fish of your choice (See list of possible combinations of fish in Part 2 Post-viewing activities.)
dipnet

PRE-VIEWING ACTIVITIES

The teacher should take a dry toothbrush and begin humming and brushing her teeth. Stop! Look at the children and exclaim, "Oh! I'm sorry, but I forgot to brush my teeth this morning! "Ask the class, "Did you remember to brush your teeth? I'm sure you did! I wonder? Do animals brush their teeth?"Students may come up with a variety of answers including the fact that their pets get their teeth cleaned at the veterinarian's office, but the overwhelming response will be "No!"

FOCUS FOR VIEWING

To give students a specific responsibility while viewing, ask students to "Watch both the smaller fish and the bigger fish in this video. In your notebooks, make a table to record the behaviors of the smaller fish and the behaviors of the bigger fish. These fish may interact with each other and these observations are the ones to which you want to pay close attention."

VIEWING ACTIVITIES

Students will discover the behavior of the cleaning fish and what its function is through the following steps.

1. The first video, Fish and Cleaning Fish from Seahouse has audio that is too primary for third to fifth graders. Keeping the volume off will allow the viewer to discover the functions of cleaning fish. Start the tape, Fish and Cleaning Fish. Pause when the small fish is swimming: "Does everyone see which fish is the bigger fish (brown with spots) and which fish is the smaller fish (white with a black stripe)?" If students have not distinguished between these two fish, rewind the tape to point them out, again.

2. Pause when the smaller fish is moving in and out of the mouth of the large fish. Ask the students to record what behaviors they have observed of the smaller and the larger fish. Resume viewing after the students have had ample time to write their observations in their tables.

3. Pause when two new types of fish (large dark surgeon fish and a smaller yellow and purple fish) are seen. Ask the students to focus again on the behaviors of the smaller fish.

4. Pause when you see the small yellow and purple fish nibbling at the white surgeon fish. Ask the students to record what they have just observed. Continue viewing and pausing when the smaller fish nibbles on the white fish in order to make sure that all of the students have made this observation.

POST-VIEWING ACTIVITIES

The following instructions are provided in order to review the observations that students have made from the video.

Make a table on the blackboard or on butcher paper and record the observations that the students made while viewing the video. Ask the students what kinds of conclusions they have made about these behaviors or why the fish were doing what they did. Guide them in making the conclusion that the smaller fish was cleaning the larger fish through clues that they have used as observations. A key to pinpointing the cleaning behavior of the smaller fish is to emphasize the behaviors of the smaller fish nibbling or plucking at the bigger fish. An analogy is the primate behavior of grooming. Another clue, "Why did the larger fish not eat the smaller fish at the beginning of the video?"

Next ask the students what the little fish might be cleaning off of the big fish. Responses will vary. Ask the students why they brush their teeth. Other than fresh breath, they brush their teeth in order to keep bacteria from eating away the enamel of their teeth.The smaller fish, a cleaning fish, is acting like a toothbrush to remove bacteria and parasites from the big fish.

FOCUS FOR VIEWING

To give students a specific responsibility while viewing, explain to the children that the saltwater aquarium is a wonderful addition to the classroom, but you are unsure how to keep the fish healthy and free of parasites and bacteria before transferring them into the aquarium. Ask the students to make a list of ways to reduce parasites and bacteria in the aquarium while watching the video, Building a Saltwater Aquarium from Wonders Under the Sea. If you do not have a saltwater aquarium, please see the publications listed in the reference section in order to set up an aquarium prior to this lesson.

VIEWING ACTIVITIES

Begin viewing Building a Saltwater Aquarium, segment two. This video describes the process of transferring fish to a saltwater aquarium. Pause at each step of instructions given by the marine scientist.

Your list will be as follows:

1. Empty some of the aquarium water into a bucket.

2. Place a small amount of this aquarium water into the bag with the fish.

3.Take the temperature of the water in the bag and the temperature of the water in the bucket.

4. Allow the loosely sealed bag to float on the top of the water in the bucket.

5. Wait until the temperature in the bucket and the temperature in the bag are the same.

Release the fish into the bucket. Let it swim in the bucket for about 15 or 20 minutes.

7. Using a second bucket of fresh water, transfer the fish with a dipnet into this water for 12 minutes. This removes any bacteria and parasites which are not imbedded deep into the mucus.

8. Using a dipnet, move the fish to the aquarium.

9. Never add the acclimation water to the aquarium.

10. If aggressive fish are already in the tank, consider the use of a tank divider or basket to acclimate the other fish to the new fish.

POST-VIEWING ACTIVITIES

Allow each group of students to stock the aquarium with at least one fish using their videobased checklist. A 30-gallon aquarium could be stocked with the following possible fish combinations as taken from Starting and Maintaining a Marine Aquarium.

1 Queen Angelfish, 4 inches
1 Black Angelfish, 3 inches
5 Neon Gobies
5 Sergeant Majors, 11/2 inch
1 Demoiselle

1 Porcupine Fish, 6 inches
5 Wrasse
6 Hermit Crabs or 8 Clownfish
3 Dascyllus trimaculatus
4 Neon Gobies
1 Small Spider Crab
1 Black Angelfish, 111/2 inch

or

5 Dascyllus aruanus
1 Black Angelfish, 1 1/2 inch
2 Coral Shrimp
3 Clownfish
1 Least Butterfly Fish

A general rule for marine aquariums is one inch of fish for each two gallons of water. Having fewer well fed fish is better than overloading the tank.

ACTION PLAN

Students can contact marine biologists through telecommunications or letter writing to discuss any aspect of the lesson. They might want to contact a marine scientist before developing a plan to stock their aquarium. In addition, they may have some ideas for experiments with their fish that they want to discuss with a marine scientist.

EXTENSIONS

Science. Students may plan investigations of behaviors of the fish in their aquarium. They could map the positions of the fish in the aquarium with a poster taped behind the aquarium. Each fish would be given a symbol and each day a student would locate the positions of the fish and record these sites on the poster.
Language Arts. Creative stories could be written about the different fish in the aquarium.

Math. Let the groups of students sign up for a week of data collection from the aquarium. Each group of students would be responsible for collecting the following data from the aquarium: pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity of the aquarium. Each term, the class could graph the data.
Music. Sing a song about a fish. An example is:
"Body of a Fish"
(Sung to "Head, Shoulders... Toes")
Here's the body of a fish, of a fish.
Add a tail and some fins,
just like this.
Eyes, mouth, gills, and lateral line, too.
Lots of scales and I'm through.

RESOURCES

Sea Spot Swim, a lesson plan by Pam Stryker and Susie Parkinson

Starting and Maintaining a Marine Aquarium. C. David Veal. Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service, Mississippi State University, Publication 1287.

To order a single complimentary copy of this publication ask for: Starting and, Maintaining a Marine Aquarium, Publication 1287 at the following address:

Coastal Research and Extension Center
2710 Beach Blvd., Suite 1 E
Biloxi, Mississippi 39531
Telephone: (601) 388-4710