Collecting Sea Life For the Classroom

If you want to keep a marine aquarium in the classroom you will need a permit to hold marine life for educational purposes. You will need to find out the authority in your state or territory that issues the permit (in Tasmania this is the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment). The permit will be for a set time period and will generally limit you to certain species. It will also outline your methods of collection.

Display this permit beside your aquarium. Use the permit as a teaching tool to explain to students the need to look after our marine life and the reasons why we have permits.

Organise a Suitable Aquarium.

To hold marine organisms you will need a reasonable-sized aquarium - at least 3 feet in length. The larger the aquarium, the fewer problems you will have maintaining salinity, temperature and pH levels. Keep the aquarium away from very hot places such as a window facing into the sun. Leave a cover on it to reduce evaporation (as this raises salinity), as well as to reduce escapees. Provide hollowed bricks or rocks for the creatures to hide amongst. Have an under-gravel filter system as well as a suitable aerator. Regularly check the pH and nitrogen levels and temperature in your tank. Keep the tank in a quiet place in your classroom so that it is not bumped or knocked by students. You will need to add about half a tank of new seawater every 1-2 weeks.

Disposal of Species that have been kept in an aquarium.

It is VITAL that you always dispose of any seawater from the tank either into the sewerage system or treat with bleach and tip at least 200m from any waterway. NEVER return anything from your marine aquarium back into the sea. ALL sea creatures must be euthanased and then disposed of inside a sealed plastic bag onto the local tip.

WHY? Firstly, a marine aquarium is an unnatural environment and likely to promote disease amongst the creatures living there. If the creatures or their water is then returned to the sea there is a high likelihood that they will spread disease. Secondly, returning seawater or live creatures to the sea can spread marine pests. This is a huge threat to our marine environment. One introduced seastar can produce up to 16 million eggs!

Animals and plants to collect

Bearing in mind that you can never return your creatures to the wild, please try to be selective in what you put in the aquarium! Some animals do better than others in marine aquariums if properly maintained. The best types of animals to collect are:

Sea snails (generally quite hardy animals), small crabs, small seastars or biscuit stars, shrimps, small fish such as gobies, blennies or small leatherjackets, sea lettuce (good source of food for amphipods which in turn are food for small fish) and sea anemones.

Try to avoid these animals

Filter feeders such as sponges, sea squirts, coral, bryozoans (difficult to keep and unlikely to survive long), large predators such as large leatherjackets, crabs and seastars (they will eat everyone else!), seahorses, seadragons or pipefish (are protected by law and cannot be wild caught, also difficult to keep), sea slugs and sea cucumbers (often dirty the tank quickly and do not survive long), threatened species (they are all protected by law), introduced marine pests (should be euthanased and disposed of if caught).

Feeding your Marine Creatures

Read up on the creatures in your aquarium to find out what types of food they eat. Some sea snails are plant eating and they will need plants such as sea lettuce to feed upon. Mussels are a good source of food for meat eating sea creatures. Break open the mussel and place a small piece on each sea anemone. Leave the rest of the mussel for fish, crabs, seastars, shrimp and carnivorous sea snails to eat.

Adapted from an Aquarium Protocol written by Ingrid Albion for the Marine Discovery Centre