[jorjef]

+1 on the below, I don't know how many times I heard from my 17 year old "dad why don't you get some cool fish". Shock value, and the unusual is what you need to grab their attention and to get them asking questions. My feather dusters always get a gasp when the plume disappears in a blink of an eye.

Originally Posted by Seafan

Well I have a grade 11 daughter, I had my own ideas about what she enjoys about my tank so I threw them by her to see if she agreed with what I thought. Basically fish are fish to kids, sw or fw. Anytime she goes with me to lfs it's always the bizarre and out of the usual. Urchins, star fish (hitchiker as well as the usual), bristle worms, sea cucumbers and anything else that fits into the unusual category. If the fish are unusual this works too, puffers, lion fish, basically characteristics that most other fish do not have, or fish that will reproduce in captivity, clowns or cardinals, as well as symbiotic relationships. For corals, she finds most boring, until I want to start and do some fragging then she is in there like a dirty shirt with the cutters. For tank size she says a tank in the classroom might prove distracting during times when they really don't care what the teacher is saying, so placement of the tank should be considered. But should be as large as can be reasonably accomodated. Last year she was so taken with the unusuals that she had a fascination in biology class, and kept bringing things like bristle worms, bristle stars, asterinas, and amphipods out of my tank to study them under the microscope. Just our 2 cents, hope you find it useful.