Aquarium Volunteer Senior Project

  5-23-22  Today I was in the aviary again with the birds keeping an eye on the people who came in. In the morning I gave them water, and Sam had already fed them so I cleaned the dishes. I also put shavings in one of the boxes and then set up the nectar and cups in a cooler to give to people who paid.Today was pretty similar to the other days I’ve been in here. There were a lot of people who came in with tickets for feedings so I helped them out and showed them how to not get bitten. I also answered questions for a lot of the school groups. Whenever the birds were hungry we gave them some more food. We cleaned the turtle's enclosure by adding some more sand and wood shavings and replacing the water. Near the end of the day there weren't many people coming in so I tried teaching the birds some of their names and other words which didn’t go very well. The day went by pretty fast and I finished up around 4:30.

  Weekend reflection #2 5-22-22 This week I learned a bit more about what an aquarist does and different aspects of animal care from more of a long-term perspective. We had a few fish pass, as well as one of the oldest birds, so I learned about what happens to those animals after the fact, and how the environment they’re in is affected. I learned a lot about nutrition in a more in-depth manner, specifically about the reptiles. Last week I had a brief overview of the water system but this week Brittany walked me through it and had me do the backwashing for a lot of the tanks. She also taught me how salt water is made and showed that process. I enjoyed this week a bit more, because it was more hands-on and because I had a deeper understanding of mechanisms and life in the aquarium, they gave me bigger responsibilities. I spent a lot of time in the tanks with the marine life which was a pretty unique experience. The days the aquarium was open were pretty long because I was doing the s...

  5-20-22 The aquarium was open today so I was with the birds working with another animal care employee. We had a meeting at the start of the day going over what everyone’s jobs were. I cut up some lettuce and carrots and mixed the nectar for the birds and placed it out for them. When people started coming in we watched to make sure they weren’t messing with the birds, which a surprising amount of people did. Some people had tickets for feedings, so I gave them cups of nectar and showed them how to feed. There were quite a few young school groups that came in. At the end of the day, I cleaned up all the food bowls, washed them, and then headed home. 

  5-19-22 I started out the morning by helping Britney feed all the reptiles. There was one frog who was super stubborn and wouldn’t eat so Brittany had to hold him for a while and try and get his mouth open. There’s also a snake who has been having a hard time eating so they’re getting ready to bring him to the vet. We made more saltwater just by dumping a bunch of boxes of salt into a whole lot of water. It took a while for all of it to mix in but after it did we backwashed the sharks and some of the saltwater fish tanks. We then did it to the freshwater fish by draining some of the tank and refilling it with new water to reset the nitrate levels. It’s required that there’s someone present while anyone’s inside the water so I watched Brittany clean the trout tank. After I cleaned the food prep room and was done. 

  5-18-22 Another cleaning day today! I got to the aquarium and while Brittany prepared food by cutting up fish and veggies, I scrubbed down the shark tank and another fish tank. Most of the sharks were sleeping but there was one who kept getting a little too close to me which was unsettling. The fish tank I cleaned is those nibbler fish you see in spas that eat all the dead skin off feet, so they were coming at my legs the whole time. When I was done I helped Brittany hand out food to everybody. While doing so we checked on the starfish who has wastings which is a bacteria that eats their flesh. We put it in a different tank and clean it daily with freshwater so its legs can regrow. After lunch Brittany and I cleaned the rays tank which was so cool because they swam right next to us the whole time. We scrubbed algae off rocks and moved the sand around to make it more even. Then I watched her do otter training and we were done for the day. 

5-17-22 Today we started by feeding all the fresh and saltwater aquatic life. The woman I was working with fed them fish while I did the dry food. While I was feeding them I looked out for any fish that wasn’t eating, and the smaller fish that weren’t able to get some of the food into their mouth. I cleaned the invertebrate tank after, by scrubbing all the algae off the rocks And fake corals. After lunch, I cleaned our biggest tank which took about two hours. It hadn’t been cleaned in a week and a half so there was a lot of algae. Normally there are two divers cleaning but one of our regulators is broken so it took a while. I finished up by cleaning the brushes and suit. Time today: 5 Total: 32.5