next week my HS's preschool program begins. my teacher was talking about a class pet maybe and i have a 1.5 gallon tank with a UGF and a light that is not in use... i was thinking i could get some tets for it or something? or maybe i could go with some guppies? what do you guys think? the little kids would be looking at it all of the time, probably tapping and what not so i dont think i want something that would be scared..but i dont want a betta because they are not very animated so i think they'd lose interest. if i got guppies, i guess it WOULD be a learning experience but i dont know if they would recreate and RECREATE again and alot of babies would be everywhere. i mean, i have an empty 10 gal completely set up here with no fish but i dont know what to put in it..maybe i could take the babies and put them into the 10 gal? but this tank (the 1.5, not the 10 gal) doesnt have a heater so would that be a problem? yeah thats a lot of questions, sorry guys!

bump!

Well I only eva seen guppies with a heater... I dont know much about them though sry!

as its un heated what about 4 white cloud mountain minnows? these dont need warm water and are quite resilient too.

I had Guppies in a tank without a heater for a while, they seemed ok with it. the tank wold have to be somwhere out of reach tho, coz i remember when i was a little kid, i decided that my mums goldfish needed a bath....
(just so u no, i was 2 then!)

Or what about a pair or two of only male guppies? They are exceptionally brightly colored, animated and fun to watch. They feed happily at a few flakes, multiple times a day, so the children could feed them more than just once (with supervision) and there would be no extra guppie puppies to concern you!

A red and a blue and a leopard would be pretty. I have seen Tequilla Sunrise males, and lyretail males and all sorts of smashingly gorgeous males in the local PetSmart and PetCo.

the guppies sound nice. do they have them separated at the store though? I have no clue how to tell the 2 apart (i cant even tell my gf apart!)...they would be alright with out a heater?

Guppies are very easy to tell apart - the females are rather plain looking - they may have slightly colored tails, but most have a grey, yellow or brown body. The males on the other hand are super bright and pretty with every color of the rainbow possible - and spots and stripes......

Many breeders will only sell males of their special breeds so no one can reproduce them.

Find the reaaly bright, long tailed fish with brightly colored bodies. Most fish store people know the difference.

Erm... personaly i don't think you have alot of choices....
Maby a ADF (African dwarf frog)? Most tropicals do need heaters.
Umm i don't think neons would be great at all they need heaters and there very gentle fish...

i got them! i got 3 tequila sunrise guppy males. they didnt have any females, they said 'males only' but i looked anyways and they were all colored pretty bright. they also had ones will yellow tails but they werent as bright. the theme for the preschool is Sesame Street so they are called Elmo's fish. thanks for your help, guys!

Those are very pretty fishies, Chelsea!!!!! Remember that stress is the biggest killer of new guppies. Get them past the first week and they are virtually indestructible, though.

Tequilla Sunrise fish are supposedly a variety that the breeders want to keep a monopoly on, so they will only sell males - no females. No matter - you do not need 50 new fish every month (actually more - for the female babies all start producing soon, too!). Those fish should be bright, active, atrractive and easy to feed and watch for the kids.

You can even name one "Dorothy" and no child will know the difference!

LOL, isn't that the name of the goldfish in Elmo's World?

yep! i think they named them big bird, ernie and dorthy. not you you can tell them apart, though!!!