MSMHS Aquaculture

01/28/2025

😎 🪸

01/13/2025

Acros are getting ready for showtime....the CT Frag Farmers Market is right around the corner......

12/05/2024

Student Spotlight: Joel

Joel is a junior currently taking Aquaculture Resource Management. He works with his peers to maintain a tank of adult freshwater angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare. When the adults started mating and eventually laid eggs, Joel took the initiative to raise the fry.

As you can imagine, raising fish from eggs is very difficult. The odds are against you as the aquarist needs to battle water quality, nutrition, and aggression among other things. Joel took these challenges head on and spent an immense amount of time caring for the newly hatched fry. He maintained a clean tank, raised brine shrimp for their food and monitored the health of the population.

His dedication and commitment lead to nearly 100% success with his second batch of eggs. Without our dedicated students, we wouldn't be able to do amazing projects like this. Great Job Joel!

Stay tuned for more student projects....

11/07/2024

So proud to represent as the 2025 Teacher of the Year. Tonight I got to celebrate as a Connecticut Semi-Finalist with all the other district winners at the Bushnell Theater.

11/04/2024

....The word everyone talks about in reef keeping but no one wants to acknowledge. We picked up this frag of Goofy Homewrecker over three years ago and we are so happy with its progress. Growth is relative and takes time. Sit back, enjoy the microcosm you have created and let nature work.

🪸: Goofy Homewrecker Acropora
💡:
🧪:
🌊:

10/03/2024

Checking up on some acros before we leave for the Corals Of Fall Festival in Newtown, CT this Sunday. Our acros are super happy, healthy and chunky! Be sure to stop by and check us out.

And we will be bringing a few chunky pieces of Walt Disney, the coral everyone is always looking for. 😎

10/01/2024

Got the camera out to take some pictures of our freshwater friends and plants

1: Graptopetalum🌵-Alyssa Faulkner(‘26)
2: Neocaridina 🦐-Kelly Turley (‘25)
3: Rainbow Shiner🐟-Khalil Mercado (‘25)
4: Cherry Tom 🍅 Scarlett Colbath (‘26)

09/23/2024

Zoas on my mind...

Left Column: Rainbow Infusion, Mind Tricks, No Clue, Utter Chao
Right Column: King Midas, LSOH, GMK, Rastas

06/05/2024

Check out the different colored polyps on this grafted Montipora capricornis.

Many think that corals get their colors from the symbiotic zooxanthellae living inside of it. However, this isn't completely accurate. Zooxanthllae is predominantly brown in color, not fluorescent. Corals actually get their bright colors from fluorescent proteins that protect it and its symbionts from harmful UV rays, similar to sunscreen for humans. In aquariums, we use lights that excite the proteins and give us these saturated colors. We obviously have a lot more to learn about these amazing creatures and love the ability to look at them everyday in our tanks.

Lights:
Nutrients:
Camera:

05/30/2024

Stop by and pick up some aquacultured corals for your tank. We will be open this Saturday, June 1st from 10am-2pm.

Marine Science Magnet High School
130 Shennecossett Road
Groton, CT

05/30/2024

Keeping the hobby alive!

Three years ago, we established the MSMHS Aquaculture Scholarship. An award that goes to a student who has been an integral member of our aquaculture facility and has committed to studying marine science and/or aquaculture in college. To date, we have provided over $4000 in scholarship money to a number of deserving students.

Tonight, we awarded a $1,000 aquaculture scholarship to .camp.bell for her dedication to our school's aquaculture facility. She will continue her education at where we know she will be an amazing addition to their incredible program.

05/28/2024

We took a trip to today and got an amazing tour from the legend . It was great to see all of their beautiful tanks from both the front exhibit side and behind the scenes. If you haven't been to this aquarium, you should definitely make a trip. It was well worth it.

05/02/2024

GORCHEST! We’ve been looking really close at these spineless beasts and they are a very important/ overlooked part of the reef tank ecosystem. Shout out to all the Sponges 🧽, Annelids 🪱, Echinoderms ⭐️, Arthropods 🦐, And Mollusks 🦑🦪🐚. Without them I’d be doing way more work cleaning the tank 🫡.

Photos by Maddy Campbell-MSMHS Senior/ Future 🦅(sorry no true hawk emoji)

03/26/2024

We were so excited to have Connecticut Sea Grant come out and see our students in action. We love telling our story and promoting coral aquaculture! National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program LEARN
Marine Science Magnet High School

Students at the Marine Science Magnet High School of Southeastern CT learn how to grow marine ornamentals! Find out more in the latest installment in the CT Aquaculture Video Series: https://seagrant.uconn.edu/?p=11642

03/19/2024

For some reason these Acroporas are buds. Not sure why 💚💜

02/26/2024

Coral ID Contest

How well do you know your coral up close? Check out these shots of corals growing in our propagation tank and let us know what you think they are.

First person to comment below with the correct scientific names of all three, will win a limited edition MSMHS Aquaculture T-shirt that we will ship to you (within the US).

Oh yeah...Spelling Counts.....We are teachers, what would you expect 🤷

02/22/2024

Just a little heat to warm you up on this chilly Thursday.

02/16/2024

MSMHS Aquaculture will be at the Frag Farmers Market on March 2nd at EO Smith High School
-100% Aquacultured Coral
-Raised by our students and teachers
-Funds go to support education

We are located in the hallway right past the entrance. Be sure to stop by and check out the amazing corals grown by our students and faculty. All of our coral is aquacultured and we have had many of these strains in product for 5+ years