By Hector Delgado
Attention fellow Cholla students, have you seen the shark tank downstairs by the A pod recently? The shark has been missing now for about a week or two; what could be the reason for this? Could it be that it is just being moved and prepped for a larger tank? Could the shark have died? Can the shark be sick and be getting treated somewhere outside of school? No one seems to know what happened to the shark or where it may be.
Where is the shark? The tank is very dirty and looks almost abandoned, full of lots of green algae everywhere. The tank once contained the Cholla shark and Cholla puffer fish all at one time. Now the tank only has the puffer fish. So, the shark is gone; what happened, did the shark get too big for the tank, or is the shark deceased, from the reason being that the tank is very dirty and full of algae and get sick and die? Usually, algae is not harmful to fish or other animals in the tank, but some algae’s can be toxic and harmful; can this be a case of the harmful algae killing the shark if the shark is dead? Why hasn’t the puffer fish been moved out the tank? These are all questions that were asked by me to be answered by Ms. Hetschel, the marine biology teacher in charge of all the tanks and pond.
Following the interview and feedback from the answers that Ms. Hetschel gave me, the shark did indeed die. It was not due to the algae built up in the tank, but because the shark had a goiter. A goiter is where the neck swells and lumps up and basically closes. The main cause of this is an Iodine deficiency. So, it is a thyroid that continuously gets larger over time from trying to obtain all the iodine it can get. They tried treating the shark and putting iodine into its food but because of that the shark was eating less. Ms. Hetschel said that they tried to help the shark, but it had already been too late for the iodine to do what it was supposed to do. The lack of eating was meaning the more lack of iodine the shark was getting; so, this may have also played a role and been a part of the reason why the shark died. When I had asked about the algae problem if it was a part of the reason the shark died, Ms. Hetschel replied that the algae is actually good for the shark and good for the aquarium but, the reason why there was so much build up was because the shark was too big for its tank. The algae may not look good, but it is good for the tank. So now that we know what happened and the reason for the shark to be missing from the tank, will Cholla get another shark or not? What are your thoughts on the shark’s death, and do you think Cholla should get another shark?
Cholla Charger Network 