The Jones Aquarium Club intends to repurpose the school’s unused fish tanks and distribute them amongst department heads to place in classrooms.

“We have all of these tanks that are sitting in the library with no purpose,” said Aquarium Club co-president Tallula True ‘23. 

The club’s focus has been directed towards getting the tanks prepared and ready for the school community. 

“We just want to get stuff into classrooms and in less public spaces. We would like to get some more into ACES classrooms,” said Aquarium Club Co-President Stella Riley ‘23.

The club’s sponsor, Manny Onate ‘76, provides most of the fish and tools for the tanks, allowing the club to have easy access to fish. 

“We pretty much have free access to fish. We have a really awesome sponsor who used to work at the Shedd [Aquarium],” said True. 

Bringing a project of this magnitude to life required a lot of hard work from club members. 

“We are working as fast as possible to get fish that need homes to tanks,” said Riley. “It is an ongoing project that has to be constantly updated.”

There are a number of tanks already in use, including one cared for by Francis Feeley, school librarian and another club sponsor. 

“We have three tanks that are currently operational. One in the library, that’s Mr. Feeley’s, and one in the cafeteria that has Cardinal fish and plants. The third one is in room 3011,” said True.

Alongside these already functioning tanks, students and teachers can expect to see more in their classroom spaces. 

“Every department should get at least one tank, possibly two, and then hopefully more throughout the year,” said Riley.

The tanks will be given to department heads, but they are not obliged to keep the tanks for their own classrooms. 

 “I would love to have a tank in my space,” said Social Studies Department Head Cathleen Martin said.

The Aquarium Club hopes to liven up learning spaces with these tanks. 

“Tanks would brighten people’s days. It’s a living, breathing creature in your classroom. I think it would be really cool,” said True.

The club reports that faculty members have shown an overall positive response for these future developments. 

“There are so many classrooms in the school [where] teachers would love to have fish,” Riley said. “We have already had so many people coming up to us and asking.”

The members of the club would account for certain tasks regarding the upkeep of the tanks, but the responsibility does not have to be limited to just them. 

“[We] need to do 20% water changes and feed them once or twice a day,” said True. “But if the teacher was willing, we are totally welcome to them getting involved.”

Despite the work involved, this addition to the community certainly seems to excite Jones staff and students alike. 

“I don’t know that teachers have a lot of time, but we would totally take responsibility,” said Martin. “I love it.”