On Friday, Apr. 12, social studies teacher Ryan Maggid clocked out for the weekend, locked the door to room 201, and turned off the lights on a small tank with four mosquitofish and a smattering of snails. 

Two months prior, Maggid had acquired the tank for the room from the Aquarium Club.

“We started setting them up around the beginning of the year, and we weren’t planning to do it so quickly, but people were very interested,” said Aundrey Bangall, head of the Aquarium Club. 

The tanks were immediately popular amongst other teachers. 

“I saw the [fish tanks] in Mr. Smith and Mr. Kovacs’ rooms and I wanted one for my own,” said Maggid. “I reached out to Audrey Bagnall from the Aquarium Club and eventually the fish showed up.”

The snails appeared later but didn’t seem to disturb the ecosystem. 

“Roughly three of these snails popped up a month ago, and I was pretty happy,” said Maggid. 

Snails eat algae off the sides of the tank, and most likely migrated from the north cafeteria tank. 

“That tank has a bit of an overrun of a snail population,” said Bagnall, head of the Aquarium Club. “When we relocate fish, like when we made Maggid’s tank, sometimes we get hitchhikers.” 

Upon arriving back to school from the weekend, Maggid went to feed the fish. 

“I went to feed them first thing in the morning and immediately noticed there were only three mosquitofish, and that was strange–I looked around for the body and it’s nowhere to be found,” said Maggid.

Sometimes dead fish can get stuck in the vent that cleans the tank, but upon checking, the missing fish wasn’t there. 

“Eventually I noticed this little shrimp crawling around on the fake seaweed in the tank,” said Maggid. 

AP U.S. History (APUSH) teacher Jonathan Smith shared his reaction to the disappearance and arrival of the shrimp on April 13th, a day later.

“I know the snails have been multiplying, but I’ve got no idea where the shrimp came from–I’m curious to find out,” said Smith. 

Bagnall said she suspects cannibalism on the part of the missing mosquitofish, adding “it’s quite common in the fish community when they get greedy.”

“I honestly have no clue how that shrimp got there,” she said. “I would guess hitchhiker, but I was there when we transferred the fish and there was nothing in there.”

As time passes, perhaps more details of what happened to the mosquitofish, and why the shrimp appeared, will reveal themselves. 

“Maybe more mosquitofish will go missing and more shrimp will appear,” said Maggid. “If that’s what’s happening, I think it means the mosquitofish are becoming freshwater shrimp. Possibly some kind of alien thing.”