Houdini the snail!

So today one of our snails earned his name, Houdini.

Room 10 boasts a super duper fish tank. You can see it above. We have 5 Minnow fish, 1 orange fantail fish (Brocky), 1 white fantail fish (Alby), 1 giant apple snail (Cecil), 3 baby apple snails, and 2 black mystery snails.

Yesterday, when I (Miss O'Neill) got to school, I glanced inside the fish tank and performed the obligatory quick head count, I discovered that one of the black mystery snails was missing! What a mystery (excuse the pun!)! I found the snail lying on top of the air pump (which sits down behind the fish tank). The snail was rather dry and I immediately thought the worst. Something in me, however, decided to put him into a jar of water and "wait and see".

After school I looked at the jar and was amazed to see the snail busy slithering along the side of the jar - awesome! Back into the fish tank he went. I thought that would be the end of the story...

This morning, I arrived at school and, again, I checked the fish tank. One black mystery snail AWOL again! He was not lying on the air pump, not crawling up the whiteboard, not slitering down the table leg, not lying on the ground....hmmm! After quite a bit of hunting...I finally found him! He was lying in the rubbish bin (which sits underneath the fish tank table) and again...I thought the worst. However, I put him back into the jar of water and put it on my desk.

Later in the day Room 10 and I checked the snail and it was alive. So back into the fish tank he went. Yay! We have decided to call him Houdini - named after the famous Harry Houdini the escape artist.

Something needed to be done though. I can't be hunting for a snail each time I come to school. Our fish tank has a glass cover on top, but along the back there is a gap due to our water filter. After chatting to one of school cleaners, Keith, it was decided to celotape a plastic ruler over the top of the gap. Brilliant! The ruler fits perfectly...and hopefully there will be no more escapes from Houdini!