♪ We're off to the forest to see Miss Jean ♪ ♪ She lives in a house that is mostly green ♪ ♪ Except for the chimney and windows and walls ♪ ♪ And one or two places just down the halls ♪ ♪ And swim with rabbits and newts and snails ♪ ♪ And pat little puppies that wag their tails ♪ ♪ And a whale and a tiger and elephants too ♪ - [Child] Well, maybe not elephants.

- Hi.

Do you like to watch fish and other animals that live in the water?

I do too.

And sometimes it's pretty hard, isn't it?

Unless you're a deep sea diver and go down deep in the water and see all the things moving around.

So where's a good place to watch fish?

I bet you know.

What do you think, David?

Where's a good place to go?

- The ocean?

- [Miss Jean] In the ocean is one good place but sometimes you have trouble seeing way down into the ocean.

- An aquarium.

- An aquarium, right.

An aquarium is sort of like a miniature ocean or a miniature pond.

Have you ever had an aquarium?

- [David] Yeah, but not salt water.

- Not salt water.

So what kind of aquarium did you have?

- [Karen] Regular.

- [Miss Jean] Regular water or fresh water.

- Or tropical.

- Or tropical, well, there all kinds you can make.

You can just go down to the pond and get a jar full of water and put some tadpoles in- - Maybe a Dragonfly.

- Or you could get minnows.

- [Child] Goldfish?

- Goldfish, or if you want to have tropical fish, some of them live in warm, fresh water.

And you have to keep the temperature up.

But a saltwater aquarium, you have to make the water just like ocean water.

And that's a little different and a little more complicated but you also can have very beautiful animals.

I invited a friend of mine to come today and show us some of his salt water animals and how to set up a salt water aquarium.

So we'll find out about that in a couple of minutes.

But I thought you'd like to see these fish.

Now, you know these aren't real fish, but they're brightly colored like some of the fish in the ocean.

Can you tell what they're made out of, Karen?

- [Karen] Well, ribbon?

- [Miss Jean] Ribbon, right.

This is a special kind of ribbon.

This pink fish is made from a special kind of ribbon that comes from Japan.

And one of my Japanese friends name Mitsumi Ishida.

Does that sound like a Japanese name?

Mitsumi Ishida just brought these to me today all the way from Philadelphia.

And this, she made out of ribbon from Japan and this one she made out of ribbon from Philadelphia.

But they both look like really fancy fish and they have little strings on that are invisible and you can hang them up and make them mobile out of them.

- [Child] You didn't get it.

- Well, I might do that later.

I'm still thinking what to do with them.

But my friend, Mr.

Spelman doesn't have any pink fish at the discovery table or any green fish, but he has lots of other colors you'll be surprised at.

And Aurora, are you ready to go over Mr.

Spelman?

Okay, let's go.

♪ ♪ Hi, Mr.

Spelman, I'm certainly glad you could make it with all your friends to Hodge Podge Lodge today.

And these are my friends, Karen and David.

- Hi, how are you.

- And I'm sure they have lots of things that they would like to ask you.

- What would you like to know about these fish?

- Are these electric eels right here?

- No, that's not an electric eel.

That's called a blue and yellow ribbon eel.

That's quite a creature there.

You can get a closer look at him if I bring him forward a little bit.

You see that face on him?

He looks like a piece of ribbon, unlike the other fish are made out of.

And right behind him, there is a hermit crab.

Just like this one, right over here.

Let me see...okay.

And this ribbon eel is a very expensive saltwater creature.

How much do you think he would cost?

- [David] $22?

- [Mr.

Spelman] 22$?

Well, would you like to try a little bit higher than that?

- About 500?

- No, not quite that much.

- 400?

- That fish costs $40, that eel, that's right.

That's very expensive.

- [Miss Jean] Where does he come from?

- [Mr.

Spelman] This particular eel comes out of the orient or around the Philippines.

- [Miss Jean] Oh my goodness.

- [Mr.

Spelman] And it's a long distance.

It's about 14,000 miles.

And they have to come in a little bag of water and hopefully they make it in real nice shape like this one is right here.

- [Miss Jean] Does he always see these mouth open?

- [Mr.

Spelman] This one always keeps his mouth open.

Now, the reason why they do this is to try to scare off any larger fish that might come after them.

Because a lot of creatures in the sea have to have some means of protecting themselves.

And you see your hermit crab, right here, has a shell to protect himself from other fish.

Your sea horses here have a tough skeleton that helps to protect them against other fish.

- [Miss Jean] Can we get a close look at a seahorse?

- [Mr.

Spelman] At a seahorse?

I think the seahorse will be very cooperative and come right out here.

- [Miss Jean] They're so dark.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Normally, you see the seahorses as dried creatures in a store, but now these are very much alive as you can see, and they will swim around.

Your seahorses live around very shallow areas, very close to shore.

And they will attach themselves on to just about anything that they can get close to.

- [Miss Jean] Oh, he's pinching right on to the hermit crab.

Children, do you understand about hermit crabs?

That that's who's shell he's living in?

- [Child] Yeah.

- [Miss Jean] What kind of shell?

Is it his?

Is it a crab shell?

- That's a snail shell.

- A snail shell, right.

- [Mr.

Spelman] That's a snail shell.

That's correct.

Speaking of snails, I'll show you one thing that is a very large snail.

Now of course you don't see many hermit crabs that can live in anything of this nature right here.

But this is what kind of shell do you think?

Do you know the name of this?

- Coil?

- No, no.

- [Miss Jean] You got the right letter to start with, hasn't she?

- [Mr.

Spelman] That's the right letter, it begins with a C and it is a large snail.

It's called a conch snail.

And this is a conch shell.

Of course, the living creature is no longer in here.

- [Miss Jean] Could they feel that?

- Sure.

- That's so beautiful.

- Smooth.

- It's very pretty.

- [Miss Jean] And satin-y.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Now, believe it or not, the area that these come from, the people like to eat these.

They're a delicacy and I've eaten some of these myself, believe it or not.

And they call them "conch fritters."

- [Child] Oh, you mean the thing?

- [Mr.

Spelman] The snail that lives in there, right?

That's very good.

- I have some snails.

- Are the snails rare?

- The snails aren't very rare, no.

There's a lot of these.

Some snails are rare, this one is fairly common.

Very interesting.

- There are a lot of different kinds of conchs, aren't there?

- There are a lot of different types of conch.

- [David] I have one like that, but it's much smaller.

- [Miss Jean] We have some like that in Maryland that are, a lot of people call them conchs with they're really whelks.

- [Mr.

Spelman] That's right, that's correct.

A lot of the times at Ocean City you may see some of those.

You can collect them on the beach.

- [Miss Jean] Can we look at this funny creature here with the blue eyes?

- [Mr.

Spelman] This, right here has a very strange name.

This is called a "porcupine fish" and you can see the eyes how he can look any direction that he pleases.

He has almost a greenish or bluish tint to his eyes.

Now, when this fish is scared, you see these small spines on him?

He has spines all over him.

Now he will blow himself up to about twice his normal size and this scares any other fish from trying to eat him.

And of course, it's just like with a porcupine, a real life porcupine.

If a larger animal tries to eat the large porcupine he gets a lot of quills and spines in his mouth.

So they don't like to eat these too often.

- [David] Could you scare it now?

- [Mr.

Spelman] Well, I tell you I could scare him but they don't like to be scared too often.

And I'm afraid that he would get very frightened in this small container.

- [Miss Jean] What does he eat?

- This porcupine fish right here is as rather a hog.

He will eat just about anything that he can get hold of.

a little bit earlier, we saw where the porcupine fish tried to eat our starfish here.

So we had to remove the porcupine fish out of the tank.

And here's our starfish in the back, if I can get him out here.

- [Miss Jean] Children, do you know what starfish can do if they accidentally lose a piece of an arm to a porcupine fish or some other enemy?

What's one thing they can do?

- [Karen] It'll grow back.

- [Miss Jean] Right.

We can't grow a new arm.

- [Mr.

Spelman] That's right, it's a little... - [Miss Jean] Is he all tangled up?

- [Mr.

Spelman] The starfish is all tangled up.

He feels at home around this eel but you can get a pretty good look at him right here.

Now you see, this is a little bit different starfish than the type you're used to seeing.

- [Miss Jean] Oh, he's beautiful.

- [Mr.

Spelman] This is very pretty.

And he is called a "bristle starfish."

You can see all these bristles on him now.

- [Miss Jean] Where is he from?

- [Mr.

Spelman] This starfish is also from the Philippines.

Now, of course, the ones that you probably are used to seeing are the ones that come out of the Atlantic ocean and they have much wider and thicker arms to them.

- [David] Can the porcupine fish scare like a shark or anything away?

- [Mr.

Spelman] Well, some of the porcupine fish get very large, you'd be surprised.

Some of them get up over a foot in length.

I've seen some very, very large ones.

And I don't know if they could scare a shark but I don't think that a shark would try to eat one.

I'll tell you that.

- [Karen] It would hurt.

- [Mr.

Spelman] It would probably hurt.

So I think the sharks probably leave them alone.

- [David] That blue fish seems like a different kind, very smooth like the yellow fish.

- [Mr.

Spelman] The blue fish is a very beautiful fish and looks as if he were painted, actually.

This is one of the... - [Karen] Looks fluorescent.

- [Mr.

Spelman] It does look fluorescent.

In fact, when the lights are shining on this fish, he is very blue, bright blue with a yellow tail.

- [Miss Jean] And he's flat.

- [Mr.

Spelman] And he's very flat too.

But, you know, most fishes aren't that flat, they're wide.

But this particular fish is very flat and long.

Now he would like to hide in the coral, if he could.

This is where you usually find them.

They will try to hide in a piece of coral.

In fact, I have a type of coral here that they like to hide in.

And this is a very beautiful type right here.

Now they will actually wedge themselves right into that coral in case any other fish is after them.

Because you see, most of these fishes live near what's called a coral reef.

And if you touch that, you can feel how very sharp it is.

Now, these coral reef fish have very, very tightly compacted scales.

You know what scales look like?

Have you ever seen a fish scale?

- [David] The little things like that.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Right.

Okay.

Your coral fish aren't harmed by the coral at all.

They can swim right into there and they do very, very nicely.

Of course, he's actually easing himself over towards that piece of coral, even though it's not in the water.

You see that?

He's actually, sees that coral and he can maneuver very, very nicely.

- [Miss Jean] He thinks, he's back home.

- [Mr.

Spelman] That's right.

- [Miss Jean] What's he called?

- [Mr.

Spelman] That is called a "blue tang."

- [Miss Jean] Blue tang... - [Mr.

Spelman] Very beautiful fish.

Now, right... - [Karen] He swims like the yellow fish, he... - [Mr.

Spelman] He's very frightened at the moment.

- [Miss Jean] He is trying to hide.

- He's trying to hide.

- [Miss Jean] But you very kindly took all the hiding places out so we could get a better look at them.

Maybe you better tell the children about setting up, whether you would have all these fish in one aquarium or.

- Okay.

Normally, normally in an aquarium of this size, you wouldn't put this many creatures in there.

You would have maybe half this particular number.

The reason being that if they're too crowded they're not really very happy.

You only want to, especially in this size tank, only three or four specimens, particularly of this size.

When they are very crowded, they may get to fighting amongst themselves.

So you can't have that.

Normally, in a tank of this size also, you would have about three or four pieces of coral, just like we have, just like we just showed you that you could put in the tank which would give them some protection, someplace to hide.

- [Karen] It does take up room, though.

- [Mr.

Spelman] It does take up room, that's correct.

- [Miss Jean] But it makes it look nice too, you know.

You want to make it look like a bit of scenery where they came from.

- [Mr.

Spelman] It's pretty.

In fact, there are so many different types of coral.

One of the major and most fun things to do with the coral is to decorate the tank.

I can show you here's one type of piece of coral.

And I might ask you what that looks like?

- A fossil?

- A muscle?

Which muscle?

- A fossil he said.

- Fossil?

- A flower.

- [Mr.

Spelman] It looks like a type of flower.

In fact, the living coral looks very much like a flower.

This is called "brain coral."

And this is very heavy and it looks actually like a human brain.

So this is one of the rare and exotic pieces of coral that you don't see very often.

It's very pretty.

And of course, in the tank itself, it would be very nice looking.

- [Miss Jean] Children, do you think Mr.

Spelman knows a lot?

- [David] Yeah.

- [Karen] Could you tell us about the yellow fish?

- [Miss Jean] Well, let's find out how he got to be so knowledgeable and then he'll tell us about them all before he goes, don't worry.

(laughs) - Well, several years ago I was at a school fair and they had a ping pong throw.

Have you ever seen those?

Where you throw a ping pong in a jar?

and you see these at most of school fairs and there's a lot of them.

And at any rate, I was down to about my last nickel and I went and I threw the last ball that I had into a little jar.

And it landed right in the jar.

And I won the goldfish.

Well, from that point I got very interested in keeping these fish.

And now I've been working in this, around these aquariums for about 11 years.

- [Miss Jean] Do you work in a store?

And you own the store?

- [Mr.

Spelman] I work in a store.

I manage a store called "Sea Breeze Aquarium."

- Sea Breeze.

- Right.

- [Miss Jean] You can go and see lots more.

- We have about 50 aquariums with all of these types of fishes.

We have several thousand of these.

And if you can imagine that.

And these, this is just a small sample of the many types.

Now, you had asked me before what this yellow fish is.

Well, this yellow fish here is sort of a kissing cousin to the blue fish you might say.

Have you ever heard of the breakfast drink called "Tang?"

Well, this is called a "yellow tang."

Now he's very frightened, of course.

And I'm... - [Karen] Is he a kissing fish?

- [Mr.

Spelman] Looks like a kissing fish, if you know what a kissing fish is.

He looks very much like kissing fish.

- [David] I thought it was called a "sunfish."

- Could we get him out in this little individual case?

- I think we can take him out and put him in a small case.

- He is moving very lively.

- This is one of the prettiest fish you'll ever find and we'll put him right here if we can catch him.

And of course, he's going to try to get away.

- A different way of going fishing.

- That's right.

That's right.

Let's see now, chase him all around here.

And we might just take the hermit crab ride along with him.

There he is.

- [Miss Jean] I see you have years of experience.

- [Mr.

Spelman] He likes to splash quite a bit.

Now there he is.

Now you can get a very, very close look at him this way.

And you can see how very pretty this fish is.

- [David] He looks a little cramped.

- [Mr.

Spelman] He is a little cramped.

He wouldn't like to stay in here very long.

- [Miss Jean] He's certainly a strange shape with that long nose and I guess that he lives in the coral reef too?

- This fish lives in the coral reefs.

And in fact, he is very narrow, like the other fish and not very wide.

And he can fit right in amongst the coral very, very well.

- He doesn't look very happy, let's put him back.

- Now, I think we'll put him back in there because he likes to swim around with the other ones, I believe.

- What are the important things to keep in mind when you want to start from scratch on a?

- Well, when you're just starting out with a salt water aquarium, you have to be a little bit patient when you begin.

You can't just go and take all these types of fish which are rather exotic and throw them right into a tank.

Your best bet is to set your tank up and let the tank run for about a week.

And then you take some inexpensive little fish and put them in the tank and let them stay in there for a couple of weeks.

After this time you can add some of these rarer fish.

Now most of these fish in here for instance costs in the neighborhood of $20, but we have an awful lot of fish that are a lot less expensive, that are about 5.95 each which is not cheap, - [Child] It's pretty.

- but they're very beautiful.

They're very beautiful.

- [Miss Jean] But you want to be sure you've got your aquarium right before you put any fish in there.

- That's right.

- What makes it salty?

- I have something here that I can show you that looks almost like table salt, right here, if you look at that.

It's not really table salt.

It's a mixture of other ingredients that you'll find in the ocean.

And of course this makes up the same type of sea water, if you ever go swimming in the ocean and you can taste the salt that's in the ocean, this is what makes the water very salty.

Now one bag this size, this is three pounds, will make up about 10 gallons of water.

And this is 10 gallons right here.

So you can see there's an awful lot of salt in that water, a tremendous amount.

Now, besides the salt, we have to be concerned with a little device that checks how much salt is in the water.

Now this is a rather important little device.

This is called a "hydrometer," okay?

This is the same thing that your father uses when he gets his antifreeze checked.

Now with this, we can put this right into the water and we can check exactly how much salt is in there.

If this were floating in fresh water, it would sink to the bottom.

But since it's in saltwater, it will actually float right up the top there.

(Karen speaks indistinctly) - Well, right.

Okay.

There's a little x-ed reading here and that's 1020 to 1025, okay.

And that's where we'd like to keep what's called "the density of the water."

And the density means how much salt is put in the water.

If you put twice as much of this salt in the water what do you think would happen?

- [Karen] The fish would get too much salt.

- [Mr.

Spelman] The fish would get too much salt, exactly.

The water would be too salty.

So you have to put the right amount of salt in.

And this is the way, we check that out.

Now, do you know the areas of the world that these fish come from?

- [Karen] Well, probably the ocean?

-[Mr.

Spelman] From the oceans... - [Karen] Way down.

- [Mr.

Spelman] How?

What areas do you think they come from?

What countries can you think of?

- [David] Florida?

- [Mr.

Spelman] Florida, that's very good.

- [Karen] Japan.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Japan.

Some of these in fact are from very close to Japan in the Philippine Islands and our seahorses here, we have some seahorses that live around Florida and we have some that come from Hawaii and all over.

- [Karen] The Pacific?

- From the Pacific, right.

- The Indian Ocean?

- [Mr.

Spelman] From the Indian ocean too, that's right.

Now you have to remember one thing, these fish live in what are called tropical areas.

Now, when you hear the word tropical fish that means they live in warm water.

That's very good.

Very good.

How do you think we keep that water warm?

- [Karen] Just keep it room temperature, like 70.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Room temperature.

Suppose the temperature gets very cold at night, say, in the winter, what do you do then?

- [Karen] You have to warm it, you have to put a heater in.

- A heater, okay.

Well, here's a little heater that we have and this helps to keep the temperature warm.

I can just show you this.

This is very easy to use.

And this just sits right in the water basically.

And you can see what that looks like right there.

Okay?

- And something's making bubbles.

- We have a little pump that pumps air.

Okay.

And that air is pumped through a piece of tubing right here.

This is called "airline tubing" and it will pump air all the way through this long tube and back.

And it gives it an effect of looking like water is moving.

And of course the fish has to breathe just like we do.

So they breathe the air in from the circulation of the water.

- How about that one over there by David?

I think it's special.

Why you have that one in a separate... -[Mr.

Spelman] Oh, this is an interesting story.

This fish right here is called a "lionfish."

- [Miss Jean] Can you move it out in front?

- [Mr.

Spelman] I sure can.

We have to move this one very carefully and I'll tell you why.

This is called a "lionfish" or a "turkey fish" and it is very poisonous.

Now, if you look on the top back of the fish you see those spines that are sticking up there?

Okay.

If you were to touch those spines right there you would have a very, very painful wound.

Okay.

And there's poison in those spines.

So when we handle these, we really have to be very careful with them.

This is not the type of fish that you want to take out with your bare hands, I'll tell you that.

- [Miss Jean] Where does he come from?

- This particular specimen comes from the Philippine Islands and we get we get quite a few of these and they're very popular because they're so interesting looking.

- [Miss Jean] Is he hiding around back here?

He'll probably move.

- So pretty.

- Isn't he beautiful?

Now this way you can see him looking right over there towards you - [Miss Jean] And does he remind you of anything of a lion?

- [David] Not much.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Well, they're called lionfish because those fins look like the lion's mane, you say.

- [Miss Jean] Do they poison their prey, other fish to eat or is the poison for protection?

- These generally don't try to poison any other fish.

They use it much like the porcupine uses his spines.

They use that as a protection.

And if another fish comes near them, they take those spines and they jut them forward.

And the other fish knows better than to try to eat this thing.

'Cause he doesn't want a mouth full of spines.

- His back tail has a motion.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Yes it does.

The back tail is almost always moving, if you notice.

These like to sit still though, they're not a swimmer, like a lot of these other fish.

They like to sit on a piece of coral head and they wait for their food to come swimming by.

And then nothing much bothers them very well.

- [Karen] They sting them?

- [Mr.

Spelman] Well, they can stay in the other ones but basically they they'll just take one big bite and that's about it.

- [Miss Jean] Are all these fish full grown, the size?

- [Mr.

Spelman] These...a lot of these fish, surprisingly are just babies.

Now this, the lionfish that we just saw for instance, will sometimes get very large sometimes over a foot in length, which is extremely big.

And you have to be very careful if you're swimming around the coral reef not to step on them or swim into them.

And this, now I have one of these fish at home in an aquarium.

You see this fish with the polka dots right here?

- I was going to ask you about that one.

- [Mr.

Spelman] That's an interesting fish and that fish right there will get extremely large, extremely large.

He will get about two feet, at least.

- [David] Huge.

He must be a baby.

- [Miss Jean] He can come out, what's he called?

- [Mr.

Spelman] What do you think, what sort of name do you think he would have with all those polka dots?

Can you think of a name?

- Zebra?

- No that would be with stripes.

- Polka fish?

- With polka dots.

- Polka dot fish?

- Polka, okay.

That's very close.

He's in a family of fish called "groupers."

Okay.

Almost all of which get very large.

This is called a "polka dot grouper" or a "panther fish."

Have you ever seen a panther?

You know what a panther looks like?

It has spots... - A leopard.

- [Mr.

Spelman] A leopard, there are some fish called "leopard."

This is a panther.

A lot of these fish are named for things that they look like.

For instance, your little seahorse that's right next to the panther there... - Looks like a horse.

- Looks like a horse's head.

And he was named the seahorse because it looks like a horse that swims in the sea.

- [Miss Jean] Is there anything we've missed in here?

I think there's one little bright one that's... - [Karen] Does he do anything unusual to protect himself?

- [Mr.

Spelman] The thing with the panthers is that they get so large that in itself is protection for them.

And they like to hide down in the caves and dark areas.

He's not very comfortable being in this net here because he gets very excited.

- [Miss Jean] Who's that?

Oh my, they all.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Oh my, we have a whole group of them... A whole group of them in the net now.

- [Miss Jean] I really wanted to look at the pretty orange one.

- [Mr.

Spelman] This orange fish right here that we have in the net is called a "clown fish."

And there are a whole lot of different little "clown fish."

- [Miss Jean] She has those blue stripe on his face?

- [Mr.

Spelman] It has as a bluish stripe on his face.

This is a very, very pretty fish.

A lot of times, you'll see a whole lot of these living together.

You might see 50... - A school?

- ...or a hundred of them living in a school together, very close.

- Can you turn him around?

- [Mr.

Spelman] They're very, very beautiful.

If you can get a better look at him.

He's hiding his face in the net.

- [David] He's shy.

- [Mr.

Spelman] He is shy.

He is shy.

So we'll just let him stay back there and let him find his way out.

- [Miss Jean] Find his way out.

Looks like it got stuck in a corner of the net.

- [Mr.

Spelman] That's fine.

- [Miss Jean] Well, children, do you think you're all inspired to go home and save your pennies?

(laughs) How much of an investment does it take to just start out with the basic things?

- [Mr.

Spelman] A tank this size you can get started for between 40 and $50.

And that's everything that you need, you would get your pump and your filter and your salt that recreates the ocean water fairly closely.

- And a couple fish.

- And a light and a couple of fish.

That's right.

And the best way is to start off with just a couple of fish that don't cost too much to begin with.

- [Miss Jean] Aurora, what do you think of all these beautiful creatures?

Aw, he must have a fin caught in there.

- [Mr.

Spelman] I think he has a fin caught in there.

We can- - [Miss Jean] Aurora's toenails are always getting caught in my sweaters too.

- [Mr.

Spelman] That's right.

That's right.

- [Miss Jean] Everybody has their problems.

Well, that certainly is a beautiful collection.

- [Karen] Does the orange fish protect himself?

- The orange fish protects himself, I don't know if you've ever heard of a little animal called a "sea anemone?"

Have you ever heard of one of those?

- No.

- Yeah.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Okay.

A sea anemone is a little type of animal that looks like a jellyfish.

- [Miss Jean] Or sometimes like a flower.

- Mm-hmm, almost like a flower.

And they live right in there and the sea anemones will sting any other fish that comes near them except for the clown fish.

So if the clown fish sees another fish beginning to gobble him up or come after him he quickly dives into that sea anemone.

And in fact, we have an aquarium where I work with a whole tank full of sea anemones and clown fish and you can see that very thing.

- [David] Why does it let the clown fish in there?

Why don't they sting him?

- [Mr.

Spelman] He doesn't sting the clown fish and nobody is quite sure why.

There are a couple of ideas, - [Miss Jean] Just one of those things.

- [Mr.

Spelman] But they live together and they seem to be very good friends.

- [Miss Jean] Nature is full of little surprises like that but the animals have worked out various adaptations.

Which do you like best, Karen, of all these things we have here in the tank?

- He's getting stucker.

- [Miss Jean] Which one do you think is the prettiest or the most interesting?

The lion.

- That.

- The lionfish.

- How about you, David?

- All of them!

- All of them.

That's what I like to hear.

- [Miss Jean] David's gotta save a lot of money.

- That's right.

You're going to have to save an awful lot.

- [Miss Jean] Thank you very much for coming, Mr.

Spelman.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Thank you.

- [Miss Jean] It's been fascinating.

You really have been learning a lot, I'm sure on the job.

- [Mr.

Spelman] Oh yes.

- [Miss Jean] And probably in practice.

And all from one little goldfish.

- [Mr.

Spelman] How about that?

- [Miss Jean] I'm glad you could come to Hodge Podge Lodge today.

And meet Bob Spelman and join Karen and David and me in finding out about how to start a saltwater aquarium.

And I hope you have a chance to see one and maybe even start your own.

Remember, you need the salt, and the tank, and sand and... - Coral.

- [Miss Jean] And a little heat, right, and coral.

(laughs) Have fun with fish, and see you next time.

(gentle music) ♪ ♪ - [Announcer] This program was made possible through funds contributed by members of The Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting.

(gentle music) (horns blowing fanfare) Pre-recorded in the studios in The Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting.