ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 27, 1996 TAG: 9612270023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HAMPTON (AP)
SOURCE: BOBBIE HARVILLE (NEWPORT NEWS) DAILY PRESS
They have names like Bonnie and Clyde, Homer and Marge and Fred and Wilma Flintstone. But the colorful creatures that hang out at Peninsula Marine Institute aren't desperadoes or cartoon characters.
They're angelfish, and they're helping teach students job skills and putting money back into the alternative school's coffers.
Seventeen-year-old Wesley Ferdon of Suffolk and others have almost become experts at rearing angelfish. ``The Manual of Fish Health'' is required reading, and water quality testing is done regularly on the 42 tanks that dot PMI's Aquaculture/Research Center.
The tanks contain hundreds of angelfish of varying size and colors from marble to gold to silver. ``We've got to clean out the tanks, clean the filters and we go around and feed them,'' Wesley says. ``It's a lot of labor but not hard work.''
The goal of the center is to train students in aquaculture and the pet trade, says Bill Check, marine science and aquaculture instructor. By the end of the course, students earn certification as marine and freshwater aquarists.
This is the first year for the fish farm at PMI, a private nonprofit center that provides rehabilitative services to teens 14 to 18 years old who have been in trouble with the law or at school. The average stay in the day program, which draws teens from across Hampton Roads, is six months before they return to their home schools or go out to get jobs.
David LeBlanc, PMI's executive director, says the aquaculture program is part of teaching teens to take responsibility. PMI also focuses on academics, sailing, scuba diving and other activities.
The aquaculture program teaches students more than how to raise fish, says Check, whom students call Capt. Bill because he also teaches seamanship.
``It teaches them chemistry, biology and physics,'' he says. ``They learn it in the classroom and come right over here and put it into practice.''
Eighteen-year-old Russell Vaughan of Denbigh also applies the knowledge at home. ``I've got two Oscars,'' he says - referring to the breed of fish, not the Hollywood statuettes. ``It helps me take care of my fish a little bit better.''
One thing he's learned is that the water has to be a certain pH, or acidity, level. ``We put baking soda in to neutralize the pH in the water,'' he says. ``If it's too high or too low, they won't be very happy.''
Students in the aquaculture program sold 300 angelfish in October, bringing in $105. The fish that have names, such as Fred and Wilma, are kept in pairs so they can breed. The fish lay up to 500 eggs each time they spawn.
``They start off like little tiny specks, then they get bigger,'' 17-year-old Byron Lewis of Suffolk explains, pointing to a tank full of black specks floating in azure water.
To simulate the conditions of the Amazon, the angelfish's native environment, the room must be kept at a temperature between 76 and 80 degrees.
``This is like the kindergarten and intermediate, and these are big time,'' Byron says, pointing to a row of tanks in the center of the room, each containing fish of varying size. The last is a tank full of quarter-sized fish that are ready to sell to pet stores in Denbigh and Hampton.
Many of the students will leave the program with marketable skills, says Check. For Byron, it has helped him decide that he wants to be a marine scientist.
``This program helped put me over the hill on that idea,'' he says. ``It helped me make up my mind.''
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Quenton Harris watches Fred, one of the angelfishby CNBhis aquaculture class keeps for breeding. Students sold 300
angelfish in October, bringing in $105. 2. Bill Check, aquaculture
instructor, supervises students cleaning tanks for the angelfish the
class raises.