Recently, Touch-Tank saw the most fascinating email. The message was from, Heather Stapleton, the Education Coordinator of the Environmental Learning Center (ELC) in Vero Beach, Florida regarding their new acrylic fish aquarium made by Marine Ecological Habitats of Biddeford, Maine.
THIS IS GREAT!!!….from”_” a ELC touch tank volunteer,
Without the ELC I probably wouldn’t love the environment and I would not have had the chance to experience some of the things.
Ever since the touch tank opened it really opened my eyes to how much I love marine life. Without getting to volunteer I could not have had the opportunity to get to know everything that’s in the ELC like the sea hare.
I have always loved being outside and nature but I thought I would want to be a doctor but now I want to a biologist. The ELC has helped me realize something that I love and want to continue with it in the future.
The good news is that the ELC offers education programs for students some 
of which include lessons about the creatures who live in ELC’s new acrylic fish aquarium. The formal programs fill up quickly, so have your teacher contact Heather, the Education Coordinator at the ELC, at 772-589-5050 or heather@DiscoverELC.org for more information.
The ELC offers an elevated boardwalk system meandering through a mangrove forest, a Wet Lab with loads of touchable exhibits and aquaria with marine life, a Dry Lab with more exhibits, a pre-school play area, interactive computers, native plant gardens, picnic pavilions and more.
For a great educational experience stop by the ELC of Vero Beach, and to get the most from your visit, purchase the Trek & Tracks field guide in the Entry Pavilion.
Remember to stop by ELC’s newest attraction, a new L shaped marine tank that they purchased with help from a Touch Tanks for Kids Grant.
The July Touch Tank Schedule at the ELC
Sat July 10: 10a – 12p
Sun July 11: 2p – 4p
Sat July 17: 10a – 12p
Sun July 18: 2p – 4p
Sat July 24: 10a – 12p
Sun July 25: 2p – 4p
For more information, check out the PROGRAM SCHEDULE and THE ELC CAMPUS pages on the Environmental Learning Center website, AND when you visit, tell them what you think about the new acrylic fish aquarium.
This site is created and maintained by Shannon Mae Development, Inc.
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A horseshoe crab makes a nice resident for your marine aquariums. Touch-Tank caught up with Coastal Carol an expert in intertidal exploration to learn more about the horseshoe crabs that have survived for over 250 million years. The video depicts some of what we learned about the horseshoe crab.
Contact Touch Tanks for Kids to bring an interactive aquarium experience to your students. They will learn more when observing a horseshoe crab molt and mature. Grants available!
Caution:
Handle with care; you can pinch your fingers between the two parts of the shell.
Mating
Each spring during the high tides of the new and full moons, horseshoe crabs come to the sandy shorelines to spawn. They lay there green eggs in sand and depend on waves to wash the sand over the nest.
Males are generally smaller than their mates. They cluster along the water’s edge and wait patiently for the females to arrive. The male attaches to the female’s shell with glove-like claws and awaits high tide. He fertilizes the eggs when he is pulled over the nest where the female deposit as many as 20,000 green eggs in sand. After the spring ritual is over, they return to the deeper waters of the ocean.
Horseshoe Crab Facts
They are not really crabs 
They are related to scorpions, ticks and spiders
They have their own classification (Class Merostomata)
Their blood is blue
They are not dangerous
They are found along the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to the Yucatan with another three species living in the coastal waters from Japan to Indonesia
They can go a year without eating
Their hard, curved shells protect them from predators.
They endure extreme temperatures and salinity changes
Their tails push them through the sand and muck, act as a rudder, and help them turnover
Their central mouth is surrounded by its legs 
Their eggs take about 2 weeks to hatch
They have 2 compound eyes on the top of their shells with a range of about 3 feet
They can swim upside down and use a dozen legs and a flap hiding nearly 200 flattened gills to propel themselves
They usual feed at night but will eat anytime
They burrow for worms and mollusks
They grow by twenty-five percent while molting
The larvae molt six times during the first year
After sixteen molts, they completely mature into adults, maturity takes
between 9 and 12 years
Before the arrival of artificial fertilizers, they were dried for used as fertilizer and poultry food supplements.
Some fish eat the juveniles and the recently molted
Their eggs are important food for migratory shore birds that pass over the Delaware Bay during the spring mating season
Extract from their blood is used to test the purity of medicines.
Parts of their shells speed blood clotting and are used for absorbent sutures. Read more on Horseshoe Crabs Love Marine Aquariums…
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