Reef Tank for Autistic Child

[matthemmings]

Hey guys,

I'm having a custom aquarium built that's going to live in our 2nd lounge which acts as the kids room with their sofa, books and table in.

Recently my youngest son (2 years) was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and as such he's far more interested in doing his own thing than being social or engaging with his 4 year old brother.

However the pair of them love the corals, critters and fish that they've grown up with due to my aquariums.

I really want this new tank to be as engaging as possible for the both of them, so does anyone have any tips on things that their children really enjoy looking at?

In terms of details - its a 160L (45 US Gal) display with 50L sump. Lighting is provided by twin 'white' (mix of 10k, 15k, amber and green LEDs) and a single 'blue' (50/50 royal blue and bright blue LED) spotlight fixtures which total around 54 watts in total. Turnover in the realms of 25x volume per hour.

Livestock I already own that will be moving into it:

LPS

Hammerhead, Duncan, Platygyra, Gonioastrea, Acans

Softies

Palythoa, ZOA's, mushrooms, Clavularia

Inverts

Blue Tuxedo Urchin, 3 x sexy shrimp, porcelain crab, nassarius snails, astraea snails, fighting conch

Fish

Clownfish, pyjama cardinal



Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk

 

[CarrieB]

I have a large hermit crab that my 2 year old grandson likes to find. I think maybe because he's active and in the front of the tank a lot. He always looks for the fish first. Points "fish", points "crab". He doesn't care about the coral yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jrhupp]

My son is on the spectrum as well. His favorites are a particular hermit crab and the mandarin dragonet.

 

[TigeBell]

My son (15 yrs old now) is also on the spectrum. When my 280 gallon tank was set up, I never really noticed him taking a liking to anything in the tank but did ask to watch Finding Nemo more often. He still watches that move but he also find or searches for movies related to oceans.

I think you are on the right track. Maybe adding an anemone for the clowns might help.

on a side note and off topic but I found it funny, my son was at the dentist sitting in the dentist chair watching a movie. The dental hygienist was cleaning his teeth when he would out of the blue say "owe". The hygienist didn't realize what he was watching but trying to make the situation "welcoming" to him. She continued to clean his teeth and he would still say "owe". Eventually she looked at my son's table and notice he was watching Finding Nemo and replaying the dentist scene over and over. Eventually, the entire dental office was watching him and he would say "owe" again and the entire office busted up laughing.