The Eggs Are Coming!

Next week, on January 7, the eggs will arrive! Mr. Dinkel, one of our TIC volunteers, will be arriving at around 11:00 with 150 Rainbow Trout Eggs. The eggs are making quite a journey. They will be air shipped from Washington State (and will be at just above freezing at this time). Once they arrive at Monocacy MS, we will temper the eggs (gradually raise their temperature) until they reach 52 degrees (the same temperature as the water in our tank). Then the work begins! These eggs will spend four months in our tank before we release them into a local stream. Our job is to raise them well...clean, cold, running water, plenty of food and delicate water chemistry. We can do it!

Trout Release Movie!

The movie is complete...thanks to the hard work of a team of 6th graders! Click below to watch their movie.

Release Day Is HERE!!!

What a day! 25 students, 4 parents, and 6 volunteers later...our trout are swimming free in Carroll Creek! It was great to see the little guys swimming free in a healthy stream. With the help of our PVFF volunteers, students released the trout, learned about watershed/wetland issues, invasive species, and the stream buffer work, searched for aquatic macroinvertebrates, tested pH of the stream, learned casting techniques and saw beautiful examples of some of the flies Dr. Fine tied. Students are working on a MovieMaker project to highlight the release. Look for the movie on the blog next week!

Success

The trout are continuing to grow very rapidly. The biggest are 7.5 cm while the smallest are 2.5 cm. This picture shows that well. Look at the trout near the gravel and the ones swimming above it.

Size Difference

There was an article recently written in the Frederick News Post that might help explain the size difference among our trout. Student have measured the largest (5 cm) and the smallest trout (3cm). Read the article (on the "Links to Other Great Things" tab)and let us know what you think!

Feeding time!

Students have noticed the larger fish swimming near the surface during feeding time. Watch this clip to see why!

Trout Update

Students are becoming experts at monitoring tank water quality. They are measuring pH, ammonia, nitrates and nitrites daily, and we are averaging 5 gallons of water change daily. We use a siphon for water changes. The siphon helps to stir up the sediment in the gravel and is a very easy way to remove the water. We removed the bag from the outside of the filter, and are hoping that this will help to reduce the amount of sediment in the gravel. We are still losing 4-6 fish each day, and hope this changes soon. At last count, students estimated there were 89 trout.

113 Trout!

We've been learning about population sampling methods this week. Today, students used some of these methods to determine the number of trout in our tank. The results from our three classes were: 112, 113 and 105 trout. Students found the most reliable method to be direct observation, and the least reliable method to be random sampling.

Changes

This morning we found that 4 of the 7 fry in the hatching basket had died (including the big guy). 3 more were found dead in the gravel. Tank pH was high today, so we did an additional water change. Students are wondering why so many more fry have died this year than last year. Many questions have come up about the eggs...did they come from the same hatchery? What variables might be affecting the mortality this year?

Big Guy Back in the Basket

We removed the big guy (and a few others that weren't doing well) back into the breeder basket today. We are hoping that this may help them pull through the next few days. You can see the big guy swimming near the bottom in this video clip

What happened here?

After the first full day swimming free in the tank, students noticed one fish that clearly stood out. (Compare the "big guy" to the other more average bellied fish in the previous day's picture.) What happened here?

Released in the tank

We lost 13 fish yesterday. Since water quality was good, we think maybe the breeder basket was the problem. So, the fish are swimming free in the tank now! 5 more dead fry were found in the gravel today, so we are carefully monitoring water quality this week.

38 degrees!

When I arrived at school on Wednesday, we immediately noticed that the chiller coil was encased in ice, water temperature was 38 degrees F, and the fish were very lethargic. After a quick call to Mr. Dinkle, one of our PvFF volunteers, we turned off the chiller, removed the coil, and waited for tank tmperature to return to 52 degrees. After 9 hours. the tank temperature returned to normal and the fish seem fine. One fish died, but the rest seem to have come through with no problems. They are swimming and feeding as usual.

Feeding time

We fed the fry for the first time today. Looking down into the tank, you can see the size of the meal...just floating on the surface of the water. We have started with size "0" trout food, and will move to size "1 when they reach 1 inch in length. We've discussed that there may be a small mortality rate as the fish start to feed...some of the hatchlings just never begin eating.

Swimming UP!

Several of the babies have amost fully absorbed their yolk sacs and are swimming up to feed. As of today, there are only 2 trout near the bottom of the hatching basket, while the rest are swimming up near the surface.

Alevin on Day 11

We have had a really successful hatch this year. We've lost no alevin yet in the Monocacy basket. One alevin in the Lewistown basket died today. It was very light in color and the spine was curved. Students are thinking and talking about the difference between survival in our tank versus that in a natural stream environment.

Hatching Success!

As of today (day 5 of the hatching process), all of the eggs in the Monocacy and Lewistown Baskets have hatched. Check out the Trout Inspection Record Link to see how many opaque and white eggs were removed. Students are noticing that the alevin are moving quite a lot, and a few are attempting to swim up from the bottom of the basket.
We've heard that other TIC schools in Frederick and Montgomery Counties may start blogging too! If you do, please let us know so we can follow your blog. It would be great to be able to compare data we're gathering.

4 White Eggs Today

We noticed a white "cottage cheese-like" substance in the Lewistown basket and used a dropper to remove it. We also removed 4 eggs that were white. We are emailing our PVFF volunteers to find out what to do about the white substance. You can see the white substance on the egg on the bottom of the petri dish (and also an empty egg case at the top of the dish).

Hatching...day 2

We celebrated alevin birthdays today, as two more eggs hatched in the Monocacy basket today and about 10 more in the Lewistown basket. Students are wondering why eggs are hatching at different rates.

Hatching!

Two students noticed during 5/6 period that the eggs have started to hatch. We've been able to count about 10 in the Lewistown basket and 4 in the Monocacy basket. The heads and tails are clearly seen (as is the empty egg case above the alevin)!

Eggs...Day 1

We keep the tank covered during the day to protect the eggs from the light in our classroom. We uncovered them to check on them, and took a few pictures. The eyes and orange yolk sac are clearly visible in each tiny egg.

The eggs have arrived

Yesterday, our PVFF volunteers (Mr. Fine and Mr. Brognard) arrived at 12:15 to deliver our eggs. After tempering, the eggs were added to the (blue)hatching basket. The second batch of eggs (clear basket) in the tank belong to Lewistown Elementary. We are fostering their eggs until their tank is up and running.

Our tank is ready!

The chiller is on, students are beginning to monitor water quality, and we are anxiously awaiting the egg arrival on Thursday, Jan. 8!