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.