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!