Growing!

Our trout are growing fast!  They are approximately 3.5 cm long.  We have only lost 10, so we currently have 205 healthy fish in the tank.

Tank data testing

Every day we have test the tank to make sure the water is in the right condition for our Alevin to live and grow.We test everything from the ammonia of the water to even the temperature .This week all our data showed that our water was in awesome condition.Check the right side bar for the trout tank data.

-Mia

Egg Arrival!

The eggs arrived yesterday (during a snow day), and have begun to hatch already.  As of 2:30 today approximately 20 alevin have hatched!

Hatching success...welcome Alevin!

As of 11:15 today, nearly all alevin have successfully hatched!

Welcome Home Eggs!

Hatching!

On Friday, our Trout in the Classroom volunteer from PVFF - Mr. Loose. delivered our Kamloops Rainbow Trout eggs.  Yesterday, at around 3:15, they started hatching!    (unable to upload pictures just yet)

The Eggs Are HERE!!!

Today, at 12:30, Mr. Loose arrived with the eggs. The eggs were placed in the hatching basket. You can see the two black eyes in the picture on the left. Welcome to your temporary home, eggs! We'll do population sampling next week to determine how many we have.

Ready to go!

Thanks to out TIC volunteers, our tank is up and running. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the trout eggs on Jan 6!

Trout Release 2011

Trout Release 2011 on PhotoPeach

Trout Release 2011 Video!

The video is complete, thanks to the hard work of Abby P., Hanah M., Khushbu J., and Ruth K.! Click on play below to watch the release, fly casting and a tour of the fish hatchery!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Getting Bigger!

The trout are almost ready to be released! We'll release them on Monday, May 9 with around 20 6th grade science students. They're already 6 centimeters long! The fish tank is clean and it's in good condition. I can't believe they're almost ready to go. They grew so fast!(Post by EE-Z)

Making Great Progress

Our trout are healthy, and water quality is good. Look at how big they are! New student water quality groups are being trained by last semester's students.

Cool Assignment!

Take a look at these two videos (on Atlantic Salmon and Eastern Brook Trout) from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/multimedia/video/salmon.html
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/multimedia/video/brooktrout.html
If you're interested in making a video on Rainbow Trout, let Mrs. M. know. We're looking for a video team.

Release into tank

We released the trout into the tank. They are doing well...only 5 lost so far (so 151 left). Water quality is stable.

1 Down, 155 to Go!

The eggs have started to hatch. Our first trout hatched at approx. 1:20 today. Students were thrilled (especially Devin, who said, "Hey, that trout has the same birthday as me...Happy Birthday Devin) to see the tiny eyes that had emerged from the egg. Students decided not to take pictures today, thinking the camera flash might harm the hatching alevin. (The picture on the bottom is a great image of a brand new trout from last year. You can even see the empty "egg" floating above the alevin!) Can't wait to count them tomorrow!

Egg Count

Individually Mrs.Maruskin, Jessica, and Summer counted the trout eggs in the container. We found a total of 156 eggs. We hope most eggs hatch/grow successfully until the release date. By: Summer and Jessica

The Eggs Have Arrived!

The eggs arrived (thanks to our wonderful PVFF volunteers) at 3:00. After the tempering process, they were transferred to the hatching basket in the tank at 4:30. Morgan and Danielle stopped by after school to see if the eggs had arrived, and were the first of this year's 6th graders to see them!

Trout Release 2010

The first student produced movie is finished! Click on the animoto movie to see footage of releasing our trout into Carroll Cree and mature trout we observed on our tour of the Albert Powell Fish Hatchery.

Fish Hatchery Tour

Here's a video showing rainbow trout at the Powell Fish Hatchery. This is the facility that gave us a tour when we released our trout!

Water Snake!

Students observed a water snake that had caught a fish. Mr. Dinkel sent us a picture. Dr. Fine's colleague identified the snake. Here's some of what he wrote:

"Great picture! It’s a Northern Water Snake (Common Water Snake). The scientific name is Nerodia sipedon. It appears to be a young adult since the pattern is still distinct. As they get older, they get more and more medium to dark brown until you can barely see the pattern. Like Garter Snakes, they are ovoviviparous (eggs retained internally, bear live young). I remember catching a large Northern Water Snake one spring day when I was in high school. I brought it home and fed it frogs and fish. It remained nasty and had to be handled with gloves. One summer day, I was stunned to see 48 baby snakes wriggling around in the cage. I released them back into the wild."