Water Chemistry Update

Since school has been canceled for the week, I stopped in to check water chemistry and do a water change. pH was a bit high at 8, as was ammonia at .25, so I did a 6 gallon water change. The fish seem to be doing fine. Mrs. Holt, our building service worker, has been feeding the fish during her daily building checks. THANK YOU MRS. HOLT!

Released into the tank!

Anticipating the tremendous snowstorm that would hit our region, we released the trout into the tank on Friday, Feb. 5. Students captured the event on flip video.

Population Thriving!

Our trout are swimming, have absorbed their yolk sacks and are eating size "0" food twice a day. Students are changing 3 gallons of water daily, and water chemistry is stable. Students are excited to see the fish swimming and feeding. So far, so good!

A few swimming to the top!

When students were doing water quality tests today, they noticed a few alevin swimming to the top. So, we seized the moment and put a pinch of size zero food in. Sure enough, four fish swam to the top and started to feed!

1 week

Our eggs started to hatch on Thursday! We have pulled 11 white, cloudy eggs from the plastic hatching basket, and none from the mesh basket. The students are wondering why... This is a picture of the alevin at 1 day. Most have hatched.

The Eggs Are HERE!

What an exciting day! Today, a little before noon, Mr. Dinkel arrived with the eggs. They were slowly tempered, then poured into the hatching baskets. Our job now is to continue to test water quality and wait for them to hatch. Check out this video of the eggs in the two hatching baskets!

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!