Dr. Hart Attempts Surgery

The fifth grade students have been fascinated by the Siamese trout. We have been keeping them separated in the breeder basket because we were afraid that the other fish would attack them as is nature's way of dealing with deformities. Today, Mr. Hart wanted to put them in with the other fish because he was worried that they were not eating. As he used the eye dropper to move the Siamese fish, the dead fry fell off the one Siamese fry. We assume that fish is swimming happily in the tank.
Then Mr. Hart notice the second set of Siamese fry had completely absorbed the yolk sac and the one attached fry was severally deformed but not dead. It was moving. We placed the second Siamese fry in a clear container and allowed the first grade class to view it with a magnifying glass. Mr. Hart wondered if we could successfully separate these fish as has been done with humans who have be co-joined at birth so he performed a surgery at around 9:30 this morning. As we put it in the tank, it swam a little but did not move much afterwards. At 10:30 Mrs. Winey checked the recovery fry to notice it was not moving and appeared to be gasping for air. To avoid any contamination to the other fish, we removed it from the tank. All of the other trout have transitioned to swim-up fry and we have been feeding a small portion of size 0 food which almost looks like a powder. Today the trout crew checked the tank's ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels along with the ph. These tests are indicators of water quality. All tests were good!
Our decisions to remove any sick or deformed fish is paying off as we have not had the problems with water quality that we experienced last year (at least not so far). As the fish get bigger, it will become more of an issue because a 55 gallon tank will accommodate around 110 fry. We currently have 253 fry in our tank.

Trout Journal:
12-18-09 Gaige: Merry Fishmas!!

Swim-up Fry- Yea!!

Even though we had the program last year, it is still so exciting to witness each new stage of life. When we came in this morning, we had about twenty trout swimming to the top of the tank to look for food so we decided to put a little food in. We want to resist the temptation to over feed because this can cause problems with the water quality. We have about twenty trout that still have the yolk sac. They still remain in the breeder basket. The majority of the fish have settled into the big tank hiding in the pebbles on the bottom.

Update on the Siamese Trout: We discovered that we actually had two sets of Siamese twins. However, apparently one yolk sac will not support two fry as one of each of the attached Siamese fry has died. The dead fry is still attached to the yolk sac of the other healthy fry. It will be interesting to see what happens as the yolk sac continues to be absorbed.

Trout Journal:
12-14-09 Chase: It's almost Christmas and about 3 quarters of the fish have survived. Now hopefully they'll come to the top for us to see on Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS FISH!!

Tough Decisions

This week we made a difficult decision. We decided to remove 26 deformed alevin from the tank. Last year when Mr. Hart recommended we remove the deformed fish, I resisted. I did not feel right deciding that certain fish would not make it to our release. I realized that fish would die, but I did not want to decide which ones would die and when. Eventually, the fish died anyway. We subsequently had some difficulty with a spike in ph. When Mr. Hart made the same recommendation this year, I agreed it may prevent the spike in ph which could be fatal to the 261 fish that are not deformed. We decided to show the students the fish deformities and discuss the importance of protecting our stream's water quality to prevent these deformities from occurring. We put the deformed fish on our school garden to help enrich the soil.


12-2-09 Nathan: I love taking care of the trout. It is awesome.

12-3-09 Nathan: The trout are awesome. They had a big Thanksgiving. They are fat now.

12-3-09 Chase Brown: Fish died but there are still many left, about the same amount will still
live like last year.

12-4-09 Gaige Kachel:
My Trout Poem:
Trout are awesome
Trout are cool
One day they might swim in my pool.

12-4-09 Mrs. Kint:
The trout are tiny, the tank is big.
If you mess up, Mrs. Winey will wig!

12-4-09 Lauren Vawn:
The trout are little the trout are tan.
I can't wait til they're in my frying pan.

12-5-09 Mrs. Winey:
Just in case Mrs. Kint made you wonder,
Mrs. Winey will forgive a little blunder.
So "Trout Crew" do not despair
regarding Mrs. Kint's reference to hair?