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!!