At times over the past month it has been difficult to convince the students that our brook trout are alive and well as they looked at the alevin just lying in the hatching baskets. However, once some of the trout began to "button-up" losing their yolk sacs acting more like fish by swimming around looking for food, the students became more confident we will have some fish to release on May 15th. They are excited to watch them eat and grow! They are especially eager to feed them!
The students love to watch the trout eat. They keep a close eye on the tank looking for any trout that do not look well. They remember well our struggle with Ich from last year. They are very protective of the trout! I love to listen to the students as they stand in front of the tank sharing the names of "their" trout. This year one is named Apple, another is Luke Bryan, and one is called French Fry. I am hoping that all continues to go well over the Christmas break. The students are eager to begin our book project after the break. It truly is amazing what they have learned about trout! They are eager to share their knowledge.
The trout are now swimming free in the tank since they have learned to eat consistently for the past three weeks. I like to keep them in the hatching baskets until I am sure they are eating well because it is easier to remove any that die during the transition from alevin to swim-up fry. During the transition from sac fry to swim-up fry, we lost approximately 100 trout that simply did not learn to eat or swim. Some of them appeared to have Ich which had me concerned after last year so I conducted a static salt bath and changed out 5 gallons of water. It seemed to perk up the fish and I have not lost any in the last few days. Below is a picture of some of the trout with Ich. Thankfully, I learned about this disease first hand last year and at a training this summer so I believe we were able to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the trout...I hope!
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