Christmas Cheer!

  

 

   

 Our tank is beginning the process of cycling through the Nitrogen Cycle which is the balancing of good and bad bacteria. The students enjoy testing the water quality and seeing the colors change. Above you will see a rise in ammonia as the fish begin to grow and add waste to the tank. Thankfully our good bacteria (Nitrate) is also increasing to equalize the bad bacteria (Nitrite). Our fish mortality has leveled off as the trout have learned to eat successfully so I have let them swim free in the tank. We did lose Larry and Moe...but, Curly continues to survive in his own red basket to protect him from other hungry fish and to allow him the chance to eat without competing for food. It takes a lot of patience to feed him as you have to basically wait for him to run into the food because he cannot swim except for in circles.
     We will begin our book project when we return from Christmas break. We are eager to begin! We wanted to share some Christmas Cheer for the holidays! Enjoy!

 

Thankful at Thanksgiving!

     Counting my Trout in the Classroom blessings this Thanksgiving...Some of our trout  have "buttoned-up" (lost their yolk sacs) and are beginning to swim searching for food!  The students have been patiently waiting to feed the trout. Yesterday  at 2:45 p.m. as we were feeding the trout for the first time, I accidentally dipped my finger in the tank as I was attempting to keep the food from floating on the surface of the water. I quickly looked at the thermometer because one touch and I knew something was not right. I couldn't believe my eyes when the thermometer read 61 degrees. Yikes!The chiller had stopped working! I had checked the temperature twice that day and it read 51 degrees.  At a  TIC training we learned a 1 degree temperature change can stress the trout- wonder what a  ten degree change in temperature so quickly will do- stress a first grade teacher!
     Last year our original chiller had stopped working and we replaced it with this used one and now it also has stopped working. In every cloud there is a silver lining, today I am thankful for the support of Penns Creek TU's Larry Winey who brought us a new chiller yesterday afternoon when we noticed the water temperature was slowly rising in spite of being set at 49 degrees. It  reached a scary 64.5 degrees before we changed chillers. Thankfully he had a replacement chiller to bring us before we lost any trout!
     We slowly lowered the temperature making sure the new chiller was working before leaving last evening planning to continue to lower the temperature today to avoid shocking the trout with another severe temperature change. And then a school closing...hi, ho, hi, ho, its off to school I go! The temperature this morning read 57 degrees which was where I had set the thermostat to avoid a severe temperature change ---so far so good! I lowered the temperature to my normal setting as I feed the fish that were searching for food.
     On a sad note,  I did remove two fry this morning that did not survive the ordeal.  But amazingly three deformed fry continue to survive, we have placed them in a separate basket to help protect them. I have named them Larry, Curly, and Moe.  Below is a picture of them and the other trout as well as  a video of the trout today as a  gentle reminder of all our  Trout in the Classroom blessings this Thanksgiving!

    

Eggcitement!

                                                                                            One of the things I love about teaching is the excitement the students share so freely! The students have been patiently waiting for our trout eggs to come since the first day of school. We wanted to share with the whole school that the day had finally arrived so we created a sign to place on our trout tank in the lobby.

 

 

    Our trout were shipped via UPS from Bellefonte and arrived on  November 5, 2014 around 2:30 p.m. This only added to the anticipation because the acclimation process takes several hours so that meant the students would have to wait yet another day to see our trout! While we waited for the trout to acclimate, we tested the water quality of our tank before we added our trout to make sure it would enable the trout to thrive. We also talked about how trout need cold, clean water to survive just like we do!

     After the students were dismissed for home, I began  counting and separating living and dead eggs. I placed 205 viable eggs in the tank. I counted 42 dead eggs and 2 dead alevin. Three eggs hatched immediately which I have witnessed many times over the past seven years, but it continues to excite and amaze me!

     In the morning when I came in the majority of the eggs had hatched into alevin (sac fry). This process usually occurs over a week after our eggs arrive leaving me plenty of time to show the students this stage of the lifecycle.  Not this year! I have never had the majority hatch over night. I took the students to the tank to catch a glimpse of the egg stage so we did not miss it. The students giggled when they witnessed the sac fry wiggle out of the eggs.  It was neat to have them actually witness this. It is not something you get to see everyday. By the end of the day only a handful of eggs remained from the 205 placed in the tank the day before.  We now have mostly alevin (sac fry).  Before I left on Friday,  12 eggs  had turned white which means they  died so I removed them from the tank. Some of the alevin died as well. I removed 4 from the tank. The hardest part for me is witnessing the struggle to survive. Hoping to have another successful year, but some of the alevin do not look healthy to me which has me a little worried. Stay tuned... now the fun begins!



Trout Release Video 2014

     Once again I am in awe of the way things seem to fall into place as we all work together toward a common goal!  We had an awesome release day. I am forever thankful for the great group of people who help to make this day possible. Our students had a great day and year with the Trout in the Classroom Program. I hope you enjoy seeing the fun we had!

                                                         Trout Release Video  2014

Trout in the Classroom...2014

 

     It is hard to believe that we will be releasing our trout on Thursday! We have had a very successful year! We have not lost any trout since our salt bath in January. We have even managed to keep Zigzag and Tiny alive and well. I wanted to post a video of feeding the trout. This time next week they will be swimming free in East Licking Creek at Karl B. Guss Park.

We get by with a little help from our friends!

 

We have been patiently tending to Zigzag and Tiny. Tiny is growing quickly and probably could fend for herself with the other fish now, but the kids would like to keep her separate so we know who she is. Plus, she is good company for Zigzag who needs a lot of help! It takes a lot of encouragement to get Zigzag even to attempt to find the food. Here are two videos. One of Zigzag and Tiny being fed. Below is a video of the rest of the gang being fed. As you can see, it is a good thing Zigzag does not have to fight the other fish for food! We get by with a little help from our friends-right!



 

Fish Tales 2013-2014!

     The students have been eager to begin our trout book project since before Christmas break! This week in spite of the snow cancellations and delays, we were finally able to  begin. So far this year, things have been going fairly well. We have not lost any more trout to Ich since the saltwater bath. Thankfully, we have managed to sustain 99 trout to date.

 

     This morning, we noticed one trout had a tail hanging out of his mouth...Oops, 98 trout. It was distressing to some of the students that one trout would eat another trout. I attempted to explain that it is in their instinct to survive and apparently he needed more food. Several of the students  tried to encourage me to try to catch that big fish and put him in the red basket so he does not eat any more. I  too am concerned about the few trout that are smaller, but from my experience last year, catching the right big fish is much harder than catching the little ones. It is amazing to me to see the size variance in the tank. It is survival of the fittest at play. I may have to intervene and rescue the tiny tot who loves to hide under the air stone.

 

As we were working on our book today, one student wrote that the trout are mean because they fight over the food and eat each other. Not quite, the fish tales we wanted, but of course, something that impacted him first hand today.