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!