Eggcitement!

 The smiles on their faces tell the story! I love seeing students excited about learning at school. That is one of the main reasons I love this program. Today we received the second batch of brook trout eggs for our Trout in the Classroom Program. This batch was lovingly hand picked by our coordinator. There was a notable difference in this shipment. There was only 1 dead egg. I placed 179 eggs into another basket in our tank following the same procedure described yesterday. I placed the cover over the tank to help them settle in peacefully. Hopefully, they will hatch over the next few days without incident. If all goes well each student will be able to place their own trout into the stream on May 15, 2014. Wish me luck!

The Journey Begins!

 The eggs are shipped by UPS from Bellefonte.  When they arrive,  I take a temperature reading of the water in the shipment bag. Then I place the bag in the tank to allow the eggs to acclimate to the tank temperature.  Next, I must separate the dead eggs from the living eggs and keep a count of both. I use the turkey baster, a plastic spoon, and a pipette to remove the dead eggs. I have two containers. One is for dead eggs and one is filled with water from the tank for living eggs. Once I have twenty living eggs, I place them immediately in the tank.

 

I continue this process until all living eggs are placed peacefully in the hatching  baskets we made.

 This year we placed 202 living eggs between two hatching baskets.  I removed 42 dead eggs from the shipment. As a result of the difficulties last year, we are keeping the tank temperature a little warmer in an attempt to allow the eggs to develop more quickly to allow more time for feeding before Christmas break.

     I was concerned because  a lot of the eggs had streaks of blood and began to die over the next few days. All the eggs hatched, but  about half of the alevin also had streaks of blood and then died. We lost around 100 fish since their arrival which began to concern the students. After speaking with some of the other teachers at our in-service day, I  soon learned we were not alone. Today, I received a call from our TIC coordinator who informed me we would be receiving another shipment of eggs. They had tried a new way of sorting the eggs this year using a machine to separate the dead eggs from the living eggs. She felt it stressed the trout causing them to die because the eggs that were sorted this way were the ones with the most deaths. It is a learning process for all. She hand picked us another batch of trout eggs due to arrive either tomorrow or Thursday! Check back to see how we make out!

 

 On a positive note, we planted seeds several weeks ago that had not shown any signs of life until I began placing the dead trout eggs/alevin in the soil. Apparently the Indians had a great idea because the seeds began to sprout!  I am always trying to find the positive things to keep me going.  

Mrs. Winey! Are the trout here yet?

On Tuesday November 5, 2013 I answered this question over 200 times throughout the day. In an attempt to make the arrival of our trout eggs a teachable moment, I thought we would incorporate a lesson on how punctuation helps us understand how to read with expression. I intended to introduce the  question mark and the exclamation mark and place a sign on the trout tank letting the whole school know that our trout eggs had indeed arrived. The students colored the words and the punctuation marks  for the

sign in groups. Then we place the words and punctuation marks in order to make the sentence and response,
Mrs. Winey! Are the trout here yet? Yes!

We discussed how the exclamation marks help the readers know we are excited and the question mark indicates asking a question. One of my students raised his hand and said he thought the question mark should go after my name  because they are asking me and the exclamation point after are the trout here yet because they are excited and want to know now.
Because the students often call my name in an
asking tone, I decided to go with it even if it
is not completely grammatically correct and teach them that the punctuation marks can change the way a sentence is read. We practiced reading it both ways and the students decided they wanted the question mark after my name and the exclamation mark to show they were excited. It definitely was a better expression of  how we wanted the sentence to be read. I did tell the students that to be grammatically correct we should use the question mark after are the trout here yet.

Another Successful Year- Thanks to All!!

Trout Release Day is always bittersweet! I am always amazed at how everything comes together! I am blessed with an abundance of community support for our program! I can't thank everyone enough! I'd like to give a special shout out to Central Juniata EMS for joining us on our release day this year to help put us at ease about taking 130 elementary students to Karl B. Guss Park where cell service is sketchy!

Here is Joe who drove the ambulance with a few of the students. I truly believe he had a great day along with everyone else involved! On a side note, Bunny Princess and Mater made it safely into East Licking Creek and the students who released them said they were happy! Although the little girl who released Bunny Princess asked me on Friday afternoon in school if we could go get Bunny  Princess and bring her back to the tank! Sometimes it is hard to let go! Enjoy the video of the events of the day!
http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d4550470k3626026o1/lack-tuscarora-trout-release-2013

Bunny Princess meet Mater!

 

Good news, we have not lost any trout so far from this new batch. It is amazing how the trout are growing! All except one tiny one that never seems to get any food because he is  chased away by the larger fingerlings. We noticed he was laying on the bottom not looking well last week so... We concluded that it was not getting enough to eat and the students begged me to  put it in the basket with Bunny Princess to allow it a better chance to get some food during feeding. After about an hour of chasing him around the tank and enlisting Mrs. Hoover to assist me in capturing him, we placed him in the red basket with Bunny Princess.

 One of the students named him Mater! So we introduced Bunny Princess to Mater. They appear to be good room mates so far!  Bunny Princess has grown and could more than likely hold her own in the big tank, but the students want to keep her separate so they know which one she is. She is larger than Mater. Hopefully, he will catch up before release day on May 16.



 

Third Time Is A Charm!

I am almost hesitant to say that the trout are doing well in fear of jinxing myself... We received a new shipment of 69 fry to add to our tank...Bunny Princess is still alive and well swimming in her own red basket floating at the top of the tank. My first grade class insisted we provide her protection since she has endured so much so far being the only fry to survive ich. She is much smaller than the trout we received and would most likely be eaten by some of the larger fry.

 We have placed a cover over half of the tank to provide the trout with some type of  hiding place and provide less stress on the fish as the tank is in the lobby and the constant motion by the tank stresses the fish which in turn can create water quality issues. We are hopeful to keep this bunch alive until May 16. It thrilled my heart to hear the students talking in front of the tank saying which trout was "their" trout and sharing the names that they had chosen for their trout. Hopefully, the third time is the charm!

Survival of the fittest!! ...Bunny Princess LIVES!

So much has happened since my last post...We have encountered another round of ich! I spent 4 hours Saturday at the school giving the remaining living trout a salt bath in an attempt to keep some alive. On Monday, the students were glad to see one survived the process and is holding her own. She has been named Bunny Princess by one of my first graders who announced Monday that the only fish living was her fish Bunny Princess!

 

I contacted JHS's Ag. teacher Mrs. Morgan to find out how their fish were since we do our release together. At that point she had 80 fish. Sad to say she also has encountered ich and has lost most of her fish. I stopped at the high school to  discuss what I had learned about bathing the fish in salt. She now has 5 fish surviving.

 

We contacted the PFBC and found out the fish at the hatchery have ich as well and it is a systemic problem throughout TIC this year. They agreed to send more fish, but they will also have ich. It appears this year, we will be learning about the diseases fish get and how to treat them...Hopefully, we will have a few to release in May...It truly is a learning process!! Stay tuned!