At this point, our classes have had the fish for almost a month. They have left the comfort of their eggs and have settled into the bottom of the egg net in a nice little huddle. Now it is time... Time to leave the net and swim out into the tank. This is where we have seen personalities develop. Some of the trout just swam to the top of the net and out. Others, like the one pictured below, would swim out to the edge, see the vastness of the aquarium, and then back up into the safety of the net again! Those were my personal favorites! Then there were the others, who felt just fine staying in the net...and that is where you'll find them at this very moment. That is o.k.! In another week or two, they will all be out and swimming around in their new home. Have you seen it? Read on... The students have done some research on the nitrogen cycle, and plants, and how it could help us keep down the amount of nitrites, nitrates, and ammonia in the tank. After their research we put three real plants in the tank. One of them is partially hidden behind the logs. Then we also put in the hollow logs to give the trout somewhere to hide in the dark. Lastly we added the tree roots for pure interest and decor!
Mr. Davidson from Trout in Classroom stopped by to check in on our trout yesterday. It seems that our class is doing very well raising the trout! We have lost somewhere between 10 to 15 trout, and still have around 75 left. There are other schools who only had 25% of their trout to even hatch. Our classes decided to place the tank in the back of the room away from windows. That seems to have been what made the difference. The darkness was just what they need to develop and hatch!
Today the trout eggs began hatching. When I arrived at school this morning only a few had hatched. They are pictured below. Each class had taken the first 3 minutes of class time each day to date and draw the fish eggs. Today, they were all happy to see that when I place the petri dish under the document camera, that there was an actual, living, swimming, trout! By the end of the day almost all of the trout had hatched as seen below! As they hatched they left behind little clear egg sacs that had to be cleaned out quickly so that they would not began to decay. When they begin to decay, it changes the water balance. I have have students who check the pH, Nitrates, Nitrites, and Ammonia levels everyday. At the end of the day today all of our levels looked great. I couldn't be any happier! They were also fed fish food for the first time today.
Today Mr. Davidson, from Trout in the Classroom, brought our classes our trout eggs. The trout are Rainbow trout. They have been genetically modified to make them sterile. Why sterile? In the spring we will take these trout and release them at Stone Mountain where there are already Brown Trout. They want to keep the breeds "clean". With our Rainbow trout sterile, we will not have to worry about mixed breeds of trout. By the way, Brook trout are the only trout that are native to North Carolina. They can only be found in the highest, most pristine conditions.
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AuthorMrs. Heath Archives |