They Look Like Fish At Last!

I saw the fish yesterday! They were all swimming around the top of the water! They look like fish at last!

Progress

Now that all of the fish have hatched, they're a little harder to find. Some should be reaching the end of the alevin stage, so their bodies are growing and the egg sac is shrinking. So far, they are doing very little swimming, but a few are starting to move around. We gave them a little food, but only one seemed to notice, so we don't think they're quite ready to eat yet.

All of the levels in our tank (temperature, pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) seem to be holding steady so far. Our nitrite level has been 1.0 consistently since we set up the tank, which had us worried at first. Nitrite measures some pollution in the water and isn't good for the fish, so we'd like it to be at 0, however, we can't find the cause of the raised level, so we haven't been able to bring it down. Water changes don't seem to have any impact. One of our advisors suggested that maybe there's some limestone in the pea gravel we used and that could be the cause. In any event, it doesn't seem to be effecting the alevin so far, so we're just keeping an eye on it.

All of the kids in the school are tracking what's happening in the tank. It has been really exciting to watch! We're trying to get pictures of the fish to publish, but it's very hard to capture those little guys.

Report by Nature Club - We Rock!

Nature Club making fish faces for the camera.

Today, Gabby saw little brown squiggly things in the rocks. She realized that the brown squiggly things were actually fish. Ellie used a flashlight to count the fish in the tank. She found 1, Hannah W found 5, Margo found 27, Hannah A found 7. The counting group agreed that there were 28, but later revised the number to 33. Zoe says the fish are getting bigger. Margo thinks that some of them won't make it because they're still in the hatching basket. Ellie, Zoe and Hannah A said there are twins - two fish attached to one egg sac. Margo found 3 in a row exactly next to each other.

Nature Club Meeting Comments

Oliver noticed that the egg sacks are huge. Margo spotted big rocks in the tank - lava rocks that provide a home for bacteria. Oliver pointed out that lava rock is also known as igneous rock. Hannah W. noticed that ALL of the fish have hatched. Hannah A. noticed that when they were just hatching, some of the egg pouches were hanging out of the bottom of the hatching basket. Emma noticed little squiggly things on the bottom of the tank which were the fish, but she thought they were worms. Hannah W noted that a few days ago the sacs were wiggling. Hannah A noticed that there were fish marks on the back of the tank in the silver stuff. Margo reminded us DO NOT TOUCH THE TANK! It's getting blurry. Oliver noted that a week ago all of the eggs were rolling around like they were alive. Remington suggested we put up a sign that says DO NOT TOUCH THE TROUT TANK. Julia noticed that the trout's eyes are getting bigger and cuter every day.

The Eggs are in the Tank!

The eggs arrived this morning as planned. They were slowly acclimated to the new tank temperature and water, and by 8:15 AM they were set in their new home. We received (about) 227 eggs, 8 of which had to be culled because they were no longer viable. Pictures of the event will be posted later today.

Trout Egg Countdown

The Brook Trout eggs will arrive at 7:30 am on Thursday, October 8. That's just in time for our first Nature Club meeting on Friday. The Nature Club kids will be on WTER to tell everyone what's going on with the eggs, and they'll work on making some posters to display, too.

The eggs will have traveled from a hatchery in Verona, VA. They'll spend Wednesday night in a cooler on ice - brrrrr! When they arrive at Terraset, we'll slowly acclimate them to our tank temperature by floating them in a container while adding a bit of tank water every few minutes. The process should take about 30 minutes to complete.

After the eggs are in, the tank will need to be kept dark for about a week (or until they hatch.) We'll make sure there's a small viewing window so you can peek in and see what's going on.

The Question of the Day

What everyone wants to know is WHEN ARE THE FISH COMING? Well, the answer comes in two parts:

1. We're not getting fish right away. We're getting Brook Trout EGGS in the "eyed" stage from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

2. The EGGS will be coming some time in October, but the exact date has not yet been determined. We'll have to wait until the female fish at the hatchery actually lay the eggs, and the eggs have a chance to develop from the "green" stage, when they are extremly fragile, to the "eyed" stage.

Stay tuned!

The Tank is Full! (of water, that is)

The trout tank has now been filled with water. Filling it was no small task. After all of the equipment was delivered, and the stand for the tank was assembled, there was still much to do before the water was put in.

The chiller, which keeps the water to a cool 55 degrees, had to be set up. The filter, which keeps the water clean, had to be installed. The bubbler, which oxygenates the water, had to be up and running. And, the gravel and lava rocks that provide the substrate (bottom of the tank) where the fish and algea can hide, had to be cleaned and layed out. And a thermometer was installed to allow us to track the tank temperature.

When all of those things were done, 55 gallons of clean water were added to the tank. That took lots of trips to the sink in the teachers lounge!

The Trout Tank is Coming!

I'm looking forward to sharing what's going on with the Trout Tank that the Terraset Nature Club will be setting up and maintaining this year. This project is possible due to a donation that Wetland Solutions made to the local chapter of Trout Unlimited for the Trout in the Classroom program.

The tank has been ordered and should arrive later this month. As soon as it does, I'll post pictures.

Welcome to our Blogspot!

We want to share our experiences and ideas from our after school clubs. Please come back regularly if you are interested in what we are doing!

This is our school field in fall. We have a very interesting school -- it is built into the side of a hill! It also backs onto a stream that runs through miles of forested area with great walking paths. There is plenty to explore down there!