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.