Today we saw something exciting!  Doreyan and Laekynn were the first ones to see one of our trout eating another.  We all ran over to see.  The trout had a skinny dead trout in its mouth.  It had half of the body in its mouth and the head part was sticking out.  We took a picture.  Then another trout came over and they started fighting over it.  It started a tug-o-war!  Supertrout won!


 

The trout are doing really well! 

Our bubbler broke but Mrs. Bukoski bought a new one with money from Trout Unlimited and PA Fish and Boat Commission.

We have had 2 students try and siphon the water by themselves and they were successful!  The rest of the class said they want to learn as well.  Mrs. Bukoski will gladly hand over the water changing job to the class. 

Here's what we have noticed so far:

Marisa - The trout are getting bigger.  Some of the fish are feeding at the top and some are feeding at the bottom.

Britian - The ammonia and nitrites are going back down to zero.

Caleb D. - The nitrites are heading from 10 down to 5. 

Laekynn - The H20 testing is bumpy.  The levels are going up and down.

Mrs. Bukoski - The class is doing well with the water testing!

Once our alevins started to swim up, we took them out of the net and uncovered the tank.  Now that they don't have their yolk sacs and can swim up and eat their food, they are called fry. 

We started feeding them size 0 food and just switched them to size 1 food.  We noticed they wait for their food at the bottom and the top. 

The ones who didn't learn to eat died.  We have to siphon out the dead fish.  We also siphon out 4 gallons of dirty water a day and replace it with clean water.  The water must sit for 24 hours before we can put it in the tank to get rid of the chlorine.

Third graders taught us how to water test and now we are doing it on our own in groups.  We noticed some with crooked spines and two two-headed fish. 

Thanks to Trout Unlimited and PA Fish and Boat Commision we are raising Brook Trout again!

Our new eggs arrived on November 5th and our total count was 344 viable, or alive, eggs. 

At this point they have all hatched and are now alevins.  They can't swim until they finish feeding off of their yolk sacs and become bigger and stronger.  They can't be exposed to light so they remain covered up.

Third grade students who participated last year will be coming back to help teach us how to test the water and graph the results. 

Look for future updates from the students.  Please feel free to comment or ask questions.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mrs. Bukoski