Update

I went to school on the 22nd and fed the fish and changed the tank water.  All of the measurements were great, except for the pH level.  The ammonia was 0ppm, the nitrites and nitrates were also 0ppm, but the pH level read 8.8!  Then I realized that I had just fed the fish and that some of the food was probably tainting the pH level, so I took about 13 gallons out of the tank and measured again and got 8.2  Then, when I added the new water the pH went down to 7.4, which is a very acceptable level.  The temperature of the tank was 51.3 and the fish were very active!


I set up the automatic feeder and I hope that it works; I've heard stories of it not.  Mr. Geiman is going to check on them for us and call if there's a problem.  They are currently eating the food from the 1 batch, graduating from the starter food.  The biggest difference is in their appearance.  They are really starting to look like little fish now.  Their bellies are growing and you can start to see the silver scale pattern on their sides.  I can't wait for you all to get back to school and see the difference!  I will be up on the 29th to change the water again and will try to get some pictures on here.

Thanks, Mr. Geiman

This weekend has been a tough one.  I've been worrying about the trout who need fed fairly often when they start to swim.  The directions in my Trout in the Classroom book said to feed them less on Friday and to feed them first thing Monday morning.  


Due to our snow day, I was unable to go into the building to feed our fish.  Mr. Geiman quickly offered to do so, so that you Mr. Geiman for keeping our little fish healthy when we can't!  Kids, if you see Mr. Geiman in the hallway, please make it a point to thank him so that he knows that you all are aware that he cares about our fish, too.

Baby We Were Born To Swim!

Our fish have flown the nest... or the egg basket to be exact.  Two of our little alevin have begun to swim out of the egg basket and are eating.  They needed to be fed immediately and have eaten for about five minutes now.  They can't be overfed, so we'll try again in the afternoon.  Hopefully by then, some more of their brothers and sisters will be swimming around eating the starter food as well.  However, if the rest of their trout family can't make it out of the egg basket in a few days, they may not make it.  Survival of the fittest will take over once the fish start eating their food regularly.

You'll have to forgive the photo and video quality.  They were taken with an iPhone.  Not too bad for a little phone!

They're Really Growing... But Still Alevin

I was very relived to walk into my classroom this morning and find that the Rainbow Trout were still alevin.  They didn't yet need to be fed and all were still alive.  However, I did start to notice that some are looking a little differently than others.  Below I have a picture of what I feel is a healthy Rainbow Trout alevin.  You can see that the yolk sac is still attached, but is becoming smaller.  You can also see tiny fins moving when you look at them closely.

There are a small number in the tank that concern me.  It seems as though their yolk sacs are twice as big, but are transparent.  I can still see two tiny orange yolk sacs inside the transparent bag, and the alevin seem to have trouble swimming around.  In fact, when I got these two out of the tank to take pictures of them to post on here, one of their yolk sacs just fell off!  I was really heartbroken because I knew that meant that he or she had passed on.  I'm adding pictures of them below.

I'm going to call Don Thompson from Trout Unlimited after school to see if I need to remove these fish, or if it's just a natural deformity.

Also, Mr. Joe Chavez from Central Office came to visit with Ms. Leffler's fifth grade class this morning.  We had a great time and tested the water quality, and the kids showed a great understanding of what was going on.  Their predictions made me start to wonder about my own learning with this project.  Thanks for coming, Mr. Chavez!

Worrying on the Weekend

Weekends are for relaxing, but this weekend I will be worrying.  Their yolk sacs on their bellies are keeping them nourished in their current alevin stage.  They'll be in the alevin stage for 1-3 weeks, and since they hatched over Thanksgiving break I'm not sure exactly how old they are.  Our alevin are growing, which means that they'll be fry soon and will need to be fed immediately so that they won't starve.  So, I will be in school early Monday morning to make sure that they're not fry yet and our little fish aren't hungry.  Until then, I'm just going to have to worry.

Kids, I'm going to need your help.  If you see the alevin swimming out of the egg basket, that means that they are now fry and need to be fed their first batch of food.  Please let me know so that I can feed them and that they can grow.

How To Post a Comment

Hi everyone!  I'm so glad that we're getting followers and lots of comments!  I've had a few questions asking how to post a comment, so I've left detailed instructions below.  Students should follow these instructions.  The reason I would like these comments to be vague is for Internet safety, which Mrs. Berry has taught us lots about!


1. Click comments at the bottom of this post.
2. When it has the drop down menu, choose Name/URL.
3. When it asks for your name, please just put the first letter of your homeroom teacher (H for Hendrickson), and then your number.  For instance, if I was number 27 in my homeroom, my name on my comments would be H27.  Leave URL blank.
4. Write your answer!


If you're a parent, follow the same steps as above, and then put "parent" at the end of the number.


If you're a classroom, just write the name of your classroom.


If you're a staff member at our school, feel free to put your name.

Only the Good Die Young

As with everything that comes to and leaves this earth, some of our fish didn't make it through the day.  I have pictures of the passed on fish, which is neat because it shows different stages of development.  The black dots are the eyes.  It's important to get these fish out of the water soon because their decomposition will release harmful nitrates and nitrites into the water.

They've Hatched!!!

We now have little alevin swimming around!  It's hard to see, but those little grey lines are the fish, and the orange part is their yolk sack.  The yolk sack is their food source for the time being.  As you can see, they are still in their egg basket, but as soon as they absorb their yolk sack they will swim out of the basket and we will begin feeding them their regular food.  At this time, they are tiny!  Each little head is probably the size of the head of the pencil.  Come and see our new pets!



First Water Change

FYI - I did the first water change today. I'm starting to realize how much work this project is going to be. I hope I have all of my student's support!

They're Here!

I picked up our 200 trout eggs at Sportsman's Warehouse in Lexington at 6:30 last night, and they arrived safely at school this morning.  The temperature of the bag they were in was 34 degrees, and the temperature of the tank water was 51.2 degrees, so we had to acclimate the temperature of the eggs to the temperature of the water first, which took a few hours.

Next, our fifth grade classes tested the temperature, pH, ammonia level, nitrites, and nitrates in the tank and the bag to make sure that the levels in both were very similiar, which they were.  So, finally, we got to introduce our new eggs to their home!  We learned about structures and functions of animals and described the structures of the fish eggs (yolk sac and trout) and each structure's function.

Finally, our fourth grade classes learned about living, non living, and once living things by removing the white eggs that were dead from the egg basket.  The dead eggs will decompose and cause the nitrite and nitrate levels to increase, which is dangerous to the fish.

PHOTOS WILL BE COMING SOON!!!