Update, Special News

I would like to start by saying that I had nightmares about the health of our trout over winter break!  Last night I couldn't hardly sleep, and as soon as I got to school my worst (almost worst) fears had come true... our filter became unplugged by yours truly on December 22nd so I could clean the filter, and I guess I never plugged it back in.  The water was green.. and stinky!  Luckily, we only lost about 10-15 fish, and we were going to lose some of the fish due to competition over food, so I feel a lot better.  I changed 10 gallons of the water this morning, and 15 gallons this afternoon to make for a total of 25 gallons of water changed today, which is roughly half our tank.  I'm going to do this for a few more days until our water is a little more clear.

The fish are really growing.  We learned about the external anatomy of the trout today, including the fins (pectoral, pelvic, anal, dorsal, caudel, and adipose), eyes, gils, and lateral line.  The lateral line is by far the most interesting according to the students.  It's a line that goes from the gils to the end of the fish.  It is a really pretty pinkish color on the Rainbow Trout.  This line senses vibrations, which people interpret as sounds.  It's lateral line hears things around it!  We made this point by having students close their eyes and having someone walk around the room talking, while the person whose eyes were closed pointed to where they were in the room.  When a person talks, it shakes the air molecules, which in the ear shakes the eardrum, and the little tiny hairs touch the nerve in the ear which tells the brain that you've heard something.  This is what the lateral line does with a fish, so instead of hearing a neighbor through ears, it "hears" it through it's lateral line!

Applications for the Trout Team will be going home this week to fifth graders that are interested.

Pictures to come soon!