Swimming

Our fish sure are growing.  The majority of the trout have their fins now.  In fact, most of the trout in Coach Williams tank are swimming.  The ones in Mrs. Brown's tank are developing a little bit slower.

Swimming in Coach Williams tank

 Can you see their fins?

These two poor trout didn't finish developing :(

Got Fins!

Our trout are continuing to grow.  Everyday students will comment I think one is dead it is just lying there.  No the trout are not dead!  Right now the trout are feeding off their yolk sac and they have no fins.  When they first start to develop, they really don't move on their own unless disturbed.  However, as of today they are starting to move a little more.  If you look closely, the alevin have a white border around them.  This is not fungus but actually their fins starting to grow.  Once their fins start to develop they will start to swim more.  Here is a short video clip and some photos of our trout today.

 Coach Williams Trout all in a huddle

Close up of Ms. Brown's trout (Can you see the tail and dorsal fins developing?)

Here they are moving a little more by themselves

Friday Update for Mrs. Brown's tank

Since Mrs. Brown's tank is a little colder it took a few more days for her trout to hatch. Yesterday 1/15 only half had hatched.  Today all except one have hatched.  He probably won't survive see the picture below but we'll give him to the end of the day to see if he can work his way out of his egg.

One of the signs that the trout eggs are getting ready to hatch is that they start rolling. If you notice in this video taken Monday, some eggs in the bottom left are rolling.

 Thursday 1/15 picture:  Half and Half 

 Here is another one that didn't make it .  It looks like his yolk sac burst.

 Friday's group photo.  Notice they all like to cluster together.

Will he survive?   Notice his yolk sac has come out of his egg but his body and head have not.

There is no yolk sac on this one so he went to the big river in the sky.

Friday update for Coach Williams tank

Wow, these eggs are ready to be fish.  Monday night (1/12), one of the eggs had hatched.  Yesterday (1/15), all of the eggs have hatched and they are now considered Alevin.  A check on the trout today showed that two did not survive.  However, all the rest are flourishing which is a good survival rate!

Can you see the  first hatch?  He is on the left close to the top.

Here he is swimming

Thursday trout selfie

Watch them wiggle

 Poor guy didn't survive.  If you look closely part of his yolk sac did not come out.

 Same problem with this one

Friday Group Photo 

Sad Day

After a weekend break, the first thing that we do is check the tank to see if the eggs have hatched and if everything looks okay.  Once they hatch, we then monitor to make sure all are still alive.  This morning when we came in this is what we saw.  Looks like one egg tried to hatch but it did not survive.

If you look closely, you can see that the trout started to come out of the egg but his yolk sac popped.

Here we go again...

It is that time of year again.  The trout eggs arrived today and they are now acclimating to the tanks.  This year we actually have two tanks running.  One tank is located in Mrs. Brown's room the other is in Coach William's room.  Each tank has approximately 100 eggs in their basket.  It will be interesting to see how many trout hatch in each tank.  If you look carefully at the eggs, you will notice little black spots.  Those spots are the eyes.  Therefore in this stage of the life cycle, they are called eyed eggs.  One question that is always asked is why is there blue around Mrs. Brown's tank.  The blue is insulation for the trout.  Trout need water that is kept around 54 degrees.  Each tank has a special chiller to make the tanks this cold.  The blue insulation helps to keep the tank cold so the chiller does not work as hard.  Coach Williams tank will also get insulation put around it.  We ran out and need to get more for his tank.  ;)

 Eggs acclimating in Tank #1 (Brown's tank)

Eggs acclimating in Tank #2 (Williams tank)

Mrs. Brown's tank

Coach Williams tank

 Close up of the eggs

Another close up