Losing Half of Our Family

On Friday, April 23, we had to give up half of our trout. Over the past few weeks the ammonia levels have just been super high. Not even twice a week water changes and chemicals designed to "lock up" the ammonia have worked.

I called a local pet store and town and explained our situation and asked for some advise. They told me that there should be only 1 inch of fish per gallon, otherwise the bacterial filter was not going to be able to keep up. Well, we probably have about 1 foot of fish per gallon. Time to make a hard decision.

I called Rick Castell from the NM Game and Fish and he offered to remove about half of the trout and take them to Tingley Beach. Luckily, I was gone when he showed up or else I might have cried. My wife said that the kids were very sad to see them go. I hope we made the right decision. We have about 3 more weeks to go until Release Day.

Check out the video to see how many trout we had before they took some of them.

6 Weeks!

Today is six weeks since we received the eggs. The fry are getting bigger and doing well. I am still worried that with so many fish, something has got to go wrong with the water.

Finding the right amount to feed them is another challenge. We are feeding 3 times a day, and they consume the food within 5 minutes or so. Too little or too much? Only time will tell.

The picture shows a close up of the fish during a feeding frenzy.

Siamese Twins?

We discovered some Siamese Twins today. There are two fry joined at the yolk sac (belly to belly). One is right side up (the stronger of the two) and the other is upside down. Both are alive but I don't think they will last long. It is going to hard for them to feed, especially with all the competition they have.

Also included in this posting is another presentation of the trout life cycle by Jaleh assisted by Zelma.

More Fish per Mile than the San Juan

It has been 30 days since we receive our eggs and what has transpired is just amazing. We have an aquarium that is loaded with trout. I would estimate that the number is over 200. This is scary because I know that this is going to tax the water quality to the max. Another thing to worry about is feeding. I don't want to over feed due to the increase in ammonia but at the same time, there are many mouths to feed. Let's hope we can find a balance.

Earlier I posted some Trout Life Cycle posters created by the students. A group of three students decided to do a rap song on the life cycle. Check the lyrics below and then click on the link to watch the performance.

Trout, Trout Baby!
by Mallory, Lexy, and Rachael

Yo, Fishes, let's kick it!

Trout, trout baby
Trout, trout baby

All right stop
In science class just listen
The trout life cycle is our
intention
Eggs gathered up so tightly
Shipped to our class over
nightly
Will it ever stop?
Yo, I don't know
Well the answer is no
In the wild, the redd gets built
Then the eggs get deposits of
milt

Alevins
Is what they'll be
Feeding off yolk sacs is the key
Fry's, is what they will be next
These weird creatures leave
me perplexed
Fry's mature at age 3
Trout rarely live past 5
Trout live in lakes
But return to streams
To spawn like a dream
Back to the gravel these fish
retreat
After they spawn the cycle repeats

Trout, trout baby
Trout, trout baby
Trout, trout baby

Word to your mother!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og45V7HKcMw

Getting to Old to Play Hide and Seek

We are on Spring Break this week and the Mrs. has had me doing some "chores" around the house. Consequently, I have been in town instead of out fishing somewhere. Since I am near the school, I have been checking on the fish daily.

On Monday the pH was at 8.4 and the ammonia at 1.0 ppm. I was a little concerned about these readings so I dropped some pH Correct in the tank. Today the readings were a little better, pH was down to 8.0 and the ammonia came down to 0.5 ppm. Let's hope they stay around these levels.

The fish are leaving their hiding places in the gravel more and more now and are seen swimming throughout the tank. I have been dropping just a pinch of food in the tank the last few days but still have not seen them show much interest in it. If they want to make it to the fingerling stage, they are going to have to start eating.

Release Day: Into the Aquarium

Yesterday was release day. The students were able to view their fish up close as we put them in the viewing cups. Some measurements were taken and reported lengths on some fish were about 2cm. After viewing the fish, the students released them into the main tank. We then turned the hatching baskets upside-down and let all of them go.

There are many now with little or no yolk-sacs so they were given their first feeding. I was hesitant to do this because uneaten food means ammonia build-up but I don't want them to starve to death either.

Saturday morning my wife and I tested the water. pH was elevated to 8.4 (the highest we have seen it), ammonia was at 1.0 ppm (the highest reading so far), nitrite and nitrate levels were at 0 ppm. Our babies are getting bigger so we can expect the levels to start going up. We changed 20% of the water and dropped a little bit more food in. Keep your fingers crossed.

Check out the videos. I hope to be able to post some of the release videos soon if I can get parental permission.

Trout Life Cycle

Our trout are still in the hatching baskets and they are still at the bottom of the tank. Only a few brave souls have ventured out into the main tank and have quickly hidden themselves in the gravel. Next week is Spring Break for our school so we have decided to let all of them out of the hatching baskets tomorrow.

Our tank still looks good with no visible signs of algae, however, we are seeing our first rise of the ammonia readings. They are hovering around the 0.5 ppm range. Let's hope they don't go any higher.

The students had an assignment to present the life cycle of a trout to the class. Some of them created posters while others wrote poetry, did a puppet show, rap song, or a video. I am including pictures of some posters and hope to have some videos up soon.