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.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

There are no eggs in sight. All of the trout have hatched and even though the majority of them are mainly motionless, there are several that are moving constantly. In fact, there was one yesterday that was swimming very close to the surface that we were worried that it might jump out.

In order to possibly elevate the crowding in the baskets, we decided to go ahead and lower them to the bottom of the aquarium. By doing so, those trout that are able to swim out would get the chance. We have had only one brave soul so far. It swam out and quickly disappeared in the gravel. Let's see what happens over the weekend.

Up Close and Personal

Today started off with some pH corrections. The pH was above 8.2 and that had me concerned. I purchased some pH regulating tablets at Walmart and put in a couple. They worked, this afternoon it was back down to 7.4. I hope by doing this I didn't create some other problem.

The students had their first opportunity to see the alevin up close in class today. We took a few out in some plastic cups and the kids observed them and made some notes. It was great to see them take an interest in their fish. Marlo spotted what we think are Siamese twins. Two alevin were joined together. You can see them on the right in the overhead shot.

Oh Where, Oh Where have the little trout eggs gone?

Where have they gone? Just a few days ago we were loaded with eggs and now it is very difficult to find one. They have practically all hatched! I forgot to take a picture today but I will get one tomorrow.

A few things happened today. First, in taking out some empty egg casings, I accidentally released an alevin into the main tank. It quickly went down into the gravel to hide. I had to put a mesh netting around the filter intake to avoid having it sucked into the filter.

Second, the pH level seems a little high (8.2) and that has me concerned. I guess we are going to have to treat the aquarium with something to lower it. Ammonia and Nitrite still holding at 0 ppm.

Finally, the hatching baskets might have be let down tomorrow. With all the eggs now hatched, the fish will be needing more room. We will make that decision in the morning.

Many fish-Lots of Foam

This is the first weekend that the TIC aquarium has experienced since we got the eggs. We checked it Sunday afternoon and found many alevin swimming around. There seems to be more of them than eggs now.

We also saw a large amount of foam in the water. I quickly checked the ammonia level but it was fine. I went ahead and changed about 20% of the water just to be safe. I know the kids will be excited when they come in tomorrow and see all the trout.

It's Hatching Time

It looks like it is hatching time. We saw several alevin today hatch from their eggs. At first we thought that the eggs were dead because they were white, but as it turns out, these were the egg shells left behind by the hatching trout. If this rate continues, we should come to school on Monday and be greeted with a large number of swimming fish. Lets hope that is the case.

Live Ones and Dead Ones!

Today we had good news and bad news. The bad news is that we found our first dead eggs. A total of 5 dead eggs were removed including one that hatched but the sac-fry (alevin) was born dead. The good news is that we have 3 live alevin. They are still basically motionless and sitting on top of the rest of the eggs so they are hard to see.

If you look carefully in the photos above, you will be able to see the dead alevin in the beaker.

Getting to know our Brood

Some classes took their first good look at the trout eggs today. Some students estimate that there are close to 400 eggs. That seems a little high to me but we will see. We think we spotted our first "white" egg which means that it is dead. We will check on it tomorrow. All readings are good (pH, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates.

Trout Eggs Are Here!

On Monday, February 22, John Wright from the Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Rick Castell from the NM Game and Fish delivered over 200 eggs. Come and See Them!