Almost fry!

Mrs. Mali has been checking in on our fish a lot over break.  Today, Mrs. Davis stopped in too.  THE FISH HAVE CHANGED SO MUCH THAT WE CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!

Photos from Tuesday, December 30th:

Mrs. Davis' little scientists loved seeing the salmon in person!

Picture and Salmon Cam Updates!

Here are two new updates to share pictures and live video with you!  Please click the first link under "Useful Links" to be redirected to the flickr photo album of our salmon pics.  Also, to view the live webcam, just click the link under "View the Salmon Cam!"  Enjoy!  They are growing SO FAST!

The alevin are getting so big!

Watching the Alevin grow is amazing! They are all, with the exception of three, seeming to thrive in the tank. Many are even getting to the top of the tank, but then plummet down after using all their strength and energy to get to the top. One has a curled tail and swims in circles on the bottom and two have a clear bubble surrounding their yolk sac. The three aforementioned alevin do not swim quite like the rest. Overall, everything else is going great! Check out the kids' blog posts to see pictures and videos!

The three in question tend to stay close together in the center of the tank while the rest gather crazily in the corners.

Amazing Alevin!

We have an incredible amount of alevin in our tank! So far we have lost only five eggs and it looks as though we might have a few more that won't hatch. Please be sure to check out the Salmon Cam which is now embedded at the bottom of the page. 

Wednesday vs. Friday

Here are two pictures from the same spot in the tank. Look at the number that have hatched from Wednesday to Friday!

Thankful for all our eggs that are hatching!

Salmon Cam Help!

Here are some tips for using Internet Explorer to view the webcam.  Also, PLEASE close your session when you are not viewing because there is a limit for simultaneous viewers.  Thank you! 

1. Got to the salmon cam site: http://216.11.6.232:88/. 
2. In Internet Explorer, click “Tools” (gear) > “Internet Options“.
3. Click the “Security” tab.
4. In the “Select a zone to view or change security settings“, select “Trusted sites“.
5. Move the “Security level for this zone slider” down to “Low“, then click “Apply“.
   
6. Click the “Sites” button.
7. Type the URL to the website the software is hosted on in the “Add this website to the zone” field and click “Add“. If the website doesn’t have an HTTPS URL, uncheck the “Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone” box, then add it to the box. Click “Close” when finished.
   
8. Click “OK” on the Internet Options screen.
9. Close Internet Explorer and try to load the web page again. I’m hoping you have success loading the software this time.

Salmon Update!

We have such exciting news about our chinook salmon eggs! They are hatching one after another! We have numerous eggs that have already hatched and many are on their way! Our webcam is also up and running and there is a link and directions on the top left of our blog!

Along with eggs continuing to hatch comes the job of removing eggs we know will not hatch. We learned that when eggs are completely white they will not hatch. So, on Friday, November 21, Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Mali removed the first all white egg along with the empty egg of the first hatched fry.

The picture below shows the empty egg on the left and the white egg on the right. Something interesting that we learned was that the white egg appeared much less white out of the water. 

Close up of our new friend!

We have two babies!

We discovered this morning that two eggs hatched! They even move around the bottom of the tank!

Our Wolf Lake Hatchery Visit

On November 5th we had an amazing day! One of the first highlights of our day was the tour of the hatchery. We learned all about how the eggs undergo fertilization as well as how much and how often we will feed our salmon.

We also were able to see the other fish such as sturgeon and trout that are raised at the hatchery.

Our day was filled with learning all about various aspects of salmon in Michigan from the history of salmon's arrival to the technicalities of keeping our salmon safe and healthy until we release them in the spring. We also learned the stages of the chinook salmon lifecycle and we received the amazing "salmon sampler" made by the Patterson family pictured below. 

Once our day in Mattawan was complete, we drove back to BCS to introduce our eggs to the their new tank. We had to acclimate the eggs slowly to equilize the temperature of the water in our bag of eggs to the temperature of the tank.

Our eggs were fertilized on October 7th. It should take approximately 45 days for our eggs to begin hatching. We cannot wait for the hatching to begin and we will continue to test the water diligently at least twice a week to ensure the quality of the water. Another huge thank you to Premier Pets and our PTSA for everything! 

We begin our journey...

We have our ~200 salmon eggs safe and sound in our beautiful aquarium!  Now the waiting game begins.  We will monitor our water and our eggs closely to make sure we maintain optimal conditions.  Currently, our water is 48 degrees.  It was certainly chilly when we placed the eggs inside!  We will have more pictures and information from our day at Wolf Lake Hatchery coming soon!  Can you count the eggs?  (There are seven not pictured below because they floated over to the left!)