Nearing Release Day

Although it has been a while since we posted last, we haven't stopped caring for and observing our salmon fry! As they approach the smolt stage of their life cycle, it means it is time to release them to begin their journey towards Lake Erie. We feel very fortunate to have approximately 180 salmon to release next week. Below are some recent pictures to show how big they are now!

Water Quality

Making sure our fish have water that is clean and has just the right levels of chemicals is by far our biggest task.  The past few days, our nitrites and ammonia have been high-in the "dangerous" or "unsafe" range.  We get the water chemicals back in check, we do a water change (see last week's post on how we water change) and Friday, Saturday, and today, we also added some chemical treatments to help the levels come back into the safe ranges faster.  

The fish are behaving well, which is the first step to analyzing our water quality.

Next, we use test strips to test these chemicals:

Then, we did a water change.  The kids emptied about 10% of our water, then Mrs. Davis used a kitchen baster to suction up the solid fish waste  (poop) from the bottom of the tank.  

When we add new water, we have to add a chemical to neutralize the chorine that is is our tap water.  Chlorine kills fish.  This chemical called Prime takes care of our chlorine.  We only add about 1 mL of Prime for our new 6 gallons of water.  Today we added 2 mL to try to bring our nitrite level back down to the safe range.  We will do test strips tomorrow to see how it's doing.

After refilling the tank, we then feed the fish. Today, we moved up to the second size of fish food pellets from then DNR.

From our research and looking at our data, we think our chemical levels are part of the natural cycling process that comes with establishing a new tank.

Chart courtesy of the MI DNR Salmon In the Classroom Program.

Water Change

Now that our fish are eating food, they are also producing solid waste.  That means that our tank is now getting dirty with poop and uneaten food.  To keep the water clean, we test the water quality (watch for a post about that next week) and twice a week we change 10% of the water.  How do we do a water change?

First, we remove about six gallons of water.

Next, one of the teachers uses a suction device (baster or siphon) to remove waste from the bottom of the tank.  The water FREEZES our hands!!

Our debate today was is this uneaten food or is it fish poop? What do you think?

Finally, we connect a hose to our sink and run the hose across the room to the tank. We turn on the water until the tank is full.  We also add a chemical called Prime to the tank to kill the chorine and any ammonia that is in the water. (Mrs. Mali, Mrs. Davis, and Mr. Mike from Premier Pet Supply did some math to determine how much Prime to be right for the amount of new water and also we used math to mark the tank with a sharpie so we would know where the 10% water level is.)

Yum!

Cooking dinner...can you believe our fish will one day get this big?

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!