Trout Report #2
Greetings from I.S. 318's Trout in The Classroom Program. The
remaining fry have lost their yolk sacs (their source of nutrition
and oxygen for the first few weeks of life) and are feeding on
their own. They average length is between 15 -20 mm, up from 10
mm when they hatched out on 10/21/99. Much of the development
of the young fish has been captured on tape via the live trout-cam.
The tape is currently being edited along with footage of students
in the program doing their thing. We will look forward to a final
tape (coordinated by Joan Stoliar) about the N.Y. program sometime
in the spring. The Trout
in the Classroom web site now has an interactive discussion
area and we encourage you to visit and participate.
Mr. Arezzo has been out with another injury to his leg, since November 8, and word is he is having crutches permanently attached to his arms. Mr. Jensen and the students involved in the program have been doing a great job of maintaining the program with the help of Mr. Cruz and Mr. Makuch. The latest news is that we are down to less than 100 fry. It seems that the fry have found a small leak in the hatchery and escaped fish are slowly disappearing. It is assumed that the larger trout in the main tank have eaten them. Mr. Jensen and the team are currently working on securing the hatchery.
Some other observations:
Many of the deformed hatchlings have passed on - most of the deformed
fish shared an odd curvature of the spine that made it difficult
for them to swim. The fry are often bunched in the corner of the
hatchery or near rocks. They are starting to become more active
and can be seen darting around the tank.
Flashback~
~This past summer, Ms. Coughlin and her summer school class along
with Mr. Cruz cared for the 24 remaining finger lings left over
from the fall 1998 batch of eggs. The crew did a great job of
fattening up the fish and keeping the program alive. The fish
were about 5 inches in length in September. Unfortunately the
fall was not as pleasant for our fish - the tank pH sunk below
six (acidic) and the bottom of the tank was not filtering properly.
The shades of the classroom were left open and the tank was choked
with algae. We managed to clean up the tank but then tragedy hit.
The chiller was accidently left unplugged over the weekend allowing
the water to heat up to 85 F. The fish were found dead on Monday
morning. They were found lying at the bottom and between rocks.
The dead fish were removed from the tank and buried in the Project
Roots Community Garden.
~Many of the trout team members from last year have graduated on to high school. Fortunately some of them have stayed involved with the program. Vas (99) returned in the beginning of the year to help start up the compost program. He has stayed in touch by email and has sent comments, questions and advice to the new trout team. Danny Burgos (98) has been in to visit as well and is now working part time for GreenThumb. Ninoska (98) also has visited us and now attends Art & Design H..S. where she has volunteered to be involved in their trout program. Saci (99) attends the H.S. for Teaching and has come back to us as an intern.
~ On October 5th Chris Cefola (designer) returned to the Ecology Center to work on the Trout Stream System. He installed a new UV light and filter pads. He worked on a new water change device and reinstalled the hatchery to prepare the tank for the arrival of the new eggs.
~ On October 11th the Stoliars transported the eggs and three
six-inch trout from the N.Y.S. Hatchery to I.S. 318 in Brooklyn.
The next day the eggs were unpacked and 237 were put into our
hatchery basket. The remaining eggs were picked up by Felicia
Tanner and Arthur Ziegler to be transported to Queens and Manhattan
schools. The large fish in the main area of the tank suffered
a difficult first month. The low pH put them in a mild state of
shock and they would not eat. Chris Jensen and the students on
the trout team conducted daily water changes and removed much
of the uneaten food from the bottom of the tank. In an attempt
to resolve the problem quickly an alkaline water conditioner was
added to the water. The pH rose to 6.4, the highest it had been
since last year, and then leveled off to 6.2. The fish responded
favorably and began eating regularly. The fry do not seem to be
seriously affected by the low pH..
Pictures of recent events have been added to the
I.S. 318 web site. Visit the web site and click on "Trout
in the Classroom", then "Photo Gallery 99/00" to
see the new images.
~Hope all is well in your streams
the trout team at I.S. 318