Big news! Over the weekend the rainbow trout eggs started hatching! We still have lots of eggs left, but some are hatched and called alevins. This is the second stage of the rainbow trout life cycle. (you can see the rainbow trout life cycle in the first update) No eggs have died so far, so the mortality rate is 0% still.

Fish fact of the day: Right now we do not have to feed the alevins because they have a yolk sac which gives them nutrients just like an umbilical cord would feed babies.

Today there’s no updates on the fish, so we are going to teach you about the tank, and how it works! We have a water team that controls the water temperature, pH, and adds the right chemicals when needed. We also have a feeding team that will feed the fish when they get to the fry stage, and last but not least we have a mortality rate team, who keep track of the dead ones. The reason the tank is insulated is so that the tank stays dark and cold, there is also a chiller that keeps it cool.

Fish fact of the day: The chiller has to stay at 50 degrees fahrenheit, because that is the average temperature of lakes.

Over the break lots of things happened with the rainbow trout. Ms. Sapieha released them from the 2-in-1 hatchery. They all swam down to the bottom to hide in the rocks. Soon enough their yolk sacs will all be gone then our feeding group will have to start feeding them. That is also when we start adjusting them to a day/night cycle.

If you would like to see the fish being released from the 2-in-1 hatchery go to the macdonald school facebook page.

Fish fact of the day: Once the rainbow trouts yolk sac is gone completely the fish will come up to the surface looking for food. That’s when we feed them.

Today we fed the fish for the first time! We feed them 0.25 grams twice a day. For now we feed the rainbow trout 0.5 grams of finely ground food. Once that food runs out we will feed the fish bigger pieces of food.

Our feeding team is doing a great job at feeding the fish so far and our class is having fun watching all the fish eat the food, and grow up in general.

Sadly, 2 of our fishy friends have died, but we still have 98 baby rainbow trout left.

Fish fact of the day: We knew we should start feeding the fish because 75% of the fish started to swim around and look for food.

One of the reasons the fish are staying alive is because of our water quality team. They make sure the water is clean and safe for our rainbow trout. They add the right amount of chemicals when needed. Some chemicals are added when they change the water, and some are added straight into the tank. The water quality team works together to change the water 2-3 times per week so it doesn’t get cloudy.

Fish fact of the day: There are 2 different chemicals that we put in the tank. 1 is Nutrafin Aqua Plus and the other is called Nutrafin cycle.

Sadly on March 15, 2021 we had almost half of our fish die. 42 of our rainbow trout died at 11:30ish. There are 2 reasons that they could have died. Our first assumption is that the fish weren’t getting any oxygen because we found the air tube unconnected. Our second assumption is that the water people did something to the water. Since then 32 more have died, and we are left with our 23 survivors.

Fish fact of the day: Each fish gets approximately 0.01 grams of food per day.

Over the weekend, the rest of our rainbow trout died. APRIL FOOLS!!! We still have 21 fish still swimming around. The water team has been working extra hard recently to clean in the rocks, and make sure that the water stays clean. The feeding team is also working really hard to keep the fish alive. We have had 79 fish die, but we celebrate the good things, like that we still have 21 fish to release into a rainbow trout safe environment. We are optimistic that we can keep these 21 fish alive. There will be another update coming soon about our filter system, because our water team is cleaning that today.

Fish fact of the day: We have to clean the water 2-3 times per week so that the water doesn’t get green.

Over the Easter break another 6 of our rainbow trout died. That leaves 15 fish left. We had Ms. S come in almost every day to clean the tank, feed the fish, and get the dead fish out for us. They would all be gone without her help! Thanks Ms. S! On February break we didn’t have to do much because they were still little and didn’t require much help, now that they are bigger they need daily help.

Fish fact of the day: Now that the rainbow trout are bigger we need to clean the tank almost everyday. We only clean out bad bacteria and we leave the good bacteria.

We always start with how many more fish have died, so you will have to wait to see how many rainbow trout we have left. The fish eat 0.25 grams of food per day. That means each fish should get about 0.02 grams per day. We also have to clean their tank almost daily still. Now for the time you’ve been waiting for… the time you get to find out how many fish are left. As of Friday, April 23, 2021 we have ten rainbow trout left.

Fish fact of the day: We are releasing our rainbow trout into a rainbow-trout-safe environment sometime in May.

We have forgotten to tell you something! We switched the fish from in complete darkness to day and night cycles! They have been getting used to the day and nights for about 3-4 weeks. Only 1 has died since last week, leaving 9 rainbow trout left. Since we just did an update this one isn’t going to be as long as most.

Fish fact of the day: The average lifespan of a rainbow trout is 7-11 years.

Over this past week none have died! The nine we have left are our survivors! We still haven’t figured out where or when we are releasing them either. We are hoping to find out soon! Ms. Sapieha thinks that we will release them at the end of may, because we got them later than we thought. We are still keeping them fed, clean, and most importantly happy!

Fish fact of the day: Rainbow trout are mainly predators, and will catch anything really. They will eat insects, small fish, and minnows.

We have been VERY inactive lately! We weren’t updating much because the fish don’t really change at this point. Other than that they have gotten to be around 5ish centimetres long. 1 has died since we updated last so we have 8 fish left. I think it’s crazy that these 8 fish have been there through it all.

The Crazy 8!

Fish fact of the day: Rainbow trout are actually part of the salmon family!

On Wednesday, June 16, 2021 we got to release the rainbow trout in the reservoir in Kipling, Saskatchewan. Most of the fish were 6-7 centimeters long when we released them. It would have been nice to release 80, but at least we made it out with a few. None have died in the past month, so 8 fish got to go to the Kipling Reservoir. 11 students got to go, 7 who helped with the fish, and 4 extras who just wanted to see the fish go. After we went and got ice cream at a nearby store and had a great time overall! Most of the fish were 6-7 centimeters long when we released them.