Trout In The Classroom

Mrs. Jardine's Science Classes 2022

Please be sure to check out the "Student Work" page!

TIC

Trout in the classroom (TIC) is an environmental education program that partners schools with Trout Unlimited. This engaging program enables students to raise trout from eggs to the fingerling stage in their classroom and release them in a state-approved stream near their school.

Along the way students learn to monitor water chemistry, engage in stream habitat study, learn to appreciate water resources, begin to foster a conservation ethic and grow to understand ecosystems.

This is our first year having trout at Miller's Run School and I'm super excited to share this journey with you!

June Update- RELEASE DAY!

June 8, 2022- Today we were joined by volunteers from Trout Unlimited and Vermont Fish and Game as we released our brook trout! We released our trout in a tributary of the Miller's Run River right behind our school in Sheffield. We scouted out a shallow sandy pool on the edge of the river with plenty of shelter for the trout to hide in. It was an exciting day and we are looking forward to having trout in the classroom again next year!

May Update-

We have scheduled our release date for June 8th! Local volunteers from the community as well as Vermont Fish & Game will be assisting us with the release. We are very fortunate to have 2 viable streams within walking distance from our school to release the trout into.

This month students have observed how the trout have really grown to look very different from each other- just like people do! Some are a lot larger, some have dark stripes and markings while others are very light with almost a translucent coloring. But they are all the same species and all have the right to live.

Below you will see a video taken at feeding time. We turned off the filter for the video because when it is running the filter causes a current that spreads the food around and makes the video a little tricky to capture the different characteristics of the trout.

March Update-

The trout have grown so much over the last month! We now have fingerling or juvenile brook trout. The beginning of the month brought some unexpected death of about 15 fish. Our water chemistry was perfect so we were puzzled as we observed a few dead fish every morning for about a week straight. TIC experts assured us it was normal fish mortality but suggested we give some of the weaker swimmers a better chance by separating them into a different breeder basket. With less competition for food, these weaker swimmers made some big strides and eventually we were able to add them back to the larger breeder basket with the other fish.

In the first week of April we lowered one side of the breeder basket to allow the fish to swim in and out & around the entire tank. See pictures below.

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February 22nd Update-

This week the Nitrite levels in the tank reached 3 parts per million (3ppm) which is toxic to the trout. The only way to reduce the nitrite to a safe level is to change the tank water. This is a time consuming process but it gives us a chance to get an up close look at the trout. I'm pleased to report that we only lost 1 fish and thanks to the continued monitoring of the water by Mrs. Jardine & Mr. McGrath over winter break, everyone else looks healthy and the nitrite level is back at 1ppm.

Below you can see pictures of the trout in a large beaker while the tank water was emptied 75% of the way.

February 15th Update-

Our fry have begun to swim up for food! Although we have begun feeding them, they will stay in the breeder basket until they are a little bigger & strong enough to swim up to the top of the tank for food. The breeder basket hangs just a short distance from the surface of the water so it's a shorter swim for them to the surface. This week we unfortunately had to euthanize a few of our fry because they developed what is called Coagulated Yolk Disease (white spot disease). Be sure to check out the student work section to learn more about White Spot Disease. Below are a few pictures of the infected fry before we euthanized them.

Clinical signs of white spot disease include a white mass in the visceral cavity, as seen in these fry.

February 8th Update-

The alevin have developed into fry or fingerlings! We know this because they have lost their yolk sac and are getting ready to swim up for food! You can see in the pictures taken today the yolk sac is gone and the fish are developing more of a "fish shape" as opposed to a "tadpole shape."

This week we will take the styrofoam cover off the front of the tank to expose the fry to daylight. We are hoping they will start to swim up by next week.

January 25th Update-

All of our eggs have hatched except for a few which were removed to prevent the spread of fungus.

Our alevin are growing and developing nicely. We have observed some are slightly bigger than others. For the most part the alevin are inactive on the bottom of the breeder basket which is normal behavior at this stage. In nature these little alevin would be nestled among pebbles and sediments on the bottom of the river bed.

The development of trout is determined by the water temperature and time. We are using an algorithm developed by Trout in the Classroom to calculate the "development index" for our alevin. The development index (DI) is a number that tells us how far along developmentally the trout are. This number is important for us to track because it will determine when the trout reach, what is called the "swim-up stage". This is when the alevin have lost their yolk sac and have developed the ability to swim up to the surface of the water to feed. At this point we will start feeding the fish. The swim-up stage can occur over the course of a few days so our goal is to try to control the swim-up to happen on a school day and NOT during our February break. If we miss the swim-up stage we could see high mortality rates.

Below are a few pictures of our alevin taken on January 25, 2022.

We have a 55 gallon tank insulated with foam board on all 4 sides and the bottom. The foam board helps the chiller maintain a water temperature of 40°F, the ideal temperature for the trout at this stage.

Egg Arrival!

On Wednesday January 13th, our trout eggs were delivered in a mason jar of cold water. The first step was acclimating the little trout to the water temperature in the tank. To do this, we rested the mason jar inside the breeder basket for about 30 minutes. At that time we carefully poured the little alevin into the breeder basket inside the tank.

Due to the very warm weather we had in December, the eggs were further along developmentally than originally planned. This means most of the eggs were already hatched when they arrived.

The breeder basket was custom made by one of our 8th grade students using a plastic bin, some screen and coat-hanger wire.

The alevin will stay in the breeder basket at the top of the tank until they develop the ability to swim up for food. Until then they will use their yolk sac for all of the nutrition they need.

Be sure to check out the links at the top of the page to learn more about trout, see student work and our daily tank data.

In this video you can see some of the alevin wiggle around.

Check back for weekly updates as we watch our alevins develop and grow!

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