Mr. W's EnviroBlog

This blog is now closed. It was a great place for me to learn how to blog. You can read my current blog here: http://pdsblogs.org/derrickwillardblog/

One of our own, Matt, is working at Walhalla State Fish Hatcheries in Mountain Rest, SC for his senior project.  Experience Matt gained in our classroom raising hatchery trout is now being put to use in the “real world.”  Read about Matt’s experiences at his blog: http://pdsblogs.org/mattmsb/

On Saturday, April 17th several students and I drove to the North Carolina mountains to release our trout.  We got these trout (and the equipment to raise them) back in September 2009 with the help of the Rocky River Chapter of Trout Unlimited.  And thanks to a program developed by Trout Unlimited, called Trout in the Classroom, my students have learned a good bit about water quality, nutrient cycling, and fish development.

While we started out with close to two-hundred sac-fry, we only managed to successfully raise nine healthy fish.  We loaded them into a cooler, specialy equipped with two frozen 2-liter bottles (to keep water temps in the low 50′s) and an aerator (to keep the water well oxygenated).  Check out our setup below:

Our Trout Transporter

We drove two hours to The Green River Preserve, then found a nice spot along the Green River to release the trout.  We transferred them to a small minnow bucket, and walked them down to the river.

PDS Env. Sci. Students

Check out our short underwater video of the release of six of the fish into the Green River:

We released the remaining three fish into a small trout pond at the Green River Preserve base camp. Those fish will join other Rainbow Trout kept for the express purpose of teaching campers the joys of catching fish on a fly rod.

Thanks to everyone who helped us this year, but special thanks to Jim Mabrey (President of RRTU Chapter) and Sandy and Missy Schenck (owners of GRP).

Here is about a minute of video of our 6 month old trout.  We had to add aluminum foil to the top of the tank as one of our surviving 10 jumped out a few weeks ago!  Nine survivors will be freed this Saturday at the Green River Preserve, near Hendersonville, North Carolina…

Our fish have been with us almost 6 months now, and this Saturday we’ll set them free in the North Carolina mountains.  It is a bit tough to tell from the picture, but the largest fish is a little over four inches, and the average size is probably about three inches.

6 month fry

Check back tomorrow and I’ll upload some video of the little guys feeding…

Yes, in a little over a month, we’ll release our 10 survivors in the North Carolina mountains near the headwaters of the Green River.  I’ve gotten permission to release the fish at a private summer camp, the Green River Preserve.  The fish are growing quickly-I’ll post some new pics or video soon.

We are down to the “lucky 10.”  Of course, this was not by design.  These fish seem to be healthy and are feeding aggressively.  We have not lost a fish in over a week now.  It is hard to tell from the photo below, but the largest of our fish are now 2.5-3 inches in length.  Almost as long as a child’s finger…

February Fingerlings

And, here’s a little video of them also…

So, the conditions in the aquarium are stabilizing once again.  Nitrates are slowly coming down with water changes.  A few more fish were lost this week, so there are about 15 or so left in the tank.  Now, a new threat.  With all the stress over the last two weeks, the fish have developed some sort of protozoan, fungal, or bacterial disease.  Their are tiny white streaks on the edges of their fins.  At first glance, I thought we had a very common disease know as Ichthyophthirius multifilis, or ich, or white spot.  On second glance, I really think it may be fin rot.  Regardless, I have found some treatment solution and have applied it to water the last 3 days.  Crossing my fingers that this will work.

Well, it looks like we’ve managed to stabilize the nitrogen levels and pH in the tank.  The ammonia spike (and resulting nitrate spike) was caused apparently by overfeeding, and then dead fish collecting in the filter on the system. After many water changes later, things seem to be ok. Only about 20 fish remain.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to better control conditions and keep these guys for release around April.  They are about to enter their 4th month (since conception), and the largest fish are about 2.5 inches.

One of our 20 survivors

Apparently, we had too many fish (100?) and too much waste build up over the long school holiday.  We’ve lost about 60-70 of those fish over the last few days.  Even with water changes, it is tough to keep things in balance right now.  I knew we could not sustain those numbers as fish got larger, but wow.  So, the goal now is to keep 15 fish for my 15 students to release in a NC mountain stream this April.  If not, time to start over with new eggs…