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Jesse's Hunting > Fishing Articles > Fishing Articles Archives > Trout in the Classroom
Trout in the Classroom
Fritz Schmitt - JHO Pro Staff
March 05, 2004
Trout in the classroom? |
Planting the eggs in the chilled aquarium. |
Fry checking out the fry. |
When will they hatch? |
Bucket o' fry |
Imagine your child coming home with this news flash "We are going to raise rainbow trout in our classroom and then release them in a stream."
I would guess most of us would have a dozen questions to ask Junior or Missy. In California, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG), along with different conservation organizations, join together to put on a program called Trout In the Classroom (TIC).
Fertile trout eggs |
The school's TIC program gets a batch of fertile trout eggs (pictured left) from a State fish hatchery. The 'eye' eggs are placed in an aquarium that, two weeks earlier, had been filled and chilled with special 'spring' water (Non chlorinated). The chiller unit looks like the back of a refrigerator stuck inside the tank.
You can see the cooling tubes in the photos. The temperature needs to stay in a certain range between 48-52 degrees. At 48 degrees, this is a cold job planting eggs. You have to move slow and careful to get the eggs in the gravel (Redd) without letting them to float freely in the tank, then cover with gravel. After placement, the tank gets covered with a cardboard box until the eggs hatch.
One of the assignments for the students is to predict the 'hatch date'. The students have to record the tanks temperature, using a formula to find the temperature unit (TU ) per day, along with the data supplied by the hatchery. Rainbow trout need 600-625 TU to hatch. Incubation time is measured in accumulated TU. TU is 1 degree Fahrenheit (F) above 32 F for 24 hours. (24 hour temp is 50, subtract 32 equals 18 TUs/day or 33.3 days needed to hatch. Pictured are some eggs making the transition to Alvin. After all the Alvin hatch, the tank can be uncovered. As they grow, the Alvin become Fry. The teacher will regulate the feeding with food supplied by the hatchery and the kids will watch them grow.
As they grow, they become free swimmers. If the tank uses a jet-type filter, they will ride the current. The students will often start to give them names and may claim ownership to a special Fry. But soon the time comes to gather the Fry into a bucket with some sort of aerator. The water is chilled and often in the warmer Southern California spring days, we will put special water ice cubes in the bucket.
At the release site, the bucket's water is slowly acclimated to that of the stream. While we would wait, our fishing club would do a presentation on aquatic life in the stream. If possible, each student gets one Fry to release. Teacher(s) and students sometimes cry as their special classroom pets are released.
There is great concern about the frys' survival. The students have be taught what things a trout needs to survive; clean cold water, food, oxygen, and cover. One Educator called me late on the night before a release because she was worried about who would feed the fish. She went on and on about how 'her' fish were going to die without her giving them food. The next day at the release site, I had to catch a mosquito, throw it in the bucket and watch the fry strike at it to satisfy her. "THE FISH WILL LIVE" she cried out.
Free at last! |
Topics that can be covered range from Conservation, Preservation, Life Cycles, Entomology, Biology, impact that our actions might cause in damaging an aquatic area and many other aspects of science. One educator was impressed on how her 2nd grade students became more active in journal writing. Especially, students that hardly ever wrote much before.
In California, the DFG'S official title is now California Classroom Aquarium Education Project (CAEP). I still like the old TIC. Do a computer search and you will find information on many different TIC programs throughout the nation. The Southern Council of the FFF has a pamphlet out with sponsoring fly clubs that will help you find out more about getting this program going in a school near you.
Fritz Schmitt
JHO Pro Staff
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