Sad News from the iLab

We have sad news to share … the conjoined twin trout in the iLab have not survived.  Unfortunately, they died 2 weeks ago.  The picture below is one of the last pictures we have of the twins.

We are not sure of the specific reason that they died, but we think that they could not get enough nutrients to survive.  We had observed that only one of the twins seemed to be eating, and it may not have been able to take in enough food to support two fish.

 

The twins sparked a lot of interest around the school and we have received many, many questions about them.  This post will answer some of those questions.

 

• Students in Mr. Raykovics’ class asked if the twins worked together or disagreed.
  • From observing the twins, it seemed like they worked together very well.  They were able to swim, even though they were conjoined, so they cooperated in that way.
• Students in Ms. Bauer’s class asked when the trout were born and if they had any family members.
  • The trout hatched between January 14 and 16.
  • We received 197 eggs at the same time, so it could be that all of the trout that we have are brothers and sisters.  A female trout can lay from 300 to 3,000 eggs at one time … that’s a LOT of brothers and sisters!
• Mrs. Bartholomew’s class asked about the size of the egg and whether to twins were boys or girls.
  • We did not notice that the egg for the twins was any bigger that the other trout eggs.  The eggs were about 3 millimeters in diameter.
  • We don’t know the gender of the twins.  Since they hatched from the same egg, we DO know that they were either both boys or both girls.
• Ms. Baker’s class asked, “If there is one of the twins who eats, swims, etc…what does the other twin do?”
  • When we observed the twins, we could see both trout breathing, but it seemed that the smaller twin did not breathe as often as the larger twin.  The smaller twin did not really move or act much on its own.
• Both Adam and Regan asked questions about the twin trout separating as they grew older. 
  • Although human conjoined twins can sometimes be separated by surgery, it is unlikely that our twins would ever separate by themselves.  We don’t know what organs the trout shared, but if they shared a stomach, then they could not live without each other.

 

Thank you to everyone who posted questions and comments about our trout.  This was a terrific conversation that involved students and teachers from all different grade levels.  What a grat way for us to connect on our blog!

 

We still have 192 healthy, happy trout in the iLab.  Be sure to ask your teacher to stop by and see the trout for yourselves.  They love visitors!

 🙂 Mrs. Austen