Our rainbow trout eggs arrived today, 3 days early! The scientists at the fish hatchery who ship us our eggs sent the eggs early because they eggs were beginning to hatch, and they know that we didn’t want to miss it. Thank you to Isabel, Lali, Joanna, Sarah, Cataline, and Madelyn for their help with the eggs. These girls are 4th grade members of our Environmental Club who spent their lunch time in the iLab with our new fishy friends.
Here are the eggs when they first arrived early this afternoon. You can see the glowing, orange eggs in the small glass jar. The jar is sitting in a clear box that holds water from our larger tank. Placing the jar in the larger box helps the eggs warm up to the temperature of the tank. The eggs were actually frozen during the airplane flight from Washington State! You can also see a temperature probe and netbook. That’s how we tracked the temperature so that we would know when it was safe to transfer the eggs.
This next picture is a close-up of the eggs in the glass jar. You can tell that some of the eggs have hatched already because you can see the long body of the alevin (that’s what you call a baby fish that has just hatched). We took this photo with our Elmo. We took some video too, but the video did not save correctly. 🙁
These next photos show when we transferred the eggs to the breeder basket that will float in the large tank, and how the eggs and alevin look now that they are in the tank. Notice that as the alevin hatch, they slip through holes in the breeder basket to rest on the bottom of the basket. The last photos show the eggs resting on top and the alevin down below. Can you see the fish inside the eggs?
I am really glad that my school has rainbow trout this year .
I am very prond that the rainbow trout is doing well
I agree, Caroline!
Did you know that we are the only elementary school in BCPS to raise rainbow trout? We are so lucky to have a magnet program that allows us to get involved in projects like Monaarch Madness and Trout in the Classroom. 🙂
I’m so excited to finally see the trout eggs again. It’ll be a great experience to see them hatch.
I am so glad to have the trouts early this year. It usually takes a long time for them to hatch.
Rainbow Trout eggs look cool!!
I love how even in the egg stage, the trout eyes look really developed. 🙂
Aj, scientists call the eggs at this stage “eyed eggs” for the very reason that you explained. When the eggs are getting ready to hatch, the shells are transparent and we can clearly see the eyes of each trout inside.
Great observation!
I am glad that the trouts are doing well .
I hope most of them live .
I am so happy that the trout are doing well! Thank you to everyone who helped them be here today!😏
That is so cool. I did not know that the eggs were so small.
Dear Ms. Austen,
About how many rainbow trout eggs are there?
When do you think that most of the rainbow trout will hatch?
Camille, we did not get a count of the eggs when they were delivered because they were already hatching and the alevin were moving around.
We have Environmental Club today after school, and we will brainstorm a way to get an estimate of how many alevin we now have (all by 1 egg has hatched).
I’m very excited! I can’t wait for the rest of the Rainbow Trout to hatch!!!
Stop by to see the trout any time, Tatenda (just check with your teacher first!).
🙂
Thank you to students in Ms. Kellner’s class who visited the blog from home and left comments. I love that you are joining our digital conversation.
I have to fill some buckets here as well … I am very impressed by the students who left comments because they made sure to write in complete sentences and use correct capitalization and punctuation. This is a skill that 4th graders are mastering on our Edmodo page, and it’s terrific to see that students are communicating so well in writing on the blog as well.
I liked looking at the rainbow trout for the first time because when I looked at them they where so small and adorable.
I am so excited for the rainbow trout. I look forward to them every year. I am sad when I leave for Ridgley this year because I won’t see the trout anymore.