Author: Erin Gaglias
Hello Trout Family (coined by Mr. Suarez) and welcome to Week Ten of our journey! Huge changes have been taking place for our not so little, always awesome alevins, so here's the update:
First and foremost, our alevins have began to feed! Their yolk sacs have been completely absorbed, so they are now swimming to the surface of the breeding baskets looking for food. They will now be fed twice a day with Size Zero food (very fine and powdery) and will progress to Size One, Two, etc. as they grow larger. Automatic feeders will be installed into the tanks to ensure that our trout are being fed on a regular schedule. Now that our trout are feeding off of actual food and not just their yolk sacs, we all know what that means: more waste. Water changes on our tanks will now take place at least once a week to ensure that the trout remain in a clean and healthy environment. Spikes in the nitrate and pH levels of the water is also anticipated due to more waste, prompting our new plan to perform water chemistry tests more often than usual. In preparation for releasing the trout from their breeding baskets and allowing them to roam the whole tank, some exposed water intakes needed to be covered. Credits to Acacia Blanchard for coming up with the idea to cover the intakes with cheesecloth fastened by zip ties!
We are now moving into the stages where the actual animal behavior of the trout can be easily monitored and observed. A major change we are seeing in our alevins is their more developed scale coloration. Counter-shading, a camouflage defense mechanism, is present when brook trout possess darker coloration on their backs (dorsal side) and lighter coloration on their stomachs (ventral side). In adult brook trout, their dark backs allow them to blend in with the bottom of a stream to protect them from predators on the surface, while the lighter stomach coloration mimics the sunlight entering the water to predators down below. As our alevins grow into fingerlings and adults, this counter-shading will solidify and become more prominent. We are also anticipating the next die-off of our trout, seeing that those who do not learn to feed or are physically deformed (curved backs or Siamese alevins) will not survive and may be consumed by the other stronger trout. Although this may seem rather brash, our large sample size of trout facilitates the natural process of survival of the fittest, ensuring that we raise and release healthy trout in the spring. This is a prime example of aquaculture in its most basic form, and we are so excited to foster a greater appreciation for the fish-raising process.
Again, a huge thank you goes out to the supporters of the Longwood Trout Program! You guys are the reason why we enjoy producing content on the blog every week, thank you so much for your readership and constant support.
Photo creds: Noelle Desir
http://youtu.be/_PBqTAMgWAI
Hello Trout Family (coined by Mr. Suarez) and welcome to Week Ten of our journey! Huge changes have been taking place for our not so little, always awesome alevins, so here's the update:
First and foremost, our alevins have began to feed! Their yolk sacs have been completely absorbed, so they are now swimming to the surface of the breeding baskets looking for food. They will now be fed twice a day with Size Zero food (very fine and powdery) and will progress to Size One, Two, etc. as they grow larger. Automatic feeders will be installed into the tanks to ensure that our trout are being fed on a regular schedule. Now that our trout are feeding off of actual food and not just their yolk sacs, we all know what that means: more waste. Water changes on our tanks will now take place at least once a week to ensure that the trout remain in a clean and healthy environment. Spikes in the nitrate and pH levels of the water is also anticipated due to more waste, prompting our new plan to perform water chemistry tests more often than usual. In preparation for releasing the trout from their breeding baskets and allowing them to roam the whole tank, some exposed water intakes needed to be covered. Credits to Acacia Blanchard for coming up with the idea to cover the intakes with cheesecloth fastened by zip ties!
We are now moving into the stages where the actual animal behavior of the trout can be easily monitored and observed. A major change we are seeing in our alevins is their more developed scale coloration. Counter-shading, a camouflage defense mechanism, is present when brook trout possess darker coloration on their backs (dorsal side) and lighter coloration on their stomachs (ventral side). In adult brook trout, their dark backs allow them to blend in with the bottom of a stream to protect them from predators on the surface, while the lighter stomach coloration mimics the sunlight entering the water to predators down below. As our alevins grow into fingerlings and adults, this counter-shading will solidify and become more prominent. We are also anticipating the next die-off of our trout, seeing that those who do not learn to feed or are physically deformed (curved backs or Siamese alevins) will not survive and may be consumed by the other stronger trout. Although this may seem rather brash, our large sample size of trout facilitates the natural process of survival of the fittest, ensuring that we raise and release healthy trout in the spring. This is a prime example of aquaculture in its most basic form, and we are so excited to foster a greater appreciation for the fish-raising process.
Again, a huge thank you goes out to the supporters of the Longwood Trout Program! You guys are the reason why we enjoy producing content on the blog every week, thank you so much for your readership and constant support.
Photo creds: Noelle Desir
http://youtu.be/_PBqTAMgWAI