Check out the photos we took below:
Welcome to the Longwood Trout Project's Week Three Update! Today we observed that a majority of our trout eggs are demonstrating eye spots and red tinging. After further investigation under a microscope at four-times magnification, that red tinge is a result of a developing blood cord within the egg. Our eggs are expected to hatch around the six-week mark in mid-December, and we are very pleased with the development they have displayed so far. Check out the photos we took below:
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Hello everyone! We are now well into our second week of the Trout Program, which has exhibited several trials and tribulations thus far. I think we'll skip to the positives first:
We're very proud to say that all of our trout tanks have been checked up to five times a day! All of our members have been pretty meticulous in making sure the ideal temperature is maintained, that dead eggs are removed carefully, and their findings are recorded in our log books. As with any scientific research or project, teamwork is essential. The negatives? Because of our regularly updated egg count in the logbooks, we've determined that there has been a significant egg die-off that has reached about 200 eggs (cumulatively, including all tanks). Since we are raising the trout in an extremely controlled environment, outside stimuli is irrelevant to our die-off. We hypothesized that this problem could be caused by slightly acidic water, which was confirmed when we conducted our weekly water chemistry testing using the API Freshwater Test Kit. A slightly acidic pH of 6.2 was recorded and we were able to neutralize the water. Although problems and conditions such as these can be frustrating and difficult to adapt to, our Trout Program has one huge goal in mind: conservation through education. Keep an eye out for some exciting posts soon! Today we brought our Brook Trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, eggs back to the classroom from the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery and Aquarium. Before we introduced the eggs into our tank environments, we performed water chemistry tests using the API Freshwater Testing Kit to ensure that the water was of optimum quality. Our results were: pH: 7.0 Ammonia: 0.0 ppm Nitrates: 0.0 ppm Nitrites: 0.0 ppm Temperature: 56 degrees Fahrenheit Because the results of our water chemistry testing demonstrated high quality water, it was now safe to introduce our eggs into the tanks. We separated the eggs into equal amounts and placed them into their respective breeding baskets below the water line. We then covered the tanks with styrofoam to prevent UV light from entering the tanks and damaging the eggs. Again, special thanks to the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery and Aquarium! We were able to observe the "milking" of the brook trout at their on-site broodstock and take the procured eggs back with us to Longwood High School. They are such an integral part of our Trout In The Classroom Project, check them out here: http://www.cshfha.org/index.html Hello everyone and welcome to the second year of our Trout Blog! Mr. Suarez's AP Environmental Science classes are again participating in the "Trout in the Classroom" project due to past success rates and a significant student interest. This project has greatly expanded in the past year since we now have five active tanks and partnerships with other classes and students outside of APES. All of our members work hard to maintain and monitor the trout from egg to adult, so this blog is designed to publish and share all of our progress. I (Erin) will update the page about every ten days.
Let the journey begin! Today we are really blessed with the opportunity given to us today by the Art Flick Chapter of Trout Unlimited, for inviting us to join their meeting today! Today Trout Unlimited is a national organization with more than 150,000 members with over 400 chapters across North America. This organization has a mission to conserve, protect and restore North America's coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. We have enjoyed the warm welcomes given to us today by the members of the Art Flick Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Thank you for your kindness and your attention towards our presentation. It was alot of fun today, given the opportunity to sum up our experiences this year with the success of our program at Longwood High School. Without Trout Unlimited this whole project would not have been able to hake root. We truly thank Trout Unlimited for all their time and support they have given us throughout these years in starting, and now expanding this wonderful "Trout in the Classroom" project. Thank you to Tony Ertola and Bridget for delivering the 4 jars of trout eggs, and trout feed back in November, and for guiding us in initiating the continuation of the project, this year. The success of this program really can not go without extending our thanks toward Trout Unlimited. The trout live happily today, 27weeks old! :D In celebration of 44th anniversary of Earth Day today, April 22nd 2014, Mr. Suarez's AP Environmental class goes on a field trip, to visit the Peconic River. As well as students from Mr. Tringali, and Mrs. Staufenberg's class. Also students from the Longwood Middle School: Room: 101&102 also had the opportunity to release their trout as well. News 12 stopped by for a while to interview the teachers about the trout. About 400 young trout were released today, as an effort to restore the dwindling Brook Trout population on Long Island. The Brook Trout(Salvelinus fontinalis) can grow to be about 12in. long or more. The reason why we are restoring the Brook Trout population, is because in the 19th century, during the industrial revolution, many rivers were damned and polluted. We are trying to restore the native population of Brook Trout because of this. Finally the Brook Trout is the official New York State fish, ironic because of their currently low populations. Check us out on Newsday! http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/trout-release-a-rite-of-spring-at-longwood-schools-1.7794069 In celebration of Earth Day tomorrow, we will be releasing the trout into the Peconic River! They are 24 weeks old as of today! We received the eggs on November 4th if you can recall. We thank the cooperation of the students, and teachers involved in this project. The student from the middle school, and high school students mostly from Mr. Suarez's AP Environmental class will participate in this event. As well as students from Mrs. Staufenberg's class participate in the release of the trout. The Brook Trout have grown very much! They range from about 3cm.-6cm. long! The picture used in this post is obtained from google. (since it's very hard to take a picture of an active trout) Our trout look similar in appearance of the pelvic, and anal fins(by the white highlights on the tips of the fins. Also the caudal fins(Tails) of our trout do appear orange around the edges. Although this trout might be slightly older than our trout(as you can tell by the mature orange spots) as our trout have not yet developed spots yet. Today was an exciting day! This afternoon, we took a little field trip down to the Longwood Middle School to visit the students of rooms 101 & 102, for they have graciously adopted our trout today! Me(Orena), Brandon, Anthony, Miracle T, Chris and Breanna along with Mr. Suarez, Mrs. Horn, Mr. Trangalli have presented the Brook Trout to the middle school students today. Sharing with them, basic information about the life cycle of the trout, our past trout release, tank care, and maintenance. After presenting information about the trout, Miracle, Chris and Breanna from 1626 have presented a trout journal to the middle school students for their use. Next, Anthony and Miracle acclimated the tank by putting some of the tank water into the trout buckets. To prepare for the fish as they move to their new home! Afterwards, the middle school students were well prepared! They had the opportunity to share their enthusiasm of the trout with us by asking their curious and well developed questions. Once again we thank the middle school students for their time, full attention, and great questions. Pictures and video will be up soon! Also feel free to share any comments/questions/concerns below. :)
video shown at the Middle School can be seen here: http://animoto.com/play/UjRBCVHhlcT1D02JtKLiUA First Blog! Today with the help of Mrs. Barren, I can now start a blog about our accomplishments so far this school year in raising our Brook Trout! Currently as of March 4th, another tank has been set up in 2604, to accommodate for the adoption for another 50 trout from the overcrowded tank we currently have in room 2404(APE room). The trout in 1626 have been cared for, as I have checked recently, I have moderated the amount of food that the automatic feeder outputs. Which has solved the problem that I discovered of the feeder running out of food so rapidly. The fish in 1626 still range from 2.5cm-<4cm. as they have been STARVING from the lack of food they had available, but that has been taken care of, as I have refilled the feeder, and changed the setting. The fish in 2624 have been looking happy, after introducing some friends last week, due to the decline of fish from snowdays, and weekends. Some of the fish are even too happy, and the bigger fish have been feeding on the smaller fish unfortunately... The trout in room 2626 have been swimming happily in their large tank space, with trout almost as big as the trout in 2404, but not quite. The trout in 2404 have been growing much rapidly than the other trout in the other rooms due to closely monitored actions that have been taken to contribute to their well being. Such as their early introduction of the automatic feeder, and the light source that allows for improved visibility during feeding. Comment below and let me know what you think! I will try to update at least once every two weeks. Pictures coming soon! :D
The eggs have arrived today from the Cold Spring Harbor fish hatchery! This year we will be raising Brook trout in 4 tanks. We will be raising the trout in 2404(Mr. Suarez's room), 1626(Mrs. Staufenberg's room), 2624(in Mr. Grasso's/Kulik's room and, in 2626(Mr. Tringali's room)Very excited this year, and highly prepared to care for these babies. :) After accalmating the jars in the tanks, we gently introduced them to their new homes for the next 6-7 months. :) |
Noelle Desir
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