Eggs!

The eggs have arrived! 

Students and teachers throughout the school have been waiting for the box to arrive in the office labeled "LIVE FISH!"  Now it's here!

The next job was to separate and count the eggs.  Trout in the Classroom estimated between 200-300 eggs were shipped.  In order to properly maintain how the population progresses throughout the year, a full count of how many eggs arrived, both live and dead, must be made upon arrival.  So.

Two teachers and four students commenced preparing for the initial count.  Because the eggs are to have minimal contact with light, we took the extra measure of adding shade protection to the counting site.

It took several tries to obtain a working technique for scooping out the eggs to separate and count.

 Finally, the boys decided upon one of them scooping eggs with a plastic spoon, two boys counting and sorting, and the final student recording answers.

The photo is blurry due to an uncooperative camera.  However, look closely to notice the dark spots on the eggs.  Do you see them?  Those spots are eyes!  Any egg that was orange colored was deemed live and thus moved to the nesting basket in the larger tank.  The white eggs were deemed not viable, or dead.  

White eggs:(

After we triple-checked our numbers, the final tally was...

244 live eggs.  50 dead eggs.

The survival rate of the eggs is between 10%-20%.  Challenge:  Refer to your middle school mental math skills.  If there are currently 244 live eggs, how many (on average) can we expect to be ready for release next spring?

Students will be monitoring the eggs regularly each week.  They will be keeping a current count of live/dead eggs, and record all of their data.  They will also be in charge of keeping the water fresh for the eggs and the watching the temperature on the tank to make sure the chiller is working properly and consistently (52 degrees Fahrenheit!).  

Check back regularly for updates on when the eggs hatch, how their population is doing, and to find out exactly what you feed fry (newly hatched trout)!

Meticulously counting and sorting trout eggs