The 5th and 6th grade classes and Mrs. McManigal are once again participating in the Trout in the Classroom program sponsored by Nebraska Game and Parks. We set up our tank and have been making sure that the conditions and water quality are perfect for the arrival of our eggs.
Nebraska Game and Parks send us around 200 rainbow trout eggs. Our first step is to predict their hatch date using a very detailed formula and worksheet. We have to use the temperature the eggs were kept at, when they were fertilized, when the eggs arrived in our class, and the temperature of the classroom tank. After inputting all the information we are excited to say that our rainbow trout should hatch in just 7 days!! That is around Feb 6th!
I take a picture of the eggs in the bag they arrive in then “float” it in the tank while we fill in the prediction sheet and then each student gets a printed picture and we all count. This year we had 25 students and teachers counting and most of us came close to the same amount. We have decided that we have anywhere from 210-219 eggs to start with. Once they have “floated” for a short time we put them in a hatch basket. Unfortunately some did not travel well and we had to remove around 30 eggs.
After they hatch we have to watch and record their development and growth for several weeks. We will send out an update when the fish are ready to move to the next step.