Fry Update: 1/20/2012

The Salmon Fry

Does the water look clear or murky? The quality of the water is clear today. The temperature of the water is 49 degrees; the PH levels of the water are 7.6, which is really good we want it at that level. The Salmon are getting bigger, the size of the Salmon are approximately an inch and a half long. They have a bigger body structure than before because they are eating now. The Salmon are eating mostly off the surface of the fish tank, that’s good because that means they are learning fast. The fish food still looks like ground up coffee because they are at an early age and still are adapting to their surroundings and they can’t eat big chunks of food because their bodies can’t handle it. The approximate number of fish left in the tank is about 130 fish still in the tank. Any special features noticed about the fish, or environment? Yes, the fish are more hyper and fast, and they are learning to adapt to the environment.

By: Ben Greene

Update: 1/17/2012

Salmon Fry

The quality of the water this week is still clear, temperature of the water is 50 degrees. The pH level of the water is about 7.5 which is neutral on the pH scale, example of neutral would be the constancy of milk. The salmon are still ¼ inches. They are a dark forest green color on the top half and a bright sliver color on the bottom half. More than half of the fish are eating off the surface. There are still some of the fish eating at sub-surface or at the bottom of the tank. The current size of the fish food is still the size of coffee grounds. Most of the fish are swimming normal now, but a few of the fish are still swimming sideways or straight up. We also have lost about 10 to 15 fish over the weekend. Overall, we estimate to be around 150-175 fry remaining.

Written by Megan Anderson and Caitlynn Kohler

WLACE Salmon in the Classroom 2012

Salmon Fry

The overall quality of the water is very clear and clean with no bacteria. The temperature of the water is 50 degrees, and the pH level of the water is about 7.4 and that is in the neutral range of the pH scale. Physical features of the Salmon are that they are about an inch and a quarter long. They are a green color on the top half with stripes and sliver on the bottom half. Most of the Salmon eat the food when it is sub-surfaced, and the others eat the food when the food is at the bottom of the tank. The salmon that eat off the top are more developed than the ones who eat off the bottom of the tank. The current size of the fish food is like coffee grounds. We started off with 300 fish eggs in the tank, and now there are about 150 salmon left. A lot of the fish are swimming upside down and sideways. There’s also a Siamese twin salmon in a small net in the tank.

Written by Megan Anderson and Ben Greene WLACE Students

Megan and Ben WLACE SIC 2012

1st WLACE Siamese Salmon Fry! 

WLACE Siamese Fry!

WLACE's Fry

WLACE Release 2011

Students from both our Duck Creek and CSB sites attended the release in Baldwin,MI.  The SIC program was highly successful in raising and releasing 100 Chinook Salmon.  In addition to the release, students also participated in other activities such as water quality testing, aquatic insect identification and basic outdoor education.

Salmon Fry 2/7/2011

Salmon Fry

The WLACE salmon have developed greatly in the past few weeks. So now all the salmon have absorbed the remains of the nutrients from their yolk  sac. We call that buttoning up. And from what I have learned we now call them fry. In the wild salmon will swim to catch and gather food. They eat bugs like insects and decaying animals that drift downstream.  In the classroom we feed the fish several times a day teaching the fry to eat from the surface. The levels of the tests we run on the water are a little high today, so therefore we have to watch them. One thing I have noticed is that the fish are swimming a lot more lately. I am very excited to see how everything turns out ,they are very interesting to watch!!!!!!

Written by Alyssa Hanusosky

Salmon Fry

1/25/2011 Update

The last time we talked about the salmon the water had perfect temperature and everything else was pretty good too. Now they are getting bigger and most of them are all pretty close to buttoning up. Buttoning up is when their yolk sacs disappear. Then they migrate to the middle of the tank, then once all of their yolk sacs are gone then we can start feeding them fish food!

Update –

We just now saw them swimming at the top of the tank. So we put a pinch of some fish food in there for the ones at the top. Watching them is very exciting!

My babies have grown: A mother’s intuition

The salmon tank has amazingly clear water. I did all  of the tests and they came up as everything was normal, except the ammonia. The ammonia is off a little because the salmon are starting to produce waste, which means they are going to the bathroom.

The salmon are starting to swim but not very much yet. They mostly lay in the gravel. They still have their yolk sac, the yolk sac is food for them, it also gives them nutrients and it helps them grow. This means they are in stage two of development.

They look so cute…and pretty soon we’re going to be able to feed them.

WLACE Student: Alyssa Hanusasky

Alevin Stage