2009-2010 King Salmon Hatchery Project

April 26th and 27th 2010

2010-05-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

Clean up of tank and equipment and returning items to storage

April 23rd 2010: Day 156

2010-05-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.3
Number of Fish Removed: EVERYONE!!!
Today was the BIG DAY!!! The big presentation was held in the Elementary School Library and it actually consisted of 3 separate but identical presentations (one for 3rd grade, one for 4th grade, and one for 5th grade). I brought all my equipment for caring for the fish down to the library to set up everything and prepare myself. I rented a visual data projector from the public library along with a cart and transported those down to the elementary school as well. The presentation consisted of many pictures I had taken over the course of the last 5 months along with a brief introduction to what the SIC program is. For the majority of the presentation, however, I talked a lot about the growth patterns of Chinook salmon during their early development and explained a lot of observations that I had made while caring for the fish. I tried to explain everything I possibly could during the half hour time block I was given, but there is just so much that you learn when you do the SIC project, that it is not even possible to cram everything into 30 minutes. I printed up some brochures that I had made special for the presentation and hand out somewhere between 120 and 125 brochures to all the students and teachers, unfortunately there wouldn't be enough for everyone to have their own, so everyone shared them. There was somewhere between 300 and 400 kids who attended the presentations in all. The first presentation was for the 3rd grade and it was held from 8:45 am to 9:20 am. The second presentation was for 4th grade and it was held from 10:00am until 10:30am. the third and final presentation was for the 5th graders and it was held from 12:00pm until 12:30pm. I felt as if the first presentation was a little off, it was a little over whelming to be talking to so many people at once, and at the same time, since it was the first presentation I feel like it was just difficult to make everything flow together nicely. The second presentation was definitely the best of all the presentations, it flowed perfectly and I seemed to be able to fit just about everything I wanted to talk about into the 30 minute time slot. The 3rd presentation was not quite as good as the second was and it was the presentation that I actually recorded. Even though the 3rd went pretty well, it still had a few places where things did not flow very well and I feel like I repeated myself quite a few times, almost talking in circles. The 3rd presentation fell somewhere between the first and second as far as how well it went. On a scale from one to 10, 10 being the best,I would say the 2nd presentation was a 9, the third was about a 7 and the first presentation was maybe a 4 or 5.
At 2:30pm, after all the presentations were finished and everything was cleaned up, I went back down to the public library and began to prepare the salmon for the release. I scooped about 3 and a half gallons of water into a 5 gallon bucket then began catching fish from the aquarium with the green net. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to catch everyone. I tried to count each fish as I put them into the bucket to try and double check my number of fish, but halfway through I lost count and gave up. I'm assuming that the official count is 113 fish which is what it should be, according to my records. At 3:00pm, my teacher, his two daughters, and myself along with the lady from the daycare and two daycare kids, drove out to the release site (designated by the MDNR). All of the kids had a chance to catch a few fish and release them and I did my best to try and get it all on camera and video. It was a really fun time! All the fish in the bucket still looked pretty healthy after the long car ride, although there were a few at the bottom laying on their side but they were still moving. They might not have been getting enough oxygen from the water. Once we released them into the lake though, the ones on their sides were perfectly fine, you couldn't even tell they had been weakened by the trip. After release, all the fish looked like they would make it, but they seemed a little confused...in awe maybe by the openness of their new "aquarium". At first they didn't move, but after a while most of them figured it out and headed out into deeper water. Some of them hid in the rocks, seaweed and algae at first, and they needed more coaxing to get them out into the cooler, deeper water where they would be more likely to survive and less likely to be washed up on shore or caught in the water pools. We caught the ones who were sticking too close to shore and released them a little further out. Eventually, everyone swam away, and just like that, the project was over!

April 22nd 2010: Day 155

2010-05-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.3
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Changed one gallon of water today. Fish were fed 1.5 and 2.0mm foods at 7:45am, 10:00am, 1:00am, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm. Fish will be released tomorrow! The big presentation is also tomorrow!

April 21st 2010: Day 154

2010-05-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.7
PH Test: 7.0
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/l): 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 5 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Changed 4 gallons of water then added 5 gallons, Checked water quality, things are looking pretty good, cleaned filters. Some of the younger fish are starting to get black specks where scales used to be as they begin to smolt.

April 20th 2010: Day 153

2010-05-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.3
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Changed One gallon of water today and cleaned filters. Fish were fed at the usual times.

April 19th 2010: Day 152

2010-05-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.4
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Fish look really healthy today, still growing quickly! They look bigger than they did on Friday! They were fed on Sunday once, but not at all on Saturday. Today when I came in the filters were really dirty, and dark brown with waste! I cleaned them off along with the sides of the tank, then changed 4 gallons of water. Everyone ate quickly when I fed them and they ate everything. They ended up getting fed a lot today. Even now they are still being fed 1.5mm and 2.0mm foods, some of the fish act like the 2.0mm food is too big for them to eat, but quite a few are taking to the 2.0mm pretty well. Tank looked clean when I checked them today, very clear. This week I will begin 4 gallon changes on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's along with a 1 gallon change and a 2 gallon change on Tuesday's and Thursday's respectively.

April 16th 2010: Day 149

2010-05-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.3
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 5 gallon - 5 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Changed 5 gallons of water today and cleaned filters, fish were fed a 8:00am, 10:00am, and 3:30pm. Brought in three one-gallon jugs for distilling water for the fish. A 5th grade class stopped by today followed by another 4th grade class, they were very interested in the fish and they asked lots of questions, I gave them a brief overview of the project, explaining many of the key points in the project.

April 15th 2010: Day 148

2010-05-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.0
PH Test: 6.8
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 1.0
Ammonia ppm (mg/l): 0
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Changed a gallon of water today, cleaned filters at 7:45am and 10:00am. Fish are looking healthy, tank was a little dirty this morning near the right corner of the tank so I cleaned this up and then ran some water quality tests to make sure that all levels are still normal. Nitrate and ammonia are still zero but nitrite has increased by 0.75 and pH went down 0.4 points. It is now 0.2 points outside of the acceptable pH range. Hopefully this won't affect them too much! Tomorrow will be a FIVE gallon water change which will hopefully return things to normal. Fish were fed at 10:00am, 2:00pm, 3:30pm and 5:30pm. Filters were cleaned a total of three times today. The temperature in the library got up to 80 F degrees today, by late afternoon the aquarium had built up a lot of condensation on the sides. This seemed to scare the fish a little, they did not know what to think. The librarian and I continuously wiped off the sides of the tank, but the water vapor continued to come back. Today my teacher e-mailed a few people at other schools who are doing the SIC (Salmon in the Classroom) project and we received a response from one of the teachers who said that they had not released their fish yet, they were planning on a release in May. They also informed us that they currently had 117 fish still alive and healthy, all of whom were approximately 4 inches in length, and not yet silver and that they are changing 5 gallons of water daily. Their aquarium temperature is set at 55 F degrees and their fish are also receiving 6 feedings per day plus weekend feedings. My teacher and I decided that the fish still have a little bit longer until we release them. Fish are still receiving 1.5 and 2.0mm foods.

April 14th 2010: Day 147

2010-05-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.2
Water Change: 2 gallon - 2 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Changed two gallons of water, cleaned filters and tank (lots of waste today) fish are active, still not completely silver though, still awaiting the release date. Fish were fed at 10:00am, 2:00pm, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm.

April 13th 2010: Day 146

2010-05-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.5
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Changed one gallon of water, cleaned filter and tank; fed fish 1.5mm and 2.0mm foods at 10:00am, 1:00pm, 3:00pm and 5:30pm.

April 12th 2010: Day 145

2010-05-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.1 PH Test: 7.2 Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l): 0 Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 0.25ppm Ammonia ppm (mg/l): 0 Stress Zyme: 10 ml Water Change: 4 gallon - 4 gallon Number of Fish Removed: 0
Did a four gallon water change today, cleaned filters and tank, fish were fed a mixture of 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm foods, they seem to be taking it well; they were fed at 10:00am, 2:00pm, 3:30pm and 5:30pm. Pictures!
This bucket shows the difference between the tank water and the distill water which is exchanged during the water change. Although the water looks clear in the aquarium, if you compare it to water from the tap, it is easy to recognize that the tank water is dirtier. Water changes are very important in maintaining stable living conditions for the fish.

April 9th 2010: Day 142

2010-05-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.2
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Four gallon water change today! Cleaned the filters and tank as usual, fish were fed at 7:45am, 10:00am, 2:00pm and 4:00pm

April 8th 2010: Day 141

2010-05-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 49.6
PH Test: 7.2
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l) : o
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mmg/l): 1.00
Ammonia ppm (mg/l): 0
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Checked water quality today, and nitrite is up 0.75 ppm, but all else has remained the same. Cleaned filters and changed a gallon of water today. Fish look good, very alert, and a few look like they are in full smolt, their parr marks have almost completely vanished, a vast majority of the fish, however, are still retaining their parr marks. Parr marks may all be gone by next week; could be Monday but it will more likely be Thursday or Friday. They could potentially be released any time between this coming Monday (April 12th) and the following Monday (April 19th). Fish were fed at 11:00am, 3:30pm, 5:30pm and 8:00pm.

April 7th 2010: Day 140

2010-05-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.3
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Changed one gallon of water today, cleaned filters, and took some pictures with a professional camera that I borrowed from the art room. Today a couple of classes came in to see the salmon before the release. I gave both classes a small introduction to the fish and explained a few key points of the project to them. Towards the end of the day today, I talked with my class adviser and found out that the salmon were not quite ready for release (their parr marks are still quite visible on many of them, which signifies to both of us that the fish have not yet reached full smolt) so the release date has been rescheduled, rather than releasing them tomorrow, the salmon will be released at a later date.

April 6th 2010: Day 139

2010-05-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 47.3
Stress zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Fish are getting big, slowly losing scales through the smolting process and their looking pretty silver now. Today I took some pictures with the art room camera in hopes to get some cool timed pictures, unfortunately it did not work out as well as I had hoped. I did get a nice regular photo though. Today I changed 4 gallons of water and cleaned the filters and tank. Fish were fed by the feeder at least once last night, the feeder threw some food on the cover that missed the funnel, which is how I know they got fed. I talked to my teacher today about the daycare lady being able to come to the salmon release, and he thought it would be a good idea, too. My teacher and I set the date for the salmon release to be April 8th 2010 at approximately 9:00am. The poster is again underway as of last night, it is further along than it was originally.

April 5th 2010: Day 138

2010-05-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.2
Water Change: 1 gallon-1gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Cleaned filters today and changed 1 gallon of water, fish were fed 1.5mm food twice today by the feeder and they were also fed twice yesterday by the feeder. Took more pictures!

April 3rd 2010: Day 136

2010-05-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 49.1
Stress zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon-5 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Fish were fed three times today on Friday, once by the librarian and twice by the automatic feeder. The feeder may have only fed small amounts though because it looked like the food was stuck in the back of the cylinder. I moved the food so that it would be closer to the feeders spout. I removed the last rock from the tank today to allow for more water volume and room for the fish to swim. Cleaned the filters and sides and bottom of the tank. Exchanged four gallons of tank water for 5 gallons of distilled water and added stress zyme. Fish were fed at 11:00am and 12:00pm, feeder was set for 2 feedings 2 rotations per feeding. We left the cabinet light on today (adjacent to the fish tank) in hopes that it would help the light sensor to work and feed the fish. It was pretty dark in the library today since it is overcast out and the lights are all off, so we weren't sure if the fish were even being fed.

April 1st 2010: Day 134

2010-05-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.0
Water Change: 1 gallon-1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Changed one gallon of water today, cleaned filters and bottom of the tank, set automatic fish feeder to 2 feedings per day, 2 rotations per feeding during the day time. This is shown as 12:2 on the automatic feeder screen. Fish were fed at 9:00am, 12:00pm, 4:00pm and twice by the automatic feeder. Fish look good!

March 31st 2010: Day 133

2010-05-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.3
Water Change: 1gallon-1gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Fish were fed at 9:00am, 11:00am, 2:30pm and 4:00pm, changed 1 gallon of water, cleaned filters and took more pictures.

March 30th 2010: Day 132

2010-05-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.5
PH Test: 7.2
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l):0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/l):0
Water Change: 1 gallon-1gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Fish were fed at 11:30am, 2:00pm, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm today. They're looking bigger today than yesterday! I cleaned the filters and changed one gallon of water then checked the water quality, everything looks pretty normal now. Fish are starting to get closer to the release date.

March 29th 2010: Day 131

2010-05-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 47.5
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water change: 4 gallon-4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
I checked on the fish today, and to my complete surprise found all the fish to be healthy and active as if the temperature change had never happened. Their coloration was all back to normal and they looked as healthy as ever. The aquarium looked great, nice and clean, the temperature was normal and the water was pretty clear, it did not have that yellowish tint anymore. I did the routine four gallon water change since it's Monday and scrubbed the sides of the tank. Things looked good, I cleaned the filters, too (without unplugging them!) and the fish were fed 1.2mm and 1.5mm at 11:00am, 2:00pm, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm like usual, they were fed on Saturday as well. Fish are growing bigger and more active and silver daily. Took some more pictures today!

March 26th 2010: Day 128

2010-05-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.2
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 5 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Everyone is looking better today, there are still a couple who are sticking fairly close to the bottom. They are less energetic than they normally would be, but they seem to be improving. A few darkly colored fish now due to stress. The stress caused a kind of pixilation of black dots on some of the fishes bodies. The majority of the fish have a little bit of pixilation like this on their scales, but the three or four darker ones have more concentrated pixilation than the others, causing them to be darker. 80-90% of the fish ate today when I fed them, for now we are feeding the #2 and 1.2mm foods in order to allow the fish to use less energy for eating. This will help them recover a little faster, or at least we hope so. Yesterday and also today, I noticed that as a stress response, the fish went to the bathroom a lot, producing huge stings of fecal matter which is very different from the fecal waste they would normally produce which is small and grainy, and fairly similar to the food that they eat. The water still looks yellow in comparison to it's usual color. Did a 4 gallon- 5 gallon water change today and added 10ml of stress zyme. Even though everything is going back to normal, there is still a chance that some of the fish won't make it. The stressful situation yesterday would have lowered their immune response which would make them more susceptible to diseases that they wouldn't normally contract. The increased temperature yesterday could have also caused an increase in bacteria in the water, considering that most bacteria thrive in warmer conditions. An increase in bacteria could increase the chances of the fish contracting some sort of bacterial infection. Hopefully this won't happen. Today I cleaned the bottom of the aquarium and filters along with the water change (which was spread out over a few hours time to reduce the risk of shocking the fish yet again with the room temperature, distilled water) The fish were fed at 9:00am, 11:00am, 2:00pm, and 3:30pm. Took some pictures today.

March 25th 2010: Day 127

2010-05-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 73.0
PH Test: 7.0,
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 1.00
Ammonia ppm (mg/l):0
Number of Fish Removed:0
Temperature was 73 degrees today which is really bad! I forgot to plug in the cooler yesterday after unplugging it to clean the filters. The water felt so warm today when I came in, and I completely freaked out! The fish are acting stressed, staying low to the aquarium floor and breathing heavily, which is apparent by their strained gill action and the way they are over exaggerating each stride of their operculum (the part that covers the outside of the gills). So far we haven't lost anyone and fingers crossed, we won't lose anyone, but right now their temperature is 23 degrees over the normal aquarium temperature, which is extremely stressful for them. The reason why they are breathing so heavily is because there is so little dissolved oxygen for them to breath in now that the temperature has gone up. As temperature rises, dissolved oxygen levels drop, and since salmon are so used to cool temperatures and flowing water with lots of oxygen, this is a tramatic change for them. As soon as I found out that the temperature was so high I was quick to plug in the cooler and do what I could to lower the temperature. The temeperature is slowly dropping back down to 50 degrees, but it is going to take a couple of hours at least. In the last five minutes it has dropped approximately 1 degree F. I'm so upset with myself, I cannot believe I forgot to plug in the aquarium! The filters had a lot of waste built up on it today, so I cleaned those and those along with the bottom of the aquarium. We decided to hold back on feedings until the temperature is back to normal, we actually did try feeding them once, but nobody was interested in the food at all, they were too stressed. We also decided to hold back on water changes, fearing that adding another stress factor may add to the problem. The temperature has probably been about room temperature for about half a day, so that's a really long time for the fish to be stressed out, hopefully they will be able to recover. The temperature is now 71.9 F degrees, the temperature seems to be dropping 0.2 degrees every couple of minutes. I just looked it up and it looks like the fish can tolerate temperatures of up to 60 degrees farenheit and after that the temperature can be fatal. We are 10 degrees over our temperature limit, so we are definitely in the red zone right now. If we can get the temperature back down to 60 F degrees then we should be okay.
1:30 pm - the temperature is now 50.3 degrees which is normal now. It's been three hours since the cooler was plugged in. We added ice packs (3 in total) to reduce the temperature as well, now that the temperature is normal, we can only wait and watch and see, and hopefully everyone makes a full recovery. Fish are still staying near the bottom of the tank, a couple are actually laying on their bellies on the aquarium floor, they are not falling over or anything, but their not moving around very much, either. The majority of the fish are swimming, they look stronger than they did earlier; their gills are not moving as much but they are sticking pretty low still, probably just trying to stay cool. I hope everyone will be alright! I'm never unplugging the pump again to change the filter, the risk is far too great, it's not worth it! Now that the fish are bigger and stronger, they shouldn't have a problem with being sucked in to the pump, so they should be okay. Fish have not been fed yet, still waiting until everyone is acting normal again. The water is slowly becoming clear, now that the pump is going and the temperature is low again, it's not as yellow as it had looked. Around 3:30pm I'll check and see if the fish look like they would be able to handle a water change and some food. If they don't look well enough I may hold off on both until tomorrow. I'm surprised everyone is as well as they are.
3:30pm: Checked water quality, nitrite has gone up from 0.75ppm to 1ppm pH went down to 7.0, Ammonia and nitrite are both zero. Fish are still acting stressed, their scales are looking rough, their coloration on a few scales is darkening, the fish are refusing to eating, and the water is still fairly yellow.

March 24th 2010: Day 126

2010-05-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.5
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Today I cleaned the bottom of the tank and filters and changed one gallon of water. When I fed everyone at 10:30am I witnessed my first "real" jumper fish. He literally jumped 3.5-4.0 inches off of the waters surface and covered a horizontal distance of approximately 6 inches. I wish I could have gotten it on camera! Fish were again fed at 2:00pm, 3:30pm, 5:30pm, and 8:00pm. Took some pictures today after school, hopefully I can get a few amazing shots before we release them! It's always fun looking through pictures on the computer because when you find a really good on, it's always a surprise.

March 23rd 2010: Day 125

2010-05-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 50.0
Stress Zyme: 5 ml
Water Change: 2 gallon - 2 gallon
Number of Fish Removed:0
Today filters and tank were cleaned and one gallon of water was changed. All seems to be going well, everyone looks good still, fish were fed at 7:45am, 10:00am, 3:30pm (twice), 5:30pm, and 8:00pm.

March 22nd 2010: Day 124

2010-05-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.4
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/l): 0.25
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Today the water was looking pretty yellow when I came in, there was a lot of waste on the aquarium floor and the filters were pretty nasty. The fish feeder was used Saturday and Sunday and it was set on four feedings, three rotations per feeding at the lowest notch size. I guess the feeder fed them too much. Everyone still looks strong and healthy, so that is a good sign, and they do look like they grew a lot over the weekend and they've even turned more silver. The parr marks on their sides are fading a little bit now and they may be ready for release in the next week or two they are still receiving 1.2mm and 1.5mm foods. As soon as I got in today, I checked water quality, which was suprisingly normal; nitrite was 0.25ppm and ammonia did go up a little bit, but not that much, just 0.25ppm. While I waited for the pH test to finish changing color, I started cleaning up the bottom of the tank with the syringe and cleaned all the filters and the sides of the tank. I then changed 4 gallons of water and added 10ml of stress zyme. Having unplugged the feeder for the week days, I fed the fish a little bit at 11:00am, and they were also fed twice at 3:30pm, and once at 5:30pm and 8:00pm. All else seems to be fine, fish are becoming pretty active. Over the weekend, they were fed once on Saturday by the librarian.

March 19th 2010: Day 121

2010-05-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 47.0
PH Test: 7.2
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/l): 0
Stress Zyme: 5ml
Water Change: 2 gallon - 2 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Fish were fed today at 10:00am today. It looks like the automatic feeder turned at least once during the day yesterday. I say this because some of the food spilled over the sides of the funnel and were left on the aquarium cover when I came in today. Honestly, I don't really like the automatic feeder that much. I think it's better for me to be there feeding the fish, that way I can make observations and know that they are being fed. The feeders settings typically feed too little or too much at one time. Too much food at one times tends to cause the food to drop straight to the bottom, so the fish who hang out at the top of the aquarium don't have enough time to react to the falling food and it throws too much food in at once. Since most of the salmon are surface feeders, they typically don't notice the food on the aquarium floor, this is especially true for the fish who always swim near the surface of the water. When the librarian and I feed them, however, we disperse the food all over the aquarium rather than just dumping the food in, and we watch the fish to make sure that they are all eating and acting normal, we also feed them at pretty consistent times of the day, which the fish are used to. Using automatic feeders takes away from the project because you don't actually get to watch the fish as they feed. In addition, it can be dangerous; if the feeder feeds too much food at once, it can destroy the water quality and actually poison the fish, if the feeder feeds too little, some of the fish could starve. The feeder is not very trustworthy, and it's unpredictable. I would be okay with using it for weekends and leaving it on a low feeding setting so that it does not feed too much, so that the fish still get fed a little, but I would never rely on it as the sole feeding source. During the week days I plan to unplug the automatic feeder and manually feed the fish so that I can pay close attention to the health of the fish and make sure everyone is eating properly. For this weekend, since it is the first weekend we are using the automatic feeder, the librarian is planning on checking up on them once on Saturday and again on Sunday to make sure the feeder is not feeding too much. If there is a problem, she said she would call me so I can come in and do what I need to do. Today I only did a two gallon water change, instead of four, to make sure I have back-up water for the weekend in case of an emergency (approximately 3 gallons of back up water). In addition, I cleaned the aquarium and the filters thoroughly today. Everyone looks very strong and healthy! I took some pictures of the new fish filter (those shown in yesterday's blog), the tank, and the different food sizes, I also took some pictures of the fish feeding.
Yesterday a lady from a local daycare along with a 2 little girls came in to visit the fish. They have been coming to see them on Thursdays for the last two or three weeks, and last week I let the girls feed them, they were ecstatic! They seem to be really interested in watching the fish which is neat to see, since teaching the public was one of the biggest goals of the whole project! The daycare lady asked me last week if there would be any way that they could be informed of when and where the release would take place, as they were really interested in being there to watch the release. I thought this would be a great idea, so I made sure to get her contact information so I could let her know. The fish are getting close to their release date now, once their parr marks on their sides fade to silver, they will be ready for release! My teacher is thinking that the release will be in the next week or two, I'm guessing it might be within the next three or four weeks though, but it all depends on their development. I remember when the fish started losing their pouches and started changing color, it happened pretty quick, so they could be ready really soon, or they could be ready a month from now. I guess we'll have to wait and see what nature decides is the best time .

March 18th 2010: Day 120

2010-05-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 47.5
Water Change: 2 gallon - 2 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Fed fish at 10:00am then setup the automatic feeder for a test run. The feeder was set for 3 feedings when it is light outside and zero feedings for when its dark out. The cylinder will turn one round at each feeding and the feeder switch is set to the second smallest size, which is two notches. The food in the cylinder is both 1.2mm and 1.5mm mixed together (about half of the food is 1.2mm the other half is 1.5mm). I'll test these settings out today and find out how things worked when I come in tomorrow. The cover is now dry and back on the aquarium, nobody else jumped out, luckily! Today I did a two gallon water change and cleaned the tank and filters.

March 17th 2010: Day 119

2010-05-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.4
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1
Fish tank was cleaned today, filters rinsed, and one gallon of water was changed today. My teacher drilled a feeding hole in the cover of the aquarium last night so that the automatic feeder can be used soon. He glued on a little funnel to help direct the food into the aquarium and the glue is still drying. The cover has been off of the aquarium since last night. During the night one of the fish jumped out of the aquarium and I found him this morning on the ground, I felt so bad. hopefully the cover will be back on the aquarium soon! Today I began to transition the fish over to 1.5mm food with 1.2mm food still being fed in increasingly smaller amounts. This size of food is intended for 2.5-3.0 inch fish and it is supposed to be fed for 2 weeks. The first week they are to be fed 1.5 tsp of food per day and during the second week they are to be feed 1.75 tsp of food per day.

March 16th 2010: Day 118

2010-05-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 49.5
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Cleaned the filters and sides of the tank today and also did a one gallon water change. Today the cooler tube kept falling off and one of the computer technicians in the library helped me to reattach it. Fish were fed 1.2mm of food at 10:00am, 1:00pm, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm.

March 15th 2010: Day 117

2010-05-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F degrees): 51.4
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Changed four gallons of water today and cleaned the filters and the sides of the tank. Fish were fed 1.2mm food at 7:30am, 10:00am, 11:00am, and 1:30pm, and 5:00pm.

March 12th 2010: Day 114

2010-03-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 51.4
PH: 7.2
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 0.50ppm
Ammonia: 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 3 gallon-4gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Nitrite dropped from 1.00ppm to 0.50ppm which is a pretty good sign, because it's slowly going back down to normal. Ammonia is zero and the pH is still 7.2. Cleaned filters today, water quality tested, did a 3 gallon-4 gallon water change today which helped to raise the water level a little bit. Fish were fed at 7:30am, 10:00am, and 3:30pm, they were only fed 1.2mm food today, they seem to be big enough to handle this food now.

March 11th 2010: Day 113

2010-03-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.4
Water Change: 1 gallon-1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Changed one gallon of water today, cleaned filters, fish were fed at 7:45am, 10:00am, and 3:30pm.

March 10th 2010: Day 112

2010-03-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.4
Water Change: 1 gallon-1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Filters and tank were cleared today, one gallon of water was changed, fish were fed at 10:00am and 3:30pm. Started looking at an automatic fish feeder for spring break, if I can get it working, I will probably use it. During break it is going to be difficult to get the library to feed the fish since the library will be closed.

March 9th 2010: Day 111

2010-03-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.3 Water Change: 1 gallon-2 gallon Number of Fish Removed: 0
Removed 1 gallon of water today and replaced it with 2 gallons, the water level in the aquarium has been getting low, so this should help a little. Fish look great, I noticed today that their backs are starting to turn a brownish color now; it was originally an olive green. A few of the fish are really big in comparison to the rest, it's amazing how much size variety there is right now! Fish were fed at 11:00am, and 3:30pm, cleaned filters and tank today, took a few pictures as well.

March 8th 2010: Day 110

2010-03-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.6
PH: 7.2
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 1.00
Ammonia: 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 5 gallon-5 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Big water change today, cleaned filters and sides and bottom of tank. Fish were fed at 8:00am, 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 6:00pm. Over the weekend, fish were fed once on Saturday and again on Sunday. Checked water quality today and nothing has changed. Fish are getting really big!

March 5th 2010: Day 107

2010-03-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.5
PH: 7.2
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 1.00ppm
Ammonia: 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon-4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Big water change today, cleaned the sides and bottom of tank and filters, fish were fed mixed food at 8:00am, 11:30am, and 4:00pm. Took lots of pictures today, brought in a milk jug for water changes and wiped down the aquarium cover.

March 4th 2010: Day 106

2010-03-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.0
Water Change: 1 gallon-1gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Cleaned tank and filters; changed 1 gallon of water; fish were fed at 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm.

March 3rd 2010: Day 105

2010-03-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.7
Water Change: 1 gallon-1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Cleaned tank, filters, and bottom of aquarium, changed one gallon of water today. Mixed food was fed at 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm.

March 2nd 2010: Day 104

2010-03-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.4
PH: 7.2
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 1.00
Ammonia: 0
Water Change: 1 gallon-1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1~rock
Lost one fish today to another rock incident, removed this rock from the aquarium in hopes to end this problem. There is only one rock left in the aquarium now, it's small and it has not caused any problems so far so it should be perfectly fine remaining in the tank. Changed one gallon of water today, cleaned the sides of the tank and removed food waste from the bottom of aquarium, fliters were cleaned, water quality was tested, and nothing has changed since yesterday. Fish were fed at 7:30am, 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm.

March 1st 2010: Day 103

2010-03-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.7
PH: 7.2
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/l): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/l): 1.00
Ammonia: 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon-4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Cleaned aquarium, filters, and did a 4 gallon water change today, ammonia dropped from 0.25ppm to 0ppm after doing a water change today. Fish are still being fed 1.2mm and #2 food as mixed feedings; they were fed at 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 6:00pm. Over the weekend, fish were fed by the librarian once on Saturday and again on Sunday.

February 26th 2010: Day 100

2010-02-27T14:17:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.9
PH: 7.2
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 1.00
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0.25
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Today is officially the 100th day of having the fish. The water quality today was not very good, the pH is lower than normal, 7.2, but it is still within the right pH range (7-7.5) the ammonia was higher today, too at 0.25ppm (mg/l) nitrite has not changed yet but it is still high at 1.00 ppm (mg/l). I did a 4 gallon water change today and cleaned both filters, cleaned the bottom of the tank, and scrubbed the walls of the tank with the aquarium cleaning sponge. Added 10ml of stress zyme. Fish look really strong, they were fed at 7:45am, 10:00am, and 3:30pm. Fish are still eating mixed food.

February 25th 2010: Day 99

2010-02-27T14:14:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.3
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Checked on fish and fed them at 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm changed one gallon of water today

February 24th 2010: Day 98

2010-02-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.4
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1
Cleaned the bottom of the tank and filter, removed one of the rocks from the tank after finding another fry who was squashed by one. I hope this solves the problem, I feel aweful that this keeps happening! Fish were fed at 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm. They are still receiving both #2 and 1.2 mm foods, as a few are still a little too small for the big food. Changed one gallon of water from the tank, and everything looks like it's going pretty well. Took a few pictures today!

February 23rd 2010: Day 97

2010-02-27T13:45:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.7
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Cleaned bottom of the tank today, Fish were fed at 7:45am, 1:00pm, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm

February 22nd 2010: Day 96

2010-02-27T13:14:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 1.00
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 3 gallon - 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1
I came in today and it looked like the filter had done a great job over the weekend of cleaning the tank. There was a little bit of debris on the tank floor, but not much, I cleaned that up and then rinsed both filters to clean them off. Everyone looks great today. I tested my nitrite levels, and it has not moved at all. This would make sense though; the tank is pretty big, and there are a lot of fish in it, it will probably take more water changes and frequent filter cleanings to get the ammonium, nitrite and pH all back to normal. The fish are also getting bigger and eating more, and in turn creating more waste which will also have a negative effect on these levels. Since it is hard to get water levels back down after they rise, it is especially important to notice things early on before they worsen, noticing poor water quality early can help a lot in correcting the problem. The final weak fish unfortunately passed away sometime over the weekend. Fish were fed once yesterday (Sunday) but they look like they lost a little bit of weight over the weekend, which is normal since they were hardly fed during the weekend. Fish were fed today at 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm.

February 19th 2010: Day 93

2010-02-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.4
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 4 gallon - 5 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Big water change today, cleaned bottom of the tank and filter, noticed that the net filter around the cooler pipe has been accumulating a lot of food and waste material. This most likely is a big reason why the nitrite level is so high. I removed this filter and rinsed it out, it was absolutely filthy and disgusting! I'm glad I noticed this because now I at least have some sort of explanation as to why the nitrite levels keep increasing. The net was a yellowish color when I pulled it out, but after I cleaned it it was a really clean white. I cannot believe I did not notice it before! Now I know to pay attention to this more often, keeping both filters clean is a big step to keeping the entire tank clean! I'm really curious to see how far the nitrite drops over the weekend, could it be all the way back to normal already? I suppose it could be possible! I'll check our nitrite levels on Monday and see.

February 18th 2010: Day 92

2010-02-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 1.00
Water Change: 1gallon - 1gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1 (due to rocks)
Lost one fish today, I'm fairly certain he was not a weak one, too. He was hanging out near the rocks and was pinched. I don't understand how it keeps happening because the rocks are aren't able to wobble or anything. The one weak fish is still weak, too. Today I cleaned the bottom of the tank and filter, changed one gallon of water, and tested nitrite, which has not changed. I moved the bubbler to the side of the tank today so that it is not blocking off access for the fish to use both sides of the tank, they seem to be afraid of it, and they tend to stay on the right side of the bubbler because of it. Fish were fed at 7:30 am, 10:00am, and 3:00pm.

February 17th 2010: Day 91

2010-02-27T12:31:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.4
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
A lot of waste on the aquarium floor today, so I cleaned that up, did a small water change and cleaned the filter. Still one weak fish today, no deaths, Fish were fed at 10:00am, 3:00pm, and 6:30pm. More pictures!

February 16th 2010: Day 90

2010-02-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.5
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Small water change today, cleaned bottom of tank, fed fish at 10:00am, 3:30am, and 5:30am. Everyone's getting big, the biggest are about 2-2.5 inches long, the small ones are about 1-1.5inches, the majority are about 1.5 - 2 inches long.

February 15th 2010: Day 89

2010-02-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.0
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 1.00
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 3 gallon - 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1
Did a big water change today. Fish looked a little skinny due to the weekend without any food. They are not exactly "skinny" they just lost a little bit of their bulging bellies that they have been accumulating over the last few weeks. Everyone looks strong and healthy today, but we did lose another weak fish, and there's one whose still on his way out. Cleaned the filter today. Fish were fed at 7:45am, 10:00am, and 3:30pm today, they received a mixed feeding of #2 and 1.2 mm foods.

February 12th 2010: Day 86

2010-02-27T12:10:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.6
PH: 7.6
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 1.00
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 3 gallon- 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1
Cleaned tank sides, bottom, and filter, big water change today, fish were fed at 10:00am and 3:30pm. Nitrite is still high but has not changed. Two weak fish today and one dead. The fish will not be fed over the weekend (tomorrow and the next day), as the librarian will be out of town, and I don't have a key. This will be their first weekend without feeding, so we'll see how this goes, they should be fine though.

February 11th 2010: Day 85

2010-02-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.5
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Began switching fish over to 1.2 mm food today. Changed one gallon of water, cleaned the bottom of the tank and filter, still three weak fish. Fish were fed at 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 5:50pm. More pictures!

February 10th 2010: Day 84

2010-02-27T11:39:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.5
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 1.00
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Changed 1 gallon of water today, nitrite has not changed cleaned bottom of the tank, still THREE weak ones today. Fish were fed at 10:00am and 3:30pm. They're still getting ready for their next food size which is the 1.2 mm food. When they start on this food, they will be on it for four weeks. Took some more pictures again today.

February 9th 2010: Day 83

2010-02-27T11:13:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.4
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 1.00
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Water Change: 1 gallon-1 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Changed 1 gallon of water today, cleaned bottom of the aquarium and the filter, checked water quality today, everything is the same as it was yesterday. There are about three weak fish today. Everyone was fed at 10:00am, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm.
A group of elementary school kids came in today with their teachers and toured the library, so they all had a chance to look a the fish. I gave them a quick presentation and they had a chance to ask questions about them.
I took a few pictures today, too.

February 8th 2010: Day 82

2010-02-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.5
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 1.00
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 3 gallon - 3 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 5
FIVE fries were removed today; FOUR were weak for a long time, and one of them got caught under a rock. I'm guessing that the one under the rock was weak, too since he was hanging out so close to the bottom of the tank and hiding near the rocks. Today I did a 3 gallon water change and added stress zyme in hopes of lowering the nitrite level, which rose to 1.00 ppm over the last three days. There are still TWO or THREE weak fries left, the rest are looking really healthy. The filter looked pretty dirty today, the fish have been going to the bathroom a lot, so the filter has been trying to keep up with them. There was a lot of waste at the bottom of the aquarium today and I cleaned all of that up with the syringe. I removed the filter sponge and cleaned it, and scrubbed the sides of the tank to make sure it was nice and clean. As far as water changes go, I'm doing a 3 gallon change on Mondays and Fridays plus a gallon change on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Today fries were fed at 7:45 am, 10:00 am, 3:30 pm, and 6:00 pm. Hopefully I can get the nitrite down again soon. The fish haven't seemed to react to the increase at all, in fact, they seem stronger than ever, but If we don't get the water back down at least a little it may continue to increase, and this could potentially cause some serious problems!
I made a flier over the weekend to inform the public of this blog page, so hopefully I will get a few more visitors soon. The big poster that I was planning on putting up next to the aquarium is still in progress. Hopefully I can get it finished up soon!

February 5th 2010: Day 79

2010-02-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.5
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10 mL
Water Change: 3gallon - 3gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1
One fish was removed today, about FIVE or SIX are weak, the same ones who have been sick all week. Cleaned the bottom of the tank today, changed 3 gallons of water, nitrite is still high. Fish were fed at 7:45 am, 10:00am, 3:30pm, 5:30pm, and 8:00pm. Fish are strong! The librarian is going to feed them once on Sunday, and I'll feed them early Monday morning. They are getting ready for their next food size again, so I will be switching them over soon. Took a few pictures this morning when they were feeding.

February 4th 2010: Day 78

2010-02-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F degrees): 47.4
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Water Change: 1 gallon - 1gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 1
Fish were fed today at 7:45am, 10:00am, 3:30pm, 5:30pm, and 8:00pm. Changed 1 gallon of water today, cleaned the bottom of the aquarium and the filter. There are about FIVE weak ones, but they still appear to have some fight left. Tested the water quality today, nitrite is still a little high but everyone still looks really strong and healthy! One of the fish looked like he might have passed away, and so I took the net to scoop him up, he did not react at all, he just laid there, but once the net began coming out of the water, he began flailing around and going crazy, it scared me because I thought he was dead. Then I released him back into the tank. He wasn't breathing, or moving, when I scooped him up, so it was pretty surprising to see him jump back to life the way he did. It was an interesting experience...I did not know that salmon can play dead so well! I took a few pictures today, too!

February 3rd 2010: Day 77

2010-02-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.8
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Number of Fish Removed: 1
Lost one fish today and six or seven are still weak. It's looking like things should begin to level off again were we won't lose any fish again for a while. Hopefully this is what happens. Nitrite is still a little high but has not changed, hopefully it will go back to normal in the next week or so. No water change today as their is no distilled water ready yet, it won't be ready until tomorrow. I will probably wait until Friday to do another big water change. Tomorrow I will do some sort of small water change probably a 1 gallon- 1 gallon switch. Fish were fed today at 7:45am, 10:00am, and 3:30pm. Population today is 128 fish, survival rate is 64%, death rate is 36%, the total loss is 72 fish. Today I realized that it might be handy to note that all of the fish who have died so far are ones that show under development, darker coloration than the rest, and fairly small length and belly size, this tells me that the ones who have died so far have not been healthy ones, they have been ones who haven't been eating, which is the most probable cause of death. The other fish have been eating ferociously, they are very energetic. Most of the time they stay within a few inches of the surface, they don't go much lower than the middle of the aquarium. A few of the fish are very husky, they have a strong build and big bellies. The fish are going to the bathroom now, and have been for about a week or at least it became noticeable by then. This waste plus the multiple dead fish over the last few weeks was the most likely cause for the increased nitrite level. The fish have changed slightly in appearance, their back tail fin has grown and now has some yellowish coloration to it. Every fish has distinct spots and parr patterns, some of them have black marks at the tips of their fins in random places, others do not, they are all unique.

February 2nd 2010: Day 76

2010-02-20T15:21:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.9
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Water Change: 1gallon-1gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Six weak fish today, but did not lose anyone. I cleaned the filter, changed 1 gallon of water, and cleaned the bottom of the aquarium with the big syringe. Population is 129 fish, total loss is 71 fish, and survival rate is 64.5%, death rate is 35.5%. Fish were fed at 10:00am, 3:30pm, 5:30pm, and 8:00pm. Took some more pictures today.

February 1st 2010: Day 75

2010-02-20T14:51:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.2
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 3 gallon- 4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 3
I changed water today, 3gallon-4gallon, added stress zyme, found three distilled water bottles and filled them with water to begin the distilling process. They should be ready for Wednesday/Thursday this week. Removed 2 dead fish today. Six fish look weak, cleaned the pump, water tested and everything is the same as before, nitrite is still high. My teacher was back today and he e-mailed the fishery to see if our death rate is higher than it should be. Come to find out that a lot of people involved in the program have had a high death rate this year. It seems that EMS (Early Mortality Syndrome) has played a big role in this die off rate. Early Mortality Syndrome is a sickness caused by a deficiency in vitamin B12 (thiamine). When an adult fish is deficient in thiamine, they will pass this deficiency on to the offspring and the offspring can actually die from the deficiency if they don't acquire the thiamine that their growing bodies need. The weak fish that I have been raising have actually shown a lot of the symptoms of EMS. These symptoms include spinning and lying on their side on the bottom of the tank during the first few weeks of the swim-up period (when the fish first begin to swim a lot and are transitioning to solid foods). When the fries begin to eat solid food they should acquire the thiamine that they need and should no longer have a problem from it but since some of the fish never really began eating they weren't able to acquire the thymine they needed, so they passed away. Typically less than 20% of the fish should suffer from mortality due to this deficiency.
Fish were fed at 10:0am, 3:30pm, and 5:30pm today, I also took a few pictures.

January 30th 2010: Day 73

2010-02-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.6
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0.25ppm
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Number of Fish Removed: 2
Five still weak today, 2 dead, nitrite still high, but has not gone up at least. The librarian fed them today at 9:30am

January 29th 2010: Day 72

2010-02-20T14:21:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.5
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0.25
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 3 gallon-3 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 2
Lost two fish today, there are about seven more weak ones today as well. I changed three gallons of the water and added stress zyme. Water tested and found that nitrite is high, 0.25ppm (mg/L). It is important that I try and get this nitrite level to go down soon as it could become a contributing factor to salmon deaths. I unplugged the filter and removed the spongy filter from the aquarium to clean it then fastened it back on. I removed all of the particles of left over food and waste from the bottom of the aquarium and I checked the water quality multiple times, just to make sure that I wasn't missing something, everything came up normal every time but the nitrite was always the same. I calculated our population today and found that we have 133 fish remaining in our tank. We have lost 67 in total and our current survival rate is 66.5%, our death rate is 33.5%. The fish received a feeding at 10:30am, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm. The strong fish are feeding aggressively and taking every bite of food they can. I need to bring in some milk jugs for Monday to distill water for the frequent water changes coming up. I currently have three gallons of tap water distilling for a good water change on Monday but I am nervous that the nitrite level may rise again over the weekend, so tomorrow (Saturday) the librarian is planning on opening the doors for me so that I can get in to feed them and check that everything is still alright. My teacher was gone today so this made it a little more difficult for me, because I'm not sure if there is something more that I can do for them that I'm unaware of. They all seem to be pretty healthy though, so maybe I'm overreacting a little bit, but I want to make sure that they have a safe living environment non-the-less.

January 28th 2010: Day 71

2010-02-13T12:58:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.5
Number of Fish Removed: 2 or 3
Lost two or three fish today, I ended up getting distracted and did not have a chance to write down the number, then I forgot, but I know for sure that it was either two or three fish. If my numbers are a little bit off from what they should be when we release everyone then I'll know why. Fish look healthy today with the exception of about five or six weak ones, but the healthy ones are becoming very voracious, eating more and more every day, and becoming more excited at feeding time. It's impressive to see how strong a lot of them have become! I took lots of pictures today and they turned out pretty well! Fed fish at 11:30 am, 1:00 pm, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm. I fed both the #1 and #2 food again. I'm planning on changing the water tomorrow.

January 27th 2010: Day 70

2010-02-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.2
PH: 0
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia: 0
Number of Fish Removed: 4
Lost four fish today, 6 are weak and a couple more are swimming funny. Water tests showed that everything is normal. Population is 138 fish. Today I started switching fish over to their next food size, food #2 (their original food size was food #1). I'm slowly transitioning them from one food to the next, feeding half and half amounts of each food for the next couple of days before completely switching them over to #2. This will allow the fish time to adjust to the new food and give the fish who may be a little smaller a chance to be able to catch up by eating the smaller food. Everyone was fed at 10:00am, 3:30pm and 6:30pm.

January 26th 2010: Day 69

2010-02-13T12:19:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.2
Number of Fish Removed: 3
Lost three fish today, eight are lying on the bottom of the aquarium, three more are swimming upside down and in circles. It has been about 3 weeks since the fish officially started eating (ten of them anyways). Considering that it took about a week for the majority of the fish to make the transition to solid foods, I think I should probably begin to switch them over to the next food either today or tomorrow. It is also time to begin doing one gallon switches everyday. Today the total population of surviving king salmon in the tank is 142 fish. We have lost 58 fish so far since the beginning of the project. This is approximately a 29% total loss which would put our survival rate at 71%. The fish have a silver belly and lower half of the body. their fins are much more spread out and wider now. The coloring on the top (dorsal) half of their body has an olive green base color with black to dark gray circular spots. Their sides have vertical oval stripes that run like par marks along their side. Their head is now proportionate to their body size and they are approximately an inch and a half in length.

January 25th 2010: Day 68

2010-02-13T11:56:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.2
PH:0
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia: 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 3 gallon-3 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 12
The librarian fed the fish once on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. When I came in today there were twelve dead fish and the water was looking a bit cloudy. I checked the water quality and everything came up alright. After removing the dead fish I went through and cleaned all the left over food off the bottom of the tank along with some fish droppings that the filter was not able to suck up. The pump had a lot of food and droppings on it, so I unplugged the filter and took the spongy part of the filter off and rinsed it in warm water to clean it off. There were a couple more fish looking weak today, hopefully we will reach a point soon where this mortality rate slows down! I fed everyone at 11:00am, 3:30pm, and they were fed again at 6:30pm. I changed the water today and cleaned the tank as best I could. In order to make cleaning easier, I removed three of the big rocks that were in the middle of the tank. Starting in the next week, I will be switching over to a one gallon changed every day. This will help to keep the tank cleaner, since the fish are eating and going to the bathroom a lot more the water is going to get dirtier faster. The fish who have been eating have grown a lot! Some of them are starting to get potbellies! I wonder if they are being fed a little too much at their feedings. Or, maybe they are being fed just enough and their size is normal, I don't really know. In the next week or two I'm going to need to switch the food size. Over the weekend the air bubbler detached and the librarian's husband fixed it up. I'm so glad someone was around to take care of that, it could have ended up badly if nobody had been around to fix it.

January 21st 2010: Day 64

2010-02-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.0
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 3 gallon-3 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 3
Removed three fish today, there are still about six weak ones. Changed the water today. Fish were fed at 11:00am, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm today. Tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday the librarian said she will feed them for me so that I won't have to come in over the weekend.

January 20th 2010: Day 63

2010-02-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.2
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia: 0
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Did not remove any fish today, but seven look weak still. The others have made noticeable changes since they started eating. They have grown quite a bit and their spots are becoming rounder and their other characteristics are becoming more defined. Their bellies are completely silver now, no pink at all and their fins are getting big! Water quality today was perfect.

January 19th 2010: Day 62

2010-02-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.2
Number of Fish Removed: 3
Removed three fish today, about five weak ones are lying on their sides on the way out. About five more are swimming upside-down and sideways, too. Fish were fed at 12:00am, 3:00pm and 6:30pm, when I feed them today a lot of fish surfaced, they acted really hungry, too. About 90% of the fish look really healthy today they're growing a lot, and that's a great sign!

January 18th 2010: Day 61

2010-02-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.1 PH: 7.6 Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0 Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0 Ammonia: 0 Water Change: 3 gallon- 3 gallon
Stress Zyme: 10 mL
Number of Fish Removed: 9
Today I removed nine fish from the tank. Seven of them I'm pretty sure died of starvation, as they were really skinny and had not appeared to have made many developmental changes over the last week or so. Their coloration was still very dark on their backs, where as the stronger fish had acquired a much lighter coloration by now. The other two fish who passed away had actually gotten pinched between the aquarium floor and one of the rocks. It seems that they would have been weaker fish of the bunch as they were hiding among the rocks, so they were most likely on their way out before they got caught. Still, I feel terrible about this and hope that this same thing does not happen again.
When I water quality tested today, I made a mistake and learned from it. By accident I fed the fish first and then I took my water samples, so when I tested the nitrite it came out to be 0.25 ppm (mg/L) which is higher than normal. But I realized when I looked in the test tube there was a chunk of food floating in it, this is what caused it to be so high! I went ahead and retested the nitrite about 5 minutes later and this time it tested normal. Now I know better than to feed the fish before water testing!
Ten fish look weak today, they probably won't make it too much longer. When I fed them today about 30% of the fish surfaced to eat, hopefully the other fish will catch on soon. I changed the water today and fish were fed at 11:00pm, 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm. I also took some pictures, as shown below.

January 15th 2010: Day 58

2010-02-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.5
PH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia: 0
Stress Zyme: 10 mL
Water Change: 3 gallon-3 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
There are five fish on the bottom of the tank today lying on their sides. They look skinny, they have not been eating and they appear to be on their way out. It is really hard to watch them deteriorate like this. I pH tested today and did a water change. The fish were fed at 11:00 am, 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm today. I hope things will improve for the sick fries, but unfortunately it is not seeming as if it will.

January 14th 2010: Day 57

2010-02-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.7
Number of Fish removed: 0
Three fish are looking weak today, two are lying on the bottom a lot the other swims around, but it is having buoyancy problems, he can't stay righted up. It might just be his swim blatter, but it could be that he's too weak to keep himself righted. When I fed everyone at 11:00am, he did come up and eat at the least, so he is getting some nourishment. Fed them again at 3:30pm and the librarian fed them at 6:00pm, too. I've noticed a lot more surfacing for food today than I did yesterday, too

January 13th 2010: Day 56

2010-02-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.4
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Number of Fish removed: 0
There are two fish who look pretty weak today, hanging near the bottom and not moving very much, maybe they just are not eating. Hopefully they get better. Everyone else is doing really well, they're all really strong and eating. Checked the water quality today and everything is good, fish were fed at 11:00am, 3:30pm, and 6:00pm.

January 12th 2010: Day 55

2010-02-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.0
Number of Fish removed: 0
Fed fish at 11:00am, 3:30pm, and 6:00pm they are very active! Pouches are gone, everything looks good, Pictures!

January 11th 2010: Day 54

2010-02-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 50.6
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10ml
Water Change: 3gallon-4gallon
Number of Fish removed: 0
Pouches pretty much gone aside from a small speck of pink that is hardly visible anymore unless you look at their bellies from below. There is still a very small bump where the tiny bit of pouch remains but it is now completely silver. Changed and tested the water and everything is still fine. Everyone is more active today, and everyone is swimming now. Fish were fed once on Saturday and Sunday by the librarian, and I fed them today at 11:30am.

January 8th 2010: Day 51

2010-02-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 49.5
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 3 gallon-4 gallon
Number of Fish removed: 0
Fed fish at 11:00pm, water quality tested, changed water, and added stress zyme. Everyone is looking good, pouches are disappearing quick! Bellies are becoming very silver, Everyone's getting more active by the day.

January 7th 2010: Day 50

2010-02-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 47.5
Number of Fish removed: 0
Just about everybody is up and swimming today, except for about 6 who are sticking near the bottom of the tank. I removed the two big rocks today to leave less hiding places for the fish and prevent them from getting trapped in a crevice. I fed them at 11:00am and at 3:30pm, removed wasted food from the bottom of the take using a big syringe. Tomorrow I will check the water quality and change the water. The fish food that we are feeding right now is just called "food #1" and it is specially made for the salmon for their first 2 weeks of development. The first week we are supposed to feed about 1/4 tsp of food per day, the food is fed during multiple feedings. The second week we increasing the feeding size to 1/2 tsp. When the first two weeks of feeding ends, the fish will transition to a new food.

January 6th 2010: Day 49

2010-02-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.8
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Number of Fish removed: 0
Everybody looks good today pH tested, everything is normal. More fries are off the bottom today and the ones on the bottom are more active than they were yesterday. They are still about an inch long and maybe a centimeter from back to belly. Fed everyone at 11:00am, 3:30pm, and the librarian gave them three small feedings today as well.

January 5th 2010: Day 48

2010-02-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.4
Number of Fish Removed: 1
Fish officially started eating today, I observed 10 or more of them surfacing during their feeding time. Approximately 50 are off the bottom and swimming now. Moved the final rock today to get all of the hiders to come out. Most of the hiders continued to stay on the bottom after the rock was moved, this indicated to me that they're not quite ready to start swimming for real yet. Discovered that the weak fry has died which is sad, but I expected it to happen eventually, I'm glad that he is no longer suffering. I found him hidden in a crevice next to the bubbler, I noticed that there was an accumulation of fish food that had drifted here and was beginning to pile up also. The fishes eyes were beginning to glaze over and their were patches of scale-less areas on his body, which indicated to me that he had probably died a day or two ago and I just hadn't noticed because he was hidden so well. Now I know to pay close attention to the crevices and make sure we don't have any food or waste accumulating. This could lead to poor water quality.
Of the swimmers, about a dozen are beginning to diffuse to the left side of the tank where the rocks are piled. Most of these fish are staying out in the open water now rather than hiding in the crevices, they are becoming more accustomed to the tank and they are not as afraid to come out and explore. The swimmers have chosen their own sides of the tank now, there are more on the right than on the left. , but instead of facing one direction, they are facing each other, and there is an empty barrier of open water in the middle, it's as if they are about to face off.
The fish are now a lighter green than they were when they first began changing colors, their dark green bands have become more spaced apart and have faded slightly in color. They are more silvery now than green. All the fries still have their pouches, but they are very slight in comparison to when they had first hatched. Their gills have a solid silver on them, their fins are becoming more predominant, their bellies are now a shimmering peach with some silver, the peach will turn silver in bright light. If you look from below, you can see that the pouch is beginning to disappear behind the gills. Their eyes are not as huge in proportion to their body now and they are a yellow/gold with a black pupil. I fed the fish at 11:00 am and again at 3:30 pm and took a few pictures today, too.

January 4th 2010: Day 47

2010-02-07T10:35:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.6
Stress Zyme: 10 ml
Water Change: 3 gallon-4 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
About 9 or 10 fries started surfacing today, they've been acting very interested in the food. I fed them today and the librarian volunteered to feed them later on tonight. Over break she came in and gave them feedings every other day since she was going to be at the school anyways. Approximately half of the fish are now up and swimming off the bottom of the tank. They typically will lie on the aquarium surface for a while to rest, then swim periodically then return to the bottom to rest some more. The other fish are still lying around under the the rock ledge trying to hide their heads. Tomorrow I might move the rock and see if it gets the other fish moving around some more. The ten that are really active swim almost all of the time. They typically move in a wavy pattern, swimming straight up toward the surface at an angle, then they lose energy and sink about 4 inches, only to swim upward again and get tired, it is sort of comical to watch. Then they will come right up close to each other and swim away really fast as if they were playing a game of tag. Today I cut the end of the bubbler tube and refastened it to the bubble disperser, hopefully it will stay better now. No signs of the weak fish today, maybe he's hiding among everyone else under the rock. It's hard to say what happened to him, but there does not seem to be much hope for him. Egg sacs are still visible, but hardly even noticeable anymore, they should all start making an honest transition to eating solid food now in the next couple of days. I took a couple of pictures today so you can see how much they have grown.

January 3rd 2010: Day 46

2010-02-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

Temperature (F degrees): 48.7
pH: 7.6
Nitrate NO3 ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite NO2 ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Number of Fish Removed: 0
The bubbler detached today and the librarian called me at 10:00am to let me know. I drove to the school and reattached it and checked on the water quality while I was there and everything was good. The underdeveloped weak fish is still very weak, I hope he's not in pain. I think the hardest part about this project is just watching nature take it's course. When there is nothing you can do to save them, it's hard to see them slowly deteriorate.
I feed the fish a little bit again today, everything else seems pretty good. I saw the first fish jump today while feeding!

December 30th 2009: Day 42

2010-02-07T10:09:00.001-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.7
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Number of Fish Removed: 0
One fry has been hanging out near the surface lately getting ready to feed. The underdeveloped fry is not doing so well today, unfortunately he may be dead tomorrow. Continued giving small feedings. Water quality tested, all is normal.

December 29th 2010: Day 41

2010-02-07T10:08:00.002-08:00

Temperature (F Degrees): 48.8 Number of Fish Removed: 0
Fish are doing well today, everyone's looking healthy. They will probably start feeding in a couple days. The librarian who's very interested in the project suggested that I move one of the rocks so that the fish can't hide under it anymore. They need to start facing their fears and come out and explore. When I moved the rock, they all scattered in all directions and began swimming a lot more after that. I gave them a small pinch of food to get them interested, they did not eat it but they did act a little curious. Today I also noticed that one fish is underdeveloped in comparison to the rest. He's about a week behind the others, he is probably one of the last ones to hatch.

The two pictures below were taken on December 29th 2009

December 28th 2009: Day 40

2010-02-07T10:08:00.001-08:00

Temperature: 49.4 degrees F
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3) ppm (mg/L): 0
Nitrite (NO2) ppm (mg/L): 0
Ammonia ppm (mg/L): 0
Stress Zyme: 10 mL
Water Change (amount taken out-amount added): 3gallon-4gallon
Number of fish removed: 0
Water quality tested today and everything is perfect. I switched out 3 gallons of aquarium water with 4 gallons of distilled water with 10mL of stress zyme added to it. The fish are getting very big now, stripes are becoming a dark gray/ black color, egg sacs are beginning to get silver tint to them as they begin to form the fishes belly. I took a few pictures today. It looks like the fish may start eating in the next few days.

December 28th 2010: as you can see from the two pictures below, the salmon have grown a lot in the last couple of days. Their egg sac now has a silvery tint to it and the salmons coloration is now very dark. Their egg sacs are still a little big for them to be able to swim upright for long periods of time, but soon they will be swimming all the time.

December 23rd 2009: Day 35

2010-02-07T10:07:00.002-08:00

Temperature (Degrees F): 49.5
pH: 7.6
Nitrate NO3: 0 ppm
Nitrite No2: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Water quality tested today, everything's good. Took some pictures today!

December 23rd 2009 pictures

December 23rd 2009 pictures

December 22nd 2009: Day: 34

2010-02-07T10:07:00.001-08:00

Temperature (Degrees F): 49.2
pH: 7.6
Nitrate NO3: 0
Nitrite No2: 0
Ammonia: 0
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Everyone's still doing good. Today is the 22nd day since the first egg hatched. According to the DNR booklet, the fish may start feeding at approximately 1 month old. So the fish could start feeding either next week or the week after (the week after being the week we would be coming back from Christmas Break). Since most of the eggs hatched between December 5th and December 7th, most of the fish probably will not be ready to feed until we get back from break. I'm hoping this will be the case because it will be difficult to get into the school during this time.

December 21st 2009: Day: 33

2010-02-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

Temperature (Degrees F): 50.5
pH: 7.6
Nitrate NO3: 0
Nitrite No2: 0
Amnonia: 0
Stress Zyme: 10 mL
Water Change: 3 gallon-3 gallon
Number of Fish Removed: 0
PH tested, changed 3 gallons of water and added Stress Zyme to the water. The fish are pretty calm today, not moving around as much as before, their probably just tired from all the changes their bodies are going through. They are now about an inch long on average. When they first hatched, they were about 0.5 to 0.75 inches long, so they are definitely growing. Their bellies are slowly continuing to get smaller, too so we're getting closer and closer to feeding time.

December 18th 2009: Day: 30

2010-02-07T10:05:00.002-08:00

Temperature (Degrees F): 48.2
pH: 7.6
Nitrate NO3: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Nitrite No2: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Ammonia: 0 ppm (mg/L)
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Tested the water quality, everything is still looking good, haven't lost anyone today! Egg sacs are noticeably disappearing, fish are still becoming more active everyday. Clear tail fins and dorsal fins are beginning to form. I took some more pictures today!

More sac fry pictures December 18th 2009

December 17th 2009: Day: 29

2010-02-07T10:05:00.001-08:00

Temperature: 49.3 F Degrees
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Everyone's doing great! Not too much to add today, no changes to speak of.

December 16th 2009: Day: 28

2010-02-07T10:04:00.002-08:00

Temperature: 49.3 F Degrees
Number of Fish Removed: 0
Checked fish today, everyone is doing great, 173 strong and healthy baby salmon!

December 15th 2009: Day 27

2010-02-07T10:04:00.001-08:00

Temperature: 49.9 F degrees
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3): 0
Nitrite (NO2): 0
Ammonia: 0
Number of Eggs removed: 0
Today when I took the cover off of the aquarium, the air tube disconnected from the bubbler. I was able to reattach it, but now I'm a little nervous. What is it disconnects over the weekend when I'm not there to fix it? It probably won't unless the tube is moved around a lot, but just in case, I'll come in and check up on them whenever possible and make sure that the tube is tightly fastened before I leave. All the fish are doing great! No more dead ones at all, the water quality tests today went well and everything is fine. Took a few more pictures today! :)

More sac fries, December 15th 2009

More sac fries, December 15th 2009

More sac fries, December 15th 2009

Monday, December 14th 2009: Day 26

2010-02-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

Temperature: 47.6 F degrees
Stress Zyme: 10 mL
Water Change: 3 gallon- 3 gallon
Number of Eggs removed: 1 egg
Today I did a water change and removed one egg. All of the other eggs are hatched now. I took a few pictures today and tried to overcome the lighting problem, I unfortunately was not as successful as I had hoped to be. The sac fries are becoming very energetic in comparison to how they were a few days after hatching. Their body is noticeably becoming larger and their tail is beginning to turn gray. The tail has a few long stripes running from head to tail. The egg sacs are slowly becoming smaller each day.

The photo to the left was taken on December 14th, as you can see the sac fries are fairly active today. Behind them is their bubbler which circulates air in the water, supplying plenty of oxygen for the salmon babies. Salmon are very sensitive to low oxygen levels. The streams that they would inhabit in nature would have flowing water which would circulate lots of air for the fish. Salmon have a low tolerance for water that contains very little oxygen this is why the bubbler is vital in sustaining salmon life in a domestic setting.

In the photo to the left, you see the sac fries, also known as alevins, huddling together in the crevice of a few rocks. In the far left of this photo is the filter pump. The sac fries seemed to really like to stick close to the pump, perhaps they found the soft hum of the engine calming. This rock crevice is actually very dark and shaded. The only reason it is so lit up in this photo is that I used flash to get a nice shot. The darkness seems to give the fries a secure feeling.

Here's a nice close up shot of a few sac fries.

Friday, December 11th 2009: Day 23

2010-02-07T09:59:00.002-08:00

Temperature: 47.6 F degrees
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3), Nitrite (NO2) & Ammonia levels: 0ppm (mg/L)
Number of eggs removed: 2 sac fries
Ran water quality tests today, all is well. Removed TWO sac fries who got caught in the water bubbler some how. I took a few pictures and videos of the fish who remain, unfortunately the lighting is not as good now that they are out of the net, so good pictures are harder to come by. The sac fries seem more energetic today than they were before. Some are becoming strong swimmers, about ten of them are now able to hover or swim about an inch off the bottom for small intervals of time, some of them can do this for a minute at a time! They are definitely all getting bigger and their food sacs are beginning to slowly disappear.

A small group of the sac fries liked to huddle together near the bubbler the day after release as seen in the pictures to the left. In the last couple pictures you can see the other sac fries which seem to prefer hiding close to the rocks and the water pump, I think the shadier areas make them feel more secure and protected.

Wednesday, December 9th 2009: Day 21

2010-02-07T09:59:00.001-08:00

Temperature: 49.8 F degrees
Number of eggs removed: 8
Today I removed EIGHT dead eggs, then transferred the sac fries from their hatchery box into the big aquarium. NINE eggs are left that have not yet hatched, so there should be a total of 167 sac fries in the aquarium. All of the sac fries appear healthy, and so do the unhatched eggs that remain.

Tuesday, December 8th 2009: Day 20

2010-02-07T09:56:00.001-08:00

Temperature: 48.4 F degrees
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3), Nitrite (NO2) & Ammonia levels: 0ppm (mg/L)
Total number of eggs hatched: about 100
Number of eggs removed: 1
Removed over TWENTY eggs shells today at 11:00 am so we have approximately 100 hatched sac fries now. I swear that everyone is growing by the day, they look bigger than they did when I looked yesterday! I checked the water quality today and it was fine. I noticed that there's an all white egg today with it's head coming out. The eggs that have not yet hatched are taking on an almost transparent coloring right before hatching out while others are not. Some turn whitish while they hatch and some turn a dark orange color a day or two before hatching. They seem to vary a lot in their hatching patterns.
Its hard to believe that 5 days ago we had TWO sac fries and today we have ONE HUNDRED! Its pretty neat! I took some more pictures and videos today and I removed one egg.

This photo shows a really close up view of the white egg that is partially hatched. Along with the other sac fries.

The 3 photos above are just more pictures of the sac fries, on December 8th 2009

Monday, December 7th 2009: Day 19

2010-02-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

Temperature: 48.2 F degrees
Amount of Stress Zyme added: 10 mL
Amount of H2O exchanged: 3 gallon-3 gallon
Total number of eggs hatched: about 80
Amount of eggs removed: 0
I checked the salmon today and was very surprised to see that many of the sac fries had hatched. One corner of the hatching box had a big pile of empty egg shells in it. I set to work removing them. Three of the eggs have white stuff coming out of them along with the fishes heads. One of the librarians (who is very interested in watching the salmon develop and has generously offered to check on the fish over weekends when it's difficult for me to get to the school to check up on them) suggested to me that this could be how the eggs hatch; they might lose the white stuff from their eggs when they hatch. I'm going to wait and see if she's right. It does make sense to me! I counted at least 70 sac fries! This means that over one third of the eggs have hatched already! In addition to cleaning up the hatchery box, I also did a water change today of three gallons of water for three gallons of distilled water with 10 mL of stress zyme added. All the new hatchlings are identical to the first, and they all look healthy and strong! Removed 10 eggs shells after school at 3:30 pm.

In this photo you can see that approximately 70 of the fish have hatched out now. If you look in the upper right hand corner there is a huge pile of empty shells from the hatched fish eggs. You can also see a few white chunks in the water and a couple of partially hatched fish eggs.

Here is another photo of the fish today. This photo was taken after I removed the egg shells. You can still see a few white chunks in this photo though.

Here is another picture of the fish on December 7th after removing the white stuff.

Here's a closer view of some of the sac fries, just to give you a better look.

Thursday, December 3rd 2009: Day 15

2010-02-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

Temperature: 48.2 F degrees
Number of eggs removed: 3
Total number of eggs hatched: 2
Removed THREE eggs today and took pictures of the remaining eggs. Another egg hatched today, so there are now TWO sac fries, identical in appearance.

If you look in the upper right hand corner of this photograph you can see one of the sac fries, and in the upper middle region you can see the other. As you can also see in this photo, there are many orange and off colored eggs today. These eggs are preparing to hatch.

Wednesday, December 2nd 2009: Day 14

2010-02-07T09:53:00.001-08:00

Temperature: 48.4 F Degrees
Number of eggs removed: 1
Removed one white egg today, all else seems alright. Took a picture today, posted below. Temperature is normal. Another egg seems to be turning white and it looks like about 16 eggs are turning a dark orange color now, hopefully this is a good thing!

As you can see in this photo, there are twice as many dark orange eggs today than there were yesterday.

Tuesday, December 1st 2009: Day 13

2010-02-07T09:52:00.002-08:00

Temperature: 48.5 F degrees
pH: 7.6
Nitrate (NO3), Nitrite (NO2) & Ammonia levels: 0ppm (zero parts per million) (mg/L)
Number of eggs removed: 6
Checked salmon today, no more have hatched. SIX white eggs today so I removed them all. This means we are down to 185 eggs. I water quality tested today and everything is still normal, so at least that's a good thing.