11/11/18- I came in on Sunday so that I could spend some time taking out the dead fish, as everyone noticed that there was a cluster of non-moving fish at the bottom of the "bad" basket. Upon closer examination, however, they were all alive except for one! 
I removed the fish from the original bag and put them into a temporary container so I could clean out the uneaten fish food from that was caught in the net.
I also did a retest of the nitrates, since they were slowly climbing. I think adding some of the Special Blend on Friday helped along with cleaning out the original basket netting, because the reading today was just barely 10 ppm, instead of 10-20 ppm as on Friday.
​Number = 411 live trout
11/12/18- x
11/13/18- Removed 1 dead fry. Did a retake of nitrate concentration and the result was 10 ppm. Now that the trout are starting to eat, I need to be careful with how much I feed them each day. If I feed them too much, the nitrate concentration will continue to climb, and the only way to significantly remove it is to do a partial water change. 
Number = 410 live trout
11/14/18- Removed 1 dead fry.
Number = 409 live trout.
11/15/18- Removed 1 dead fry.
Number = 408 live trout.
11/16/18- I continue to feed the trout only a pinch of food, since they are so small.
WATER QUALITY UPDATE:

• pH = 6.8
• Ammonia = 0.25 ppm
• Nitrites = 0 ppm
• Nitrates = 10 ppm

It's tough to tell the color difference between 10 ppm and 20 ppm of Nitrates, so as a precaution, I did a 4 gallon water change and added 10 mL of Special Blend Bacteria to help combat the nitrate concentration. Additionally, after I feed the fish, I wait at least an hour to look at the bottom of the net and search for any fish poop. This gets pulled out of the water by using a plastic pipette.

I cleaned the original basket (first picture on the left) by putting the fish in that basket into a cut gallon jug (second picture). This also allowed me to figure out if there were any dead fish. They were then put into the basket back in the tank. I put the frame on the inside of the basket now that I didn't need to worry about eggs getting caught in the frame (third picture).

The picture below shows the problem with the original basket, in that some fish get caught between the frame and the net.

11/5/18- The fish are beginning to swim up! :)
3 partially developed alevins were removed. There is a gap in the yolk sac for all three. You can see this in the picture below.
Number = 419 live trout​
11/6/18- Three alevins were removed.
Number = 416 live trout.
11/7/18- Since more fish are swimming to the surface, I added a pinch of size 0 food.
11/8/18- x
11/9/18- I bought a second basket to hold the healthier, more developed fish. Remember, St Ann School received not one, but TWO bags of eyed eggs! As a result, I figured it was time to start giving the little guys some more room. Scroll down to see the new basket!
Check out this link to see a video: https://youtu.be/VVka1HdJ01U
​*Note: The reason the first basket looks squished together is because I put the bag on the inside rather than the outside of the frame. When I first received the eggs and had the bag on the outside of the frame, I noticed that some of the fish eggs were getting squished between the bag and frame. It was safer for them to have it the way it is now.
Three alevins were removed. One fry was removed. This is a video of one of the alevins I pulled out of the tank that first appeared to be dead before examining more closely: https://youtu.be/Keaflh55EWw
​Number = 412 live trout.
WATER QUALITY UPDATE:

• pH = 7.0
• Ammonia = 0 ppm
• Nitrites = 0 ppm
• Nitrates = 10-20 ppm (tough to differentiate)

​Added 10 mL of Special Blend as an attempt to decrease the nitrate concentration.

Two baskets for our growing fish family :)

​

Here are some pictures I took of one of the alevins and the first fingerling that was dead. You can see there is a bump on the fingerling's head, which suggests that this may have caused it to die early in development.
​I used a digital microscope to capture the images.

10/29/18- No trout were removed.
Number = 425 live trout.
10/30/18- No trout were removed.
Number = 425 live trout.
10/31/18- 3 alevins were removed. These are fish with developmental problems. If you look closely, you can see that there is a gap in the yolk sac.
Number = 422 live trout.
11/1/18- No trout were removed.
Number = 422 live trout.
11/2/18- No trout were removed. A picture of the alevins from today is below. Also, check out the video of the alevins! https://youtu.be/KnRvcp8WqGk
Number = 422 live trout.
WATER QUALITY UPDATE:

• pH = 7.0
• Ammonia = 0 ppm
  
• Nitrites =  0 ppm
  
• Nitrates = 5-10 ppm​

10/22/18- 17 trout eggs and alevins were removed, as well as 28 clear egg shells and at least 20 pieces of white fungus that were in the water. The majority of eggs have now progressed to the stage of alevin, or sac-fry. Their food for the next couple weeks will come from their yolk sacs.
Number = 429 live trout 
10/23/18- 1 partially hatched alevin and 5 egg shells were removed.
​Number = 428 live trout
WATER QUALITY UPDATE: 

• Temperature = 51.6 F
• pH =7.0
• Ammonia = 0.25 ppm
• Nitrite = 0.25 ppm
• Nitrate = 5 ppm

I added 20 mL of Nitrifying Bacteria to the tank.
10/24/18- 1 egg and 1 egg shell removed
Number = 427 live trout
Check out the swimming alevins! ​https://youtu.be/lPBXhQNkrw0
10/26/18- 2 alevins and 1 egg shell removed. 10 mL of Special Blend added.
​Number = 425 live trout

10/15/18- One egg removed (milky white in color). I also picked out two clear egg shells.
Combined with yesterday, this suggests that a total of three alevins (sac-fry) have hatched.
​Total Number = 477 live trout
10/16/18- Four eggs removed (one milky white, three fungal)
I also got a somewhat clear picture of one of the hatched eggs, now called an alevin. Look at the top of the picture, and you will see an egg with a tail sticking out. I also added 20 mL of Nitrifying Bacteria.
​Total Number = 473 live trout
Video of Alevin moving (change settings to 720p): https://youtu.be/QrSeb4Nvp2g
Five more eggs were removed at lunchtime. I moved the basket around more and found a few more fungal eggs that were hiding at the bottom of the basket.
​Total Number = 468 live trout
10/17/18- 11 fungal eggs, 1 milky white egg, and 1 fungal-infected alevin were removed. Total Number = 455 live trout
BIZARRE TURN OF EVENTS- three of the eggs that I took out yesterday and kept in a petri dish efrfnded up hatching. I put some cold trout water near them and they started to wiggle. I looked at each of those trout under a microscope and found a heart beating and gills moving, so I continued to add cold water into the petri dish and scooped up the alevin and held them at the surface of the water to acclimate to the cold water. 
Number = 458 live trout
Removed 1 trout egg afterschool.
​Number = 457 live trout.
2 trout partially hatched in the petri dish and were breathing, so I returned them to the tank.
​Number = 459 live trout.
Video of the "Frankenfish" (change settings to 720p): https://youtu.be/qWP8AobINuM
10/18/18-  5 eggs and 2 egg shells were removed.
Number = 454 live trout
10/19/18- 9 fungal eggs removed and 8 egg shells removed.
One egg hatched three hours later was returned.
​Number = 446 live trout
Added 15 mL of Special Blend Bacteria to the tank.

Below is from the morning of 10/17/18. You can see at the bottom that an alevin's development was stopped due to the white fungus. This alevin was completely unresponsive while in the petri dish.​

The first picture below is of the trout eggs on October 4, 2017. The second picture is from October 10, 2018. You can clearly see that we have more eggs this year, as the second picture shows a greater density of eggs (the group appears darker in color). It doesn't look like the first picture had 200 eggs, but based on how many fish were removed and how many were released, it was about 200. This year we have over 400 eggs. 

10/10/18- Trout eggs arrived. Total number of good eggs = 493
10/11/18- Three dead eggs removed. One was milky white. One had a white fungal growth attached. You can see a little white growth on the left side of the egg below.
Total number = 490 good eggs.
10/12/18- At 7:20 am, I looked in the egg basket and pulled out four eggs with a fungal growth on the side, and one that had begun to turn milky white.
​Total number = 485 good eggs.
10/14/18- 7 eggs removed. I also removed the clear "shell" of an egg, which suggests that one of the trout hatched. It's tough to see, but I think I also saw the hatched trout, now called an alevin. Three eggs were infected with the white fungus such that they were connected in a triangle shape (unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of this). In the pictures from today, you can see one trout tried to hatch (it's partially separated from the clear shell, but wasn't developed enough to survive. It had some white fungus attached to it. I also attached a mesh cover around the filter intake so that when the alevins begin to swim, they don't get sucked up into the filter.
Total number = 478 live trout.

​The picture below on the left is off the eyed egg I removed because it had a white fungal growth on it. The picture below on the right is the same egg 6 hours later. You can see that the fungus continued to grow. Any eggs with fungal growth must be removed to limit its ability to infect other eggs.

In the picture below, you can see the eyed egg with a little white fungus poking out of it. This egg had to be removed immediately.

Picture of eggs removed on 10/14/18

Below are the before and after pictures of the filter intake.

The trout eggs arrived at 11:05 am. Another school decided not to go through with the program, so I was given a second bag of eggs. It was estimated that each bag held about 300 eggs.

Since the eggs arrived at the end of fourth period, and we couldn't do anything with the eggs until they spent some time acclimating to the temperature of the fish tank, I invited eighth graders and sixth graders to help me with the eggs during lunch/recess.

Five students had a chance to pick out the dead eggs and count the good ones as they were placed into the egg basket. Students tallied the good and dead eggs as they were transferred from each bag.
The first bag had 14 dead eggs and 248 good eggs.
The second bag had 9 dead eggs and good 245 eggs.

The pictures below are in chronological order.

At 7:30 am this morning, I took a baseline of water quality. After all tests were done, I added 25 mL of Nitrifying Bacteria.
​
Temperature = 51.6 degrees F
pH =7.6
pH High Range = 7.4
Ammonia = 0 ppm
Nitrite = 0 ppm
Nitrate = 5 ppm
GH = 71.6 ppm
KH = 53.7 ppm