Our Salmon Have Arrived!

Our salmon eggs have finally arrived! Yesterday we recieved 110 little Coho salmon eggs. Our salmon eggs are currently at the Eyed Stage. An interesting fact about salmon is that their age is actually determined by the temperature they are kept at (not by the days). So, if we keep our salmon eggs at 5 degrees celcius, they grow by 5 "ATU's" each day (depending on how our temperature fluctuates). Each day we will be adding our temperature to the currect ATU. It is important that the students monitor the tank daily to ensure that our temperature is at the right setting. The eggs will turn into Alevin and Fry at specific ATU stages. The reason why it is so important to monitor their growth is because when they become fry they must be fed twice a day... so if our alevins turn to fry BEFORE spring break, we will be in big trouble! But luckily with the ability to control the temperature of our tank, we can control the growth of our little salmon babies. Pretty neat!

Next week the students will start taking turns monitoring the tank. They will check the clarity of the water, the temperature and the water levels. They will also record the daily temperature/ATU's and watch out for any dead eggs/alevin, as they can pollute the water for the rest of our eggs. With 110 eggs, it is expected that a few will not make it... but we'll hope for the best!

We are very excited to monitor and watch as our eyed eggs grow into alevin!

Check out our salmon tank!!

I just had to share a picture of our salmon tank! Yesterday the students worked all day (in shifts of 4) to add details to our salmon tank backdrop. They each drew one thing that you may find in a salmon's habitat. They used a number of non-fiction books on salmon to determine what to draw. When I put the backdrop in this morning I thought it looked so AMAZING that I just had to share it on here. Check it out!!!

Salmonoids in the Classroom!

I'm sure many of the students have come home and shared this news already - but next week we will have some new arrivals joining our classroom - SALMON! We will be recieving a batch of salmon eggs that we will watch grow through the different stages of their life cycle. First thing Monday we began learning about salmon and habitats and some of the students went home and did some BONUS homework - finding an picture (online) or drawing a habitat for a salmon. We need to make sure that our tank has everything we need for our salmon to hatch and grow - a redd for our alevin to hide in, nice cool water so they don't grow too quickly and a backdrop complete with all their habitat surroundings so they don't feel homesick :) Tomorrow we will be working on drawing our own backdrop for the salmon, complete with all the things that we might see in their habitat in the wild!

Through the next few months we will be taking care of the Coho salmon and monitoring them as they go through their life cycle - from eggs, to eyed eggs, to alevins, to fry... and will eventually be releasing them back into the river - if all goes as planned of course! We're hoping that we have a successful year with the salmon, however there have been times when the salmon have not made it and I have warned the students that we may have a few eggs and babies die through the process. Let's hope that this is a successful and fun learning experience!

Students can feel free to read up on salmon in books from the library (there are some displayed in our classroom too!) or on the internet as we monitor the salmon and learn about habitats of other animals/species too!