Opening week 2017! And equipment failures.

It's happening! Yesterday several schools received their eggs. Dozens more will be getting them tomorrow, so there's no turning back.

Here's a picture of the tank at Poultney High School, perfectly set up and at the right temperature (45 degrees) but lacking living matter, those precious eggs.

Especially for those of you who are new to TIC, here are some final instructions.

• Today's water temperature at the Roxbury Fish Culture Station was 44.2, so set your tank at 45 degrees. Once your eggs are in the tank, you can gradually raise the temperature to 50 to 52 degrees by a degree or two each day.
• When your eggs arrive, ask for the DI number. This represents how developed your eggs were on the day they left the hatchery. (If your egg deliverer doesn't have that number, contact your regional liaison--e-mail addresses below.)
• Take pictures and send me some. If you post videos to YouTube, send me a link.
• Make sure your breeder basket(s) is assembled and installed. Many of you are using two or more breeder baskets. Many of you have modified the breeder basket by replacing the bottom netting with coarser mesh to allow more waste to fall through it. (Bob Wible's excellent instructions for modifying the breeder basket were published in the 12/14/16 blog post.)
• "Tempering" eggs. See Chapter 4 of the manual (pp. 89 & 90) but remember that our hatchery water currently is significantly colder that Maryland's, so disregard the references to 52 degrees. The point is that, if there's more than a five-degree difference between your tank's water and the water in the container, you should set the covered and sealed container in the tank for several minutes to allow the two temperatures to equalize.
• Once you've put eggs in your tank, add Special Blend and NiteOut II. See pp. 89 & 90 of Appendix F of the MD/DC TIC Manual for detailed instructions. If you've got a 55-gallon tank, add 150 ml of Special Blend. This is smelly, so be prepared! Then start adding 50 ml of NiteOut II every M, W, and F. Be aware that these instructions are written for schools with 55-gallon tanks. If your tank is smaller or larger, prorate the amounts. (If you don't know the capacity of your tank, take its measurements and Google "aquarium dimensions.")
• Checking for dead eggs. Once you've put your eggs in the breeder baskets, it's important to make at least daile checks to see whether any eggs have died. Dead eggs should be removed using a turkey baster or pipette.

Here's a photo I got yesterday from Anna Kovaliv, of Camels Hump Middle School. She was wondering whether the circled egg was dead. 

Bob Wible and I had essentially similar opinions: Keep an eye on it. It might be dying, but the evidence of that isn't yet conclusive. (See page 26 of the manual.)

• Cover your filter intake with fine (not ultra-fine) mesh if you haven't already done so. Since you will want to be able to remove and clean the mesh periodically, you should attached it with a twist-tie or rubber band.
• Data, data, data! As those of you who have attended TIC workshops know, I consider it very important that all teachers (and their students) keep good records. As we do this locally and then share data across the state, we can refine and improving our practices, including about when to expect the critical swim-up stage. Here's the data entry sheet we'd like you to use. Please fill in all columns. Particularly important is that you enter eggs or fry lost data for each day of observation.

Three great pictures from Charlotte Central School

​If you don't know when your eggs will arrive, contact your community partner or regional TIC liaison ASAP. I don't know who all the community partners are, but here's a list, by county, of TIC liaisons:

• Brian Burkholder, beburkholder@yahoo.com, Greater Upper Valley Trout Unlimited--Orange and Windsor counties. Dan Ruddell, rudi@whiteriverpartnership.org, of White River Partnership, will be delivering most of the eggs to schools in this region.
• Shawn Nailor, nailorvt@gmail.com, Mad Dog Trout Unlimited--Caledonia, Essex, Lamoille, Orleans, and Washington counties
• Joe Mark, joe.mark@castleton.edu, Southwestern Vermont Trout Unlimited--Bennington and Rutland counties
• Mitch Harrison, mhsierra@yahoo.com, Connecticut River Valley Trout Unlimited--Windham County. Tim Kip, kipper@sover.net, of CRV Trout Unlimited, will be delivering eggs to schools in this region.
• Bob Wible, rwible1@msn.com, Central Vermont Trout Unlimited--Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle counties

Above,  four nice "opening day" photos from Browns River Middle School.

Equipment failures and routine maintenance
While at a family gathering in Bridport on New Year's Day, I got a concerning e-mail from Archie Clark of Benson Village School. His one-year-old Fluval filter, which performed flawlessly last year and was running fine before the break, wasn't working when he went in to check it.

On Monday, through e-mails and phone calls, we engaged in collaborative trouble-shooting to no avail. So on Tuesday, I visited his class to get a better sense of the problem and its possible causes. Long story short, after a lengthy call to the manufacturer on Tuesday, I decided the our only choice was for me to run into Rutland to get a replacement filter--fortunately they had one, and it was even on sale! This morning, Archie reprted that everything was A-OK.

Yesterday, I also learned of a central Vermont school that had its chiller die recently.

Why do I bring this up? The Fluval customer support representative peppered me with questions about whether Archie had been following the routine maintenance procedures detailed in the manual. I didn't know what Archie had been doing; but I suspect that, as long as their equipment seems to be working fine, many teachers don't think to check the manuals to see what the "best practices" of routine maintenance are.

We can't say whether these two breakdows would have been prevented by maintenance, but these experiences can serve as a reminder that there is some minimal maintenance that we ought to be doing periodically. I don't want your filter or chiller to be the next to go!

Good luck!!