New images of trout. Impressive TIC interpretive dance! Good press! Temperature and bacteria.3/10/2019 Cool trout-themed designs Lisa Marks, of Ludlow Elementary School, is always looking for previously undiscovered TIC-related materials on the Internet and in her local stores. Often she finds things I never knew of--like this. Apparently this product line, which Lisa found in a store in Ludlow, also includes, bookmarks, tee-shirts, and refrigerator magnets. BVS TIC media Jeff Walker, new TIC teacher at Benson Village School, sent me some great examples of what his students are doing with TIC at his school. Here is a photo of posters they created. Even more unusual was the interpretive dance one of Jeff's students performed (below). Way to go Jeff and student! Anomalies Every year some if not most (all?) of our TIC tanks observe one or more forms of biological anomalies. Here's yet another sent in on February 8 by Mary Fiedler, of Cambridge Elementary School. Can you spot the two-headed alevin? (It's near the bottom of the image.) Schoolhouse Learning Center images Danielle Levine, of SchoolHouse Learning Center, sent several great images. Here's the caption she submitted with the following photo. Our trout are swimming up and feeding. And some have escaped through a little hole in our breeder basket. We are calling them Houdini. Based on the size and color of some of Danielle's fry, I'd guess that she and her students used the "warm and fast" temperature protocol. Good looking fish, huh? Here's a photo of the SLC tank with their escaped "Houdini fry." Danielle also sent me some close-up images of their beautiful fry. Thanks, Danielle. You do a service to us all by sharing these gorgeous close-up photos! Essex High School fry Kelly Hill, of Essex High School, sent this video of their fish. It's always great to see what the fry look like at other schools. Nice publicity for Milton MS TIC! Bob Wible told me about a great article that appeared in the Milton Independent. Some of the facts are a bit off, but it's great publicity for the program. Click the image below to read it. Temperature and bacteria A few schools are still keeping their tanks cold. We don't recommend that at this stage of the process. For one, the good bacteria we put in the tank, NovAqua Plus in our case, really don't grow at temperatures below 50. This means that they will not become those "biological machines" that
(You'll control nitrate levels by periodic partial water changes.) Secondly, at colder temperatures, you may find that your alevin/fry aren't likely to swim up. The swim-up instinct is correlated with a certain degree of development--a DI of approximately 85 by our method of calculation. But it's also tied to light and to water temperature. That's why at this point we urge you to raise your temperature to 52 degrees and to remove the top and front foam panels during the school day.
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Joe Mark is Lead Facilitator of Vermont's Trout in the Classroom program.In June 2012, I retired after 40 years in higher education, having spent the last 32 years of my career as dean at Castleton. One of the first things I volunteered to do in retirement was to work with a parent-friend to help the Dorset School, where his kids and my Vermont grandkids attend, start a TIC program. Gradually that commitment grew into my current role, which is both demanding and highly rewarding. Archives
December 2019
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