The end

The end of our salmon is Friday May 8, everyone is sad but, excited to release them. We have had a very fun time with them and a lot of fun memories. From the many incidents to the moment we first got them they have been a run for our money but, they were still a great experience.

the dead fish

One of the fish in the tank died. That gets us at about 30 fish left. His name is Spiker he lived for about 6 months. We have about 5 weeks until we release them into the Thornapple river hopefully they will survive and come back to spawn. They are about 4 inches, They have to be 5 to release them.

All of the fish in the tank are swimming by the top. There are 31 fish left in the tank. They are almost ready to be released. We have lost 2 fish to a filter today hopefully tomorrow we do not lose any more. The fish are going to be ready to  be released.

Less and Less

Less and Less

It feels like we lose one every day, there's only a few left. We are just hoping they will survive until the end of the year when we let them go. We are hoping to not lose any more fish so that we can still release them into the river. It seems like the bigger fish are the ones that are staying alive. hopefully the salmon continue living with their fishy lives.

Nothing

Nothing

Today is just a regular day in the science lab. Nothing happening and fish swimming all the doo daa day. The tank is clean! This is a perfectly perfect day. la la la la la. Just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming swimming swimming. Nothing is happening. 

Tiny, the Little Fish in the Corner

         Glup. Glup. All alone in a dark corner near the filter one little fish stirred. His name was Tiny. Tiny blended in with the corner because of his dark parr marks. This miniature fish had a big imagination. He wasn't considered lonely because the bigger fish would visit him in his section he calls home. Playing with Tiny and swimming frantically around his corner. But when the fish sleep all of their dreams are different from Tiny's. Nobody knows what goes on in his head.

Predicton

           Differences. When we came back from Spring Break there about 30 surviving salmon were swimming confusingly around the tank. All the salmon have grown to be different sizes. From our classes research we predict that the smaller salmon won't survive as long as the others. Most of the salmon are about 1 and a half in., but the some are a little bigger than that and some haven't grown much at all. We could be mistaken with our prediction, but miracles can happen at any time.

I'm Going To Survive Spring Break

 The fish are going to be alone during spring break will they survive???  We have 37 fish left and there's nothing we can do. It's going to be " SPRING BREAK". Maybe they will live or maybe NOT. We only have a few fish left and the question is will they survive " SPRING  BREAK"?????????????????????  (DUN! DUN! DUN!)

Fat Fish

Our 37 little salmon are growing like crazy. Unfortunately another fish passed away having it's finale trip through the toilet pipes and up to fishey haven.   The salmon are starting to look a little, well... fat. We hope we can let them out in the stream soon.

Where Did they go

                                                                 Where Did they go

All the fish have been dieing for some odd reason. Are group thinks they have been dieing because a lot of the testing have been really high especially the ph. Right now we only have about 40 fish and we started at 200. Most of the fish have been dieing lately  for some reason. For some some reason all the fish are dieing why?

There are about 45 salmon left in the tank. About 150 fish have died over the time. Since the salmon are getting bigger less are dieing. The clean up crew has had to come in numerous times to take water out because the Nitrite is really high. Every day the clean up crew comes in and cleans out the water.

so the salmon do not die. The fish keep growing and growing.

Clean Tank

The tank is getting a whole lot better! On March 25 we emptied the tank,  added new water. Since we emptied the tank the chemicals in the water have gotten better, and tried different tactics. Though we are still a little worried about the tank but, we think the tank will be fine.

In Dangar

Oh No! The nitrite is up again! Right now we are sucking up the water to try to fix it. On the test strip not a lot of the colors match. We are trying to fix it we are sucking up half of the water hoping it will work. We don't want to lose any more. It worked but we sucked up one I mean somebody in our group sucked up one then somebody else  almost dropped the water filler in the tank.We had to do a lot of moping and mean alot.

New Water

New Water

  Danger! Danger! The Nitrite is to high! We must change the water! Quickly we must drain the tank and put new water in. Save the salmon before it is too late! 

Slowly the water drained out of the tank. It took three jugs of water to refill the tank. The tank is now full, we hope this will help the nitrite.    

Some of the salmon are growing but lots are dead, some are around three inches. Some are lying on their side and suffering. One of the fishes eyes are popping out of its head. 

Growing Up Fast

       A lot of our salmon are getting bigger and are about an inch long. The girl salmon are getting lighter and the boys are getting darker. We think that the salmon on the ground are going to die because they are small and weak, but some of the bigger ones are still swimming around the tank. You can tell that the bigger salmon are stronger than the little ones. We are wondering if any of our salmon will live to be adults.

Big Ben

Big Ben

Big Ben is the biggest fish in the tank.( also known as the king.) He will help the other fish succeed life, he is about 100% healthy and he is fat. Big Ben is white with dark stripes he is the ruler of the tank. Although the others are dieing he will probably get released. A lot of the big fish are lighter than the small fish so BIG BEN is really light. Big Ben is probably the fish thats going to survive.

The Fish Are Going Down

Every day at least one fish is going to the bottom of the tank. The fish are getting weaker and weaker as the weeks go bye. They are collecting at the bottom like sardines in a can. There are about ten fish on the bottom. We think that these fish are dying and the water is getting worse and worse every day.

On The Ground and Cleaning Water Trouble

Oh, No! More bad news! : ( There are many salmon on the bottom of the tank. That means that either the salmon are really injured or that THEY ARE DEAD! Also we think its because of the nitrite being too high. It is so sad to see them like this. ( I think one needs a chiropractor). The ammonia is low. omg what is going to happen in the next few years? I hope we can release them later in the year. On the other hand while Mrs. Miller was cleaning the water in the tank she accidentally sucked up a salmon  and his fin got ripped up.

We have lost about 15 salmon in the last week because the fish have been getting sucked into the filter. One fish died today from the filter.Another fish died today as well.

mummy fish

One day we were in the science lab doing are usual stuff and then Ryan found that there was a dead fish in a

container.It was shriveled and deformed because it was left out in the air to long after we took it out. So then we displayed it and it got a lot of attraction. We said R.I.P.F. rest in peace fishie.

The Toilet Miracle

The Toilet Miracle 

Our salmon continue to lie down and are not able to move. Some salmon are still breathing but barely because the nitrite is too high. So we had to flush some of them down the toilet. After we plopped them into the toilet, some came alive  again! Unfortunately we can not move the toilet water into the tank and our salmon are vigorously suffering! So far we have lost over 10 salmon today.

:( Hopefully they will have a good time in fishy heaven. Once they were put in the toilet they seemed much more happy. Soon someone will have to do something to the tank!     

The Filter Strikes Again

The Filter Strikes Again 

The filter has attacked more fish, leaving some dead and a lot injured. About 3 fish had died from the filter just like the last report. The filter is dangerous for BIG and small fish. Today about 11 fish got stuck in the filter. Fortunately none died but many injuries. These injuries can cause problems in the future. The filter has almost killed even more fish, sadly we have had to FLUSH many of them because of the filter. And we just saw a fish stuck under the filters best friend (THE ROCK) DUN! DUN! DUNNNNNNNNNN! But we got him out. The filter caused the salmon tails to get stuck in the filter but we used a net to get them out of the filter.. 

                                                                     Salmon Plague

             Gulp! Gulp! Salmon have been mysteriously descending to the bottom of the tank lying on their side gasping for air. Our class has lost 13 salmon because of this. Some get their strength to get back up, but eventually if they don't their life could end at the bottom. They may just do it to catch their breath after racing around the tank. We don't really have a clue why it's happening for sure. Will we ever figure out what's going on with the salmon?

New stage

The salmon have reached a new stage in the life circle, they are now in there dark ages. They now have to have a laminated black piece of paper to resemble the dark river/ocean. This gets them used to what they are going to live in for the rest of their lives. All though the black screen helps them as they grow some of the fish look like they are not used to the black screen. It does look like its helping the fish though.

The Crisis

A week ago there was a crisis the fish nitrate level was of the charts and the PH level was way too low, that is very bad for fish if they live in that for too long. 1st we tried to clean the water we took a long tube and water flowed through it into the bucket on the other side sometimes the fish went through the tube for a joy ride, it doesn't harm them at all! Sadly that didn't help the water much. So then the teachers  put a substance in the water. 2 hours later it was still bad! Then the teachers put in some more chemicals, putting in more chemicals helped the PH level but, not the nitrate level so still while we are writing this the nitrate is still crazy and working through the problem.

Losing fish

                                                                Losing Fish

A lot of the coho salmon have died mostly because they were small. Some have also died because of the filter. When we first came in we saw a fish that got stuck in the filter and sadly the fish died. All thanks to the filter we are losing fish, we can't take it anymore. All the small fish are dying because they are not big enough to live from the changes we are making with the food and the tank. It's hard taking care of the coho salmon but it's also fun.

Filters Are No Fun

Breaking news! Today we made an amazing discovery that four tiny fish got stuck in the filter! Unfortunately none survived. These fish were curious and were just wondering what the filter was. It brings a tears to my eyes when I think about these poor little fish.When we came back we saw one fish on the ground and we found out that he died. Some fish family members have been caught! But now they are swimming up to fishy heaven. Lots of the fish have died and we are very sad about that but we still have a lot of coho salmon.

                                                                       Swim Away


                    Although the salmon have hatched and grown to be able to swim they still bunch up in the corners. Their acting like elevators swimming up to the highest level of water and then shoot back down. All of them attempt to clump together, but they don't want to bump into each other. We tested it out and when we stood near the side of the tank they were on, then the salmon would swim away to the other side because we are so much bigger and louder to them so we have to be extremely calm and quiet or else they'll go crazy.

Jelly Bellys

Our salmon have gotten bigger and have eaten more in the past few weeks. They also look as though they are squishy. The salmon are stronger since they have been darting around the tank and when they hit the
walls of the tank they bounce right back off. When this happens we call them "Jelly Bellies" they are like little bouncy balls that can swim. Some of our salmon are bigger than others and our hypothesis is that they fight over the food so the ones that don't get food get small and some might even starve.

Lunch Time!

The salmon used to feed off their egg sacks, but now they are eating off the food we give them. Since they are eating they have grown to be about 1 inch long, with parr marks all over them. Their food has also made them stronger so that they can swim to the top of the water to retrieve their lunch. Their  stomach is getting bigger and they have a thin glossy layer over their scales.        

Tiny the Salmon

Tiny the Salmon

Tiny is the smallest of all the salmon. Tiny is just the same as any other salmon, the only difference is that... well his name describes it! He is the tiniest! Possibly he is a runt so that is why he is so small. He must not have many friends because every time we look at him he is swimming alone. Tiny seems to swim the slowest, maybe he has no friends because they don't see him because he is so small. I hope that Tiny has a better life when he's older, we know that we will not see him then. 

Interesting Hand Movments

The Waving Of the Hand 

  The salmon are growing by the second, it's awesome to see them progress so fast. One really cool thing that we noticed is that when you walk up to the tank and you start waving your hands around the salmon scatter. This does not usually surprise people but what surprised us was how you do it. If you do it crazily and you run up to the tank and jump around like a monkey waving your hands around they speed away like rockets. If you do it calmly and wave slowly they react the same way swimming away slowly. The different things that we learn about the salmon is intriguing and we can't wait to learn more.    

Way too Much Food

Way too Much Food

    Today in the morning there was a horrible tragedy that there was way too much food in the salmon's tank. Imagine, a huge light brown  blob of food in the middle of the tank with fish swimming all around it, which killed one of the poor little salmon.  We think it was a mixture of dirty water and eating too much food that killed the salmon. For some reason, someone put too much food in their tank. Luckily the kids were able to clean the tank before it harmed any other salmon.

COHO SALMON LIFE CYCLE

The coho salmon life cycle starts when the salmon are eggs. In about a few weeks the salmon start to hatch one by one. The salmon life cycle takes a while. STAGE ONE: The coho salmon are eggs,and later we saw them in their eggs and watched them wiggle and move side to side. STAGE TWO: They hatch with their yolk sac to feed on for the next few weeks. STAGE THREE: There yolk sacs disappeared and when the yolk sac disappeared one that had two heads died. STAGE FOUR: When we got back from winter break they had changed colors and they have stripes on their back they change colors because the light  reflects off the glass on the tank. STAGE FIVE: this stage is about the coho salmon now 1/28/15 they look like actual full grown salmon but very little.

                                                                      Salmon Stripes

                                    When we arrived at school after Winter break we were in for a big surprise! The salmon grew up! Most of them have lost their egg sacs. They look like they have zebra print on them, but not with the same colors.There are streaks of black and small dots on their body and their bodies are silver.These lines and dots covering their side are called Parr Marks. The salmon's Parr Marks help camouflage them. You can faintly see their fins. They've been swimming up to the top and sometimes they look like their climbing up the sides. Their growing up so fast!

NO FINS

There is a fish in the tank with no fins. The no fin fish tries to swim around like the others ,but just swims in circles. He doesn't have control over his swimming. He keeps swimming awkwardly. The no fin fish doesn't swim  to the top right now he is probably thinking'  ¨no fair you swim better than me.¨'He does flips and swims on his sides. Maybe he will grow out his fins someday.