What kind of fish is this?

There fish that are commonly eaten for dinner and common for catching and breeding.

To get our fish we went to Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Mattawan. 

They are part of the DNR, the Department Of Natural Resources. 

They gave us Chinook Salmon. Chinook salmon are the most commonly eaten Salmon.

What Chinook Salmon look like when they're full grown

Fishy Num Nums

The fish are bigger now, and it's time to start feeding them.

They can not depend on their yolk sac to feed them anymore.

The fish food we will feed them is made of plant and animal material.
It smells disgusting!

Right now we are feeding them from bag # 1.
It is the first fish food we give them as they get bigger.
Here is what is says on the label :

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Food size = # 1
Duration on food = 2 weeks
Week 1 = 1/4 tsp
Week 2 = 1/2 tsp
Amount of food is spread over several feedings
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We can tell if they are hungry when they swim up to the top looking for food.
HOORAY FOR FISHY NUM NUMS! 

The salmon are all alive! It's a miracle. They've been feed so that means they're crazy swimmers! We thought some of them were dead, but they're not! The salmon are breaking the surface of the water. They seem like they are trying to escape that way, but it's not working for them.

Swimming!

A lot of our salmon are able to swim up to the top of the tank now! Other salmon are starting to swim around the bottom. When about 80% of the fish are swimming up and do not have their egg sacs, we will start feeding them. We noticed that most of them have lost their egg sacs already. A few still have some pink on their bottoms, which is the egg sac.

Types of Salmon

There are 7 different types of salmon we have studied. We have Chinook salmon in our tank. Chinook salmon can adapt to both salt and fresh water, which is called anadromous.
Size: up to 58 inches
Life span: 3 to 8 years in the wild

This is an Atlantic salmon 

This one is a cherry salmon

This is a Chum salmon

This is a Chinook salmon, which is what we have!

This one is a coho

This is a sockeye

This one is a steelhead

In The Tank

                            We use a lot of equipment to take care of our salmon.                                                Here are a few:                                                                                                                                                                                              IN THE TANK

Water Filter
⇜                                                                                                                                                              





                                                    Tank⇝
                                                                         ⇜Water Heater
                                   

⇜ Thermometer 

Why do salmon look different when the're babies and grown ups?

                                                                   

Before we went on winter break our salmon had yolk sacks. They were small and their yolk sacks were big. They looked like about an inch long.
When we got back the salmon grew a lot! They have a brownish color, and they have little black spots on them. Some fish can swim at the bottom. One fish can go all the way up to the surface! Some fish can go half  way up. The salmon are about 13 centimeters. Mrs Miller said that when more salmon lose their yolk sacks, we will start feeding them. We call that buttoned up, which is when they absorb their yolk sack.

This is what they look like now:

salmon spawning

When adult salmon arrive in a river they spawn. When salmon spawn they start to lose their official color.  The male's jaw curves and can't eat. The female makes a nest for the babies  with her strong tail. Female salmon can have about 800 eggs in two hours.

As  you can see here, the female has to pick the strongest  male to protect the babies from the female.