Several teachers have expressed concern over mortality of eggs, sac fry or alevins at this early stage. What you are experiencing is mother nature at work. It is perfectly normal to see losses at all stages of life. I remember delivering between 350 and 400 eggs last year to Marilyn Steneken’s class and later releasing about 50 fish. While that may seem like a large loss, I think Sparta Middle School would tell you that it was one of, if not the, best years ever for success! Of course, we are seeing some losses due to high water temps, overfeeding, etc. and this too is a part of the experience. One thought that my counterpat in NY gave me is to have schools who’ve experienced large losses share alevins from another school. This helps build a sense of community with our TIC classes and I urge you to reach out to one another if you need help. Of course, you can always reach out to yours truly. Remeber that losses are a natural process and go a long way in teaching our students about life. Just wait until it’s time for CANNIBALISM!!! Again, a perfectly natural process both in nature and in our tanks. Happy parenting.
Thoughts on Fish Mortality
Thursday, November 30th, 2006
One Response to “Thoughts on Fish Mortality”
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Brian Cowden said:
November 30th, 2006 at 10:21 am
I have been receiving a lot of e-mails from many of you concerned about mortality. It is normal for TIC programs to see a wide range of mortality from school to school. A variety of factors contribute to this during all stages of the brook trout’s life cycle, both natural and man made. The man made factors include over feeding, the inability of some fry to evade the suction of the filter and chiller pump intakes, excessively warm water, etc. In nature, of course, we also see a variety of factors related to mortality. As I mentioned above, you will see cannabilism amongst the fry in addition to the eggs which were not fertilized or did not hatch, sac fry that were too weak for survival, and other natural losses that most/all of you are experiencing.