TIC Blog

Release Day is one of the most exciting milestones in the Trout in the Classroom year! With spring around the corner, now is the perfect time to start thinking through the logistics that can help bring your Release Day to life. Below you’ll find guidance to help you design a day that fits into your students, site, and goals.

When?

You should also schedule a back-up rain date for your release day. Release Days in the rain can still be successful and fun, but a true downpour might “dampen” most people’s spirits, and days of heavy rain could lead to full, fast flowing water and pose serious risks.

A few schools are able to walk to their release sites, but most schools transport students to using school buses. If that’s the case for you, you may need to arrange your reservation ASAP and perhaps even schedule your release around the availability of transportation.

Finally, consider volunteer availability. Most schools plan Release Days that include a variety of in-stream or stream-side fieldwork activities, and enlisting the help of parents, co-workers, Trout Unlimited members, or other community volunteers may be crucial.

So, the takeaways:

1. Book your buses and confirm your volunteers early.
2. Schedule a back-up date.

Where?

Here is my wish list of the ideal characteristics of a great release stream:

1. A “safe” stream, three-to-six feet wide with water not much deeper than eight or ten inches.
2. Adequate parking for the school bus(es) and volunteers’ cars that is close enough to safely unload, preferably without having to cross a road.
3. Easy access to the stream – that is, no steep banks.
4. An “assembly area” – a cleared, level stream bank, meadow, or lawn – where you can convene to give instructions, break into groups, report on what you’ve found or learned, celebrate with a snack, etc.
5. Public land, or private land that you’ve been given permission to use.

​Below I’ve inserted a few pictures of streams that I consider terrific release sites. Joe Mark took all these photos on March 26th a few years ago.

Swim Up

Here are a few tips to think about that Bob Wible shared last year:

Temperature: If the water temperature is much below 50, even if the DI is in that desired 85 to 93 degree range, there’s a high likelihood that fish might not swim up.

Light: Along with temperature, light is a key trigger of feeding behavior.

Daily (or more frequent) feedings: Once fish are ready to begin feeding, they cannot be denied! If some fish start feeding on Thursday or Friday and are not fed over the weekend, the feeding response may be disrupted. Weekend feedings are only necessary when the DI is within the target 85–93° range. After the fish have been feeding consistently for a week or more, they can safely go a couple of days without being fed.

Don’t let them out of the basket too soon! The breeder basket is small (about five inches deep); a 55-gallon tank is big (21 inches top to bottom)! Every year, some schools release their fish into the big, wide world of the tank too soon. Even fry that easily respond to food floating a few inches above them may have much more difficulty noticing food floating on the surface when it’s 20 inches away. When in doubt, keep your babies in the playpen longer – at least several weeks after they’ve all been feeding eagerly.

If you’re really itching to let them loose in the tank, try it first with just a handful of fry and see how they do. If they eat well in the big tank, then perhaps their siblings are ready to join them out there. If, however, some or all of those released aren’t reliable eaters when they’re in the big tank, try to net them and return them to the breeder basket for another couple of weeks.

If, for whatever reason, you miss the critical window of Swim-up, you will not get a second chance and your alevin will likely become “pinheads.” Pinheads are fish that never learn to eat and instead get skinnier and skinnier until they die. Below is a close-up of some pinheads (L) and a feeder basket that has a mix of pinheads and alevin that successfully completed swim-up and are starting to feed (R).

Related News:

Why do we want large trees in rivers?

Check out this short video that was shared with us by a TU volunteer:

In early January, all across the state, Trout Unlimited volunteers and their friends delivered eggs to over 100 Vermont classrooms. Needless to say, teachers and students were excited to receive their new round little classmates.

The first few weeks of the TIC program are usually pretty quiet, but there are a couple of important maintenance tasks teachers and students need to perform.

Remove Shells and Dead Eggs

Almost certainly some of the eggs you’ve received will die. In contrast to healthy, viable eggs which are translucent and orange, the dead and dying eggs turn white, as in this photo.

It is critical that you remove and discard those or they will decay and lead to the development of fungus or mold. The same is true of egg shells left behind after your alevin have hatched; they must be removed. The best way to do this is to suck them up with a turkey baster.

Water Changes (Page 25 in the VTTIC Manual)

Water changes are one of the most important ways to manage water chemistry. Water changers, properly done, allow you to siphon out waste that would otherwise, by its decomposition, spike ammonia and/or nitrite numbers. Only elevated nitrate levels are not a problem. Anything above 1 ppm for ammonia or nitrites will require a water change. But how much water should you remove? It is all about proportions and ratios. Let’s look at an example.

Say you have a 55 gallon take, your nitrite level is at 3 ppm, and you want to get it down to 1 ppm. By removing and replacing rank water, you are endeavoring to dilute the nitrite. If you replaced ⅓ of the water in your tank – 18.3 gallons of a 55 gallon tank – with nitrite free tap water, your post-water-change nitrite level should be at 2 ppm. Similarly, if you replace ½ of your water, I’d expect your post-water-change tank to have a nitrite level of 1.5. Only if you remove and replace ⅔ of your water should you expect your nitrite level to drop to 1 ppm.

This is a great lesson for your students to learn about an authentic application of fractions, ratios, and proportions!

To do water changes efficiently, you’ll want to have two uncontaminated five-gallon buckets: one to fill with replacement water that you treat with NovAqua Plus to neutralize chlorine and other toxic metals and the other to catch the water you’ve siphoned from the tank with a hose or tube.

Nitrate Levels

Nitrate levels are a lot less concerning, but many teachers over the years have used water changes to also lower nitrate levels.

In fact, the chart on page 29 of the Manual seems to imply that you should do a water change when nitrate readings reach 45 ppm.

In a blog, Joe shared an e-mail on the subject of “high nitrate” from one of the members of the national TIC/SIC discussion group. This has me rethinking our past “conventional wisdom” about nitrate management.

When dealing with your classroom teachers, please ask them what they mean by “high nitrates.” I had a teacher contact me this week who was concerned about “high nitrate” levels of 20 ppm. I assured them that a nitrate level of 20 ppm is considered low and is a non-issue for the trout in our closed-system, recirculating aquariums. The API test kits that most of us use are NOT accurate at 0-20 ppm levels of nitrate. More costly test kits are required to accurately measure nitrate at those low levels. EPA drinking water standards call for tap water levels of 10 ppm or less but in actual practice, especially in areas that use well water, we find readings of 20 ppm regularly.

Therefore, if your teacher is using tap water with a baseline level of 10-20 ppm for water changes, they never will achieve a reading of 0 ppm.

Research from the Journal of Aquacultural Engineering has shown no statistically significant difference between trout raised in 0 ppm nitrate levels versus those raised in 100 ppm levels of nitrate.

That said, I have had nitrate levels of 600 ppm on a test aquarium with no harm to my trout. Commercial closed system, recirculating trout hatcheries, recommend levels of less than 1000 ppm of nitrate…. In other words, DON’T WORRY ABOUT NITRATE LEVELS!

Troutfully yours,

Dr. Rod Berkey

AZTU, Zane Grey Chapter

Preparing for Power Outages

Here are some suggestions to help you prepare for a power outage.

• Let your custodian know that your fish will be in peril if there’s an extended power outage. Ask them to let you know if they learn that the power has gone out. Similarly, ask them to let you know when it comes back on.
• If your equipment is plugged into a GFI or GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter; see below) receptacle, the receptacle will need to be reset if the power is interrupted even for a few seconds. There’s no way to do this remotely. Ideally your custodian or a staff person who lives close to the school will be willing to reset it for you.
• The biggest risk to your fish would be if the chiller is off for several hours. Losing the function of the filter and aerator isn’t ideal, but your fish can survive that for probably a couple of days. But if your water temperature rises too much (high 60s? 70 degrees?), you could lose all your fish. If you’re concerned that your water is getting too warm, use frozen water bottles to cool the water.
• Freeze several plastic soda bottles 80% full of tank water, treated water, or stream water. It’d be most convenient if you can keep these at school. As the one(s) you’ve put in the tank become substantially melted, replace them with thoroughly frozen ones and return the used ones to the freezer.
• Many sporting goods stores, including Dick’s and shops that sell baitfish, will carry battery-operated aerators. These can help maintain a desirable level of dissolved oxygen. They also can come in handy on Release Day.
• I know of no way to replace the function of the filter except by doing periodic water changes. You don’t need to do those unless you begin to get concerned about water chemistry levels.

Important Message from Vermont Fish and Wildlife

As a new requirement for the program, please understand that continued participation in the TIC program requires that you complete and submit the brief year-end survey administered by VINS. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department maintains records of all stockings that occur throughout the state to track where hatchery-raised trout are distributed to Vermont’s waterways. These records are regularly reviewed by VFWD Fisheries Biologists and serve as a reference for current and future researchers who study our wild trout populations. Given the extent of the TIC program, it is critical that information on where your school releases its fry and their number be included in this database. Thank you for bringing this wonderful program to Vermont’s youth and we wish you good luck with your project.

Resources and Ideas for Curriculum Integrations

Rent the VINS Stream Table: Stream tables can realistically and dynamically simulate a wide range of river processes, including sediment transport, meander development and movement, floodplain formation, flow around structures and fluid dynamics. Rental includes set up, tear down, 2 weeks in your classroom, and a brief lesson on how to use it for teachers and students.

• vinsweb.org > Education tab > Trout in the Classroom >Educational Resources
• Swim up Tips > Temp and DI record and swim-up calculator
• The VTTIC Manual
• Many other resources
• Macroinvertebrates.org (microscopic and larger photography) – opensource
• Whiteriverpartnership.org > get involved > teacher resources
• Waterbugs unit (low numbers this year because of flooding, recovery is about a year if healthy (messy) stream. 10 years if not)
• Trout Unlimited
• Trout in the Classroom Resources
• VTTIC Blog
• Mystery Science (if you have this curriculum)
• Why do you have to clean a fish tank but not a pond
• What would happen if you drink a glass of acid?
• Brave Little State podcast on old rivers
• If you need help for Release Day, try posting in your town listserv for community volunteers
• Facebook TIC

Check out NGSS or Common Core for curriculum integration and alignments!

• Writing:
• Journal daily!, opinion pieces, small moments…
• Students propose release location, make arguments for why their choice is better based on
• Macroinvertebrates
• Temp
• Water chemistry
• Write to sister school and/or do a quilt project
• Reading
•  Many book options! But a good start is: world without fish
• Ethics and governance
• Should we stock fish?
• What are the positives and negatives of triploids (sterile trout)
• History
• The effect of clear-cutting on streams
• Science
•  Labeling body parts
•  Communication
• Observations
• graphing data
• dissecting trout (It’s stinky!)
• Live Zoom dissection with Tom Jones (or YouTube) – check folder
• Social-emotional
• Art
• Fly casting

Join a Facebook forum for Vermont Trout-in-the-Classroom teachers, coordinators and volunteers to support and share with one another!