BIG DAY TODAY!!! On the “Troot in the Shed 2012” Homepage, reports have been coming in this morning that the first ova have hatched on Stronsay and in KGS! From Stronsay, Keith and Craig reported about two dozen alevins first, and shortly after Mr. Ewing from KGS, reported a lot of froth in their tank and the first alevins!
Just wondering what’s happening on Sanday??? I’m sure it won’t be long before we hear from them… Breaktime at the Sanday School is in about an hour’s time at 11:00 and they may be in for a surprise when they check their tank! Let’s wait and see…
Mr. P
Sadly no alevins in Sanday…yet! Our water temperature is a bit lower, I think, than Stronsay and KGS so could be a bit behind. We’re keeping our eyes peeled though.
Thank you for the update on the Sanday ova, Kristen! You’re right about the water temperature difference with Stronsay (about 4 degrees warmer on Stronsay) but what puzzles me is that the KGS set up is very similar to the one on Sanday with a very similar water temperature! Strange…
However, it’ll probably be in next couple of days that you should see signs of life in the tank…
Keep posting your comments, it’s really interesting, especially now that things are moving!
Mr. P
I had another check on our tank at lunchtime -huge amounts of froth with eggs hatching the whole time. Just a few that haven’t hatched yet and most of the alevins have disappeared into the gravel in the meantime. There has been a fair rise in the water temperature in the last few day so maybe that triggered things here.
Neil, if you haven’t removed the mesh frame yet, now is the time and you will find that most of the alevins are hiding under it! A regular change of water (a couple of litres daily) would be a good idea considering the number of alevins you have in your tank. Also keep an eye for any dead alevin as they are not so easily spotted as dead eggs but spoil the water quality just the same!
Time to start planning for the trip to release the alevins… I haven’t got the consents for releasing unfed fry back yet from Marine Scotland but have been assured they were dealing with the applications.
I’ve got about 20 eggs still waiting to hatch. Not sure how to get mesh out as there are a load of alevins sitting on the top of it at the moment. Is there an easy way to do this? How long do we have to plan our release? Two weeks?
Hi Neil,
To remove the mesh frame (we did it this morning on Stronsay), we carefully removed the stones, holding the frame down at the same time. Then we lifted the frame at an angle so that the alevins would wash away from the mesh. We switched off the pump during the operation so that the alevins wouldn’t be swept against the tank when in mid-water. Then, we let them settle for a few minutes at the bottom and turned on the pump again.
Ideally, I would have the trip 3 weeks after the eggs have hatched but 4 weeks should still be ok, even though it’s cutting it a bit fine…
By the way, I’ve just received the consent from Marine Scotland to release the unfed fry into the Inganess Burn.
Thanks for that Antoine,
I’ve changed a couple of litres of water and lifted the mesh. Some healthy looking eggs were sitting on the mesh so gently allowed them to wash onto gravel. There is a fair amount of debris floating about in the tank ie empty egg cases so I’ve removed the cover I had over the bottom of the filter to see if pump will work more efficiently – bit of an old pair of tights! The cover was there as I was concerned some of the alevins might be sucked into pump but I watch for a bit and they seemed ok. Foam is still there and its going to be difficult seeing any dead alevins. We have discussed the idea of keeping a few alevins back and seeing if we can feed them on until they are are proper fry. Thoughts on this? We also found the trout in the shed video from last year on u-tube and enjoyed watching that!
Hi Neil,
Glad you found last year’s YouTube clip. It’s not the height of excitement but it’s rather tricky to get brilliant videos of alevins, no bigger than your thumbnail…
Keeping a few alevins back and feed them? We’ll never know until we try! With the amount of alevins you have, you can certainly afford to keep a couple of hundreds behind and try and feed them. You’ll probably need to upgrade your filtration system though and renew the water very regularly. Normal dry fish food should be adequate I would think. It’s a pity the pond at KGS won’t be ready on time! It’ll be for next year…