Day 34: Tragedy Strikes

Mrs. Metz-Bugg here with some sad news. On Saturday morning when I went to feed the fish, everything seemed fine. The fish were active and swimming with no noticeable changes. When I went back in first thing on Monday morning, there were a large amount of dead fish in the bottom left hand side of the tank. At the time I didn't know exactly how many were dead, but the count at the end of the day, after removing as many as I could, was 87 dead. Though there were a few stray dead fish in the bottom center of the tank, the majority were around the chilling in/out hoses and pump, so I began to check the equipment. The water was still cold and was circulating properly through the tank and hoses. The filtration system also seemed to be circulating water in an effective way. I just didn't know what to do next. I fed the trout a couple of pinches of food and went to class. My trout team this week, Josh and Jayden, fed the fish two more times and continued to look for any changes in the aquarium or the trout. They have sharper eyes than I do and have several times spotted changes or anomalies that I did not see. They said they saw the dead fish but no other changes. After the students left on Monday I took some time and using a net and tweezers removed all the dead fish that I could, 87 in all. This morning when I went in, more fish were dead in the same places. I fed them in the morning and the trout team fed them at 12 and I fed them again after school. This time I gave them a larger amount of food at the suggestion of Robert, our trout expert from the local hatchery. I also removed the dead fish, 138 this time, and sat observing them for some time, trying very hard to get any kind of clue as to what was happening in our little habitat. This is what I noticed. Many of the fish that were settling on the bottom and seemed as if they were dead, when I moved my net towards them the trout would begin to swim to the top or around to other parts of the aquarium. At first I thought this was caused by the movement of my net circulating the water, but after watching them for a while they did swim all over for quite a while. I also noticed that the water was cloudier. I don't know whether this was from the food I had given them or from the dead fish remains, or some other cause. I also noticed as counting the dead I had removed from the tank that many of them had a very slight green tint, especially on the tops of their heads. I just don't know what is going on and it is upsetting that we have worked so hard and been so diligent and now something is killing our trout. I know the picture is gruesome, but I think it really shows the quanity of fish that are dying. I have also included a video to try to show some of the behaviors I have described in hopes that we can find the root of the problem. Robert is coming tomorrow and will be taking some samples to look at under a microscope to try to find out more information in hopes of saving the remaining trout. Remember we began with between 500 and 600 so we still have plenty of healthy swimmers, but loosing so many in just two days is disconcerting. I will report further when we know more. In the meantime, think happy fishy thoughts for our trout in hopes of a speedy recovery.