Since the kids were all testing today, Mr. Gras and I decided to check out the trout alevin and test the water for them. When we got to the aquarium, we immediately noticed a few things.
One, the tank looks cloudy today. Further investigation showed that it really just seems to be a fog created on the outside of the aquarium due to the use of the air conditioner in the building for the first time this year. The web cam in the tank still looks great while the one looking through the outside of the aquarium is rather cloudy. The temperature change in the room seems to be the cause.
Another thing we noticed is that the pH is still higher than we would like it. We also added about 11ml of vinegar to try to balance the pH. We did drop it to nearly 7.0 over a period of time. Again, the question in my mind is what affect this will have on the alevin since they seem to be fine at 7.6.
While observing the alevin to see what affect either of these things might be having on them, we noticed two light gray alevin off to the side by themselves. They looked like they weren’t moving, and even looked as if they were connected through a shared yolk sac. Using a rubber coated spoon, we scooped them out and put them into a cup with the cold water from the aquarium. Immediately, they both showed their disdain for being removed from their safe confines. They were both working very hard to swim around in the cup, but indeed they were both attached to the same yolk sac. Using the Pro Scope (scope on a rope) we captured some video and still segments of them for you to investigate. We returned them back to the tank where they moved into an isolated part of the hatching net once again while all of the others remain bunched together.
What are the odds of this happening? What are the odds of their survival? What made this happen? Will their offspring have a higher chance of this happening? Are these considered conjoined twins?
What makes this interesting is that one of the students jokingly noted that we hatched all of those eggs and didn’t have any with 4 eyes. It was obviously hyperbole, but this might show that it was closer to the truth than first thought. Not four eyes on one head, but four eyes being fed through the same yolk sac.
Below is the video we captured with the Pro Scope. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section.
I knew that this would be an exciting adventure, but I never dreamed that we would witness something as unique as this. I know that the students involved will eagerly share with others and I hope that the trout project will gain notoriety as a result. It certainly deserves it. Thank you for bringing this project “to life”.
Why watch the Discovery Channel when you can see nature at its best in our own school science lab? I will definitely have to take my students to check it out in person after we are done with all our testing.
Wow, I wonder what will happen? I can’t wait to watch and see the outcome. Thanks for checking on the “twins.”
This is just so exciting! I hope many students are able to go see first hand what’s going on and I also hope many parents will keep up with us on this blog for the science lab! 🙂
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This is so exciting! Can’t wait for our students to go into the lab today and see this! Looks like this could be the beginning of an interesting “Fish Tale” to me.
Yes, they are sharing the same yolk sac, so I guess that makes them twins, at least as far as fishes go. They probably will be fine, and I would imagine that this happens from time to time, although I’ve never seen any statistics on it. My guess is that they are lucking to be in an aquarium, as a condition like this is likely to reduce their survivability in the wild. Keep us updated!
Christian is a little busy today, so I wanted to post his reflections he shared with me after school yesterday concerning these conjoined alevin.
1. They are a lot smaller than the others in the hatch. His theory is because the others get their own yolk sac and these two are sharing one, then they must be getting half the food the others are getting.
2. He also wonders if they will stay joined at the stomach as the sac decreases in size and becomes the underside of their bellies. If this happens, he believes one will die first because it will have to swim upside down and then the other would die because of that one still being attached to it.
3. It was hard to see if one of the two had eyes, so he wonders if there is a deformity there. (We will have to take a closer look with the Pro Scope to determine that one.)
Our class will be checking on the twins and we can’t wait to be able to go see them. This is pretty cool!!!!