My Worry is Over!

Last week was so stressful for me.  On Monday our shad eggs were delivered and my stressed started.  How was I going to manage the students with the eggs and did I know everything I needed to know.  Half our eggs were dead on arrival and we didn't clear all of them out right away, which caused more to die. 

The week went by really quickly with caring for the eggs.  Each day students removed the dead eggs and counted our live babies.  Our mortality rate was really high,and every night I went to bed dreaming of shad eggs and praying that one would hatch for release into the wild on Friday.  The nature center where we had planned to release the eggs, had contacted the newspaper and had a reporter coming to the release.  AAAHHHH the stress!!!

Here are some live eggs.

By the time Friday got here, my head was hanging inside a water tank, with the classroom lights out searching for fish.  We had two and the students enjoyed the whole process and learning so much.  The cared for the eggs, removed the dead eggs, tested the water and got to see the fry and eggs under a microscope.  It was an amazing project that still has to be cleaned up entirely, but I can't wait to experience it next year. 

Releasing a fry.

We had 5 that we got to release and had an amazing learning experience through the process.