Winchester Trout Unlimited
Chapter # 638

 

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Trout In The Classroom


What has two heads, one tail, and a single egg sac?  It’s an anomaly, for sure;  a two-headed alevin that hatched from a fertilized brown trout egg in one of our Virginia “Trout in the Classroom” tanks.

Click here to see more photo's like this one.

The Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program, which is over 20 years old, is taking off in our state now. Students and teachers from elementary through high school are raising trout from fertilized eggs supplied by VDGIF hatcheries, in aquariums equipped with special chillers designed to keep the water near 50 degrees F. The students make daily temperature measurements, and monitor pH and ammonia levels with test kits. They record their data, plot trends, and make sure that the water quality is sufficient to support trout development. In the spring, they’ll release the trout fry into a local stream.

 

We've got tanks in a number of Winchester-area middle and high schools, and the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum (open to the public).  Students are again raising brook trout from eggs donated by the Paint Bank hatchery near Covington. The fingerlings, which hatched in late October, are almost three inches long by by mid-February. And towards the end of the school year, students will release the fry into Redbud Run, a spring creek in Frederick County which historically held a population of brook trout -- and hopefully will again in the future.

If you’re a teacher in our region who is interesting in participating in the program and you would like more details, please contact:


Mark Zimmerman
Winchester Area TIC Coordinator
mbzimmerman@comcast.net
540-722-4914

References for TIC:

Read Dave Whitlock's "Brook Trout Story" that was published in Trout Magazine.

There’s also an excellent website at www.troutintheclassroom.org which has all the information you’ll need to get started. You can follow these links to find info on how to get started, how to care for trout, as well as tank and equipment info that is needed to get started.

 

Chapter Programs:

Trout In Classroom

Chapel Run

Red Bud Run

TIC Photos

Fish With Member

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