Braedyn Kane, a Mars ninth-grader, checks the water from the aquarium of brook trout being raised by students in biology class. The trout, above, are being raised from eggs and will be released into a stream in the spring.

ADAMS TWP — The subjects of a project in Misty Thurber's biology classes could end up on a dinner plate next summer.

Students in Thurber's conceptual biology class at Mars High School are raising brook trout from the embryonic to the fingerling stages, and will release them in the spring into a stream.

A grant from the Mars Planet Foundation plus help from the state Council of Trout Unlimited and the state Fish and Boat Commission made the project possible.

Known as a cold water conservation project, students used a turkey baster to place the trout eggs into a large aquarium in Thurber's classroom. The aquarium's water is monitored by the students for temperature, ammonia, pH, nitrites and nitrates.

On Thursday, Thurber's ninth-grade biology class worked to keep the fish, now in the embryonic phase, healthy and thriving.

Braedyn Kane said he has gained some expertise in fish survival by caring for his family's aquarium, but the cold water conservation project is something new.

“I'm excited about it because I never raised a fish from an egg before,” Kane said.

He said the project also aligns with Mars' science curriculum, and demonstrates the natural cycle of a fish from its beginning.

Kane and his classmate, Tyler Boyd, tended to their tiny charges by removing water from the aquarium with a turkey baster and squirting it into four test tubes to test four qualities of the water.

The pair added certain agents to test for the conditions before determining that the tank's environment was once again within normal levels, which has been the case since the fish were placed in the tank on Nov. 5.

They also checked the water's temperature, which was 54.6 degrees. Boyd explained that the temperature must be between 48 and 56 degrees for the fish to thrive.

The water in the aquarium also must remain at a constant level as the fish grow. Kane explained that water added to the tank cannot be too cold or too warm.

“If it's not the right temperature, it will spike the temperature of the water all around it,” he said.

Kane and Boyd explained that while the tiny fish have wriggled from their eggs, they do not yet need feeding because a sac that serves as a nutrition system still is attached.

They said when the sac drops away, the fish, now housed in a pair of small green open containers in one corner of the large aquarium, will swim to the surface in search of food. That action will mark the “swim-up fry” phase of the cycle.“That's when we'll start feeding them,” Boyd said.Thurber said when they reach 3 to 4 inches in length, the fingerlings will be released into a stream under the guidance of the state Fish and Boat Commission.She praised her students for their diligence in tending to their charges, and said about 188 fish remain of the original 250 eggs.“We've had a pretty good success rate with them surviving,” Thurber said. “The students have been very good at monitoring the water parameters.”On the first day of the fish's arrival in her classroom, students looked at one egg under a microscope, Thurber said. She said they were thrilled to see the tiny creature's heart beating, and its red blood cells.But not all of her students are super excited about the cold water conservation program.“It's really cool, but they're kind of gross and I don't want to touch them,” said Morgan Kiewall.Her classmate, Bailey Hucker, said caring for the fish as they move through the phases of their lives is interesting.“We get to learn about fish and how they grow,” she said.Thurber said she appreciates the joint effort of the Planet Foundation and the two state groups in making the project happen. She is confident that it will benefit students.“It's a wonderful connection between the curriculum in the classroom and the environment and ecology outside,” Thurber said.Assistant Principal Dale Sleva is pleased to see any educationally enriching program in the classrooms.“It's another tool to help students have the best experience they can here at Mars High School,” he said.More information on the program is available at www.patroutintheclassroom.org.

The tiny fish swim as Mars High School science students are raising trout from eggs.