From the Campground

Trout and Drought. Not a good combination, but that was the situation last year. Many fish farmers in the South lost all of their fish. David had losses but constant vigilance and buying extra aerators meant many survive.

A new batch of all-female fish eggs arrived last month and the Nursery operation began. The eggs come via FedEx in a special box. They look like a lump of goop. After slowly getting them adapted to the water temperature in the hatching house, David released them into two narrow troughs. For the next few weeks, he will remove any dead ones that float to the top. Live eggs will remain on the bottom until they hatch. At first, the newborns live off the protein provided by the egg sack. Then as they begin to swim, David starts them on special feed, multiple times a day.

The hatching process had just begun when the rain came. Lots of rain in a short period of time. As a result, the water erupting from the mountain side was muddy. Very Muddy. The fish in the raceways and the Catch-out Pond can not be seen at all. This same water is diverted to the hatching house so there is no way of knowing if any of the babies have survived. It is highly likely that they did not since if you can’t see them, they cannot see their food. Much like humans, baby fish require frequent feedings. Lots of TLC. And trout can not survive extreme stress. Who Knew? They are all female fish to avoid fighting but, gee, Talk about High Maintenance females.( David can’t say a word about me in that regards since he became a Fish Farmer.)

Mother Nature sent us the water we needed but sent it at a time that means it probably wiped out the entire new school of fish. It will be days before the water clears and we can find out for certain.