Hatched!

A few months ago, our class received a large fish tank. Inside our fish tank, the BC Fisheries staff put a few dozen salmon eggs. The salmon eggs were all eyed - that means that they had tiny salmon growing inside them.

Over the weeks, our salmon have been changing, and now we can see what was going on inside those eggs. Our salmon have hatched!

The alveins hang out on the bottom of the tank.

That orange blob on its belly side is called a yolk sac.

Small salmon who have just hatched from their eggs are called Alveins. Alveins have eyes, a mouth, and a tail like a fish, but they don't have fully grown fins yet and they can't swim. Instead, Alveins wiggle around on the bottom of the tank.

Alveins are easy to spot because they have a bright orange yolk sac still attached to their bellies. The yolk sac is like a tank full of food and energy that the Alveins will use to grow and change into a young salmon! As the Alveins grow, their yolk sac will slowly disappear.

Leave us a comment: 

What did you observe when we looked at our Alveins in class on Wednesday?

Have you ever raised an animal from an egg before? What kind of animal was it? How did it grow and change?