What Else Do Trout Eat?
We’re wrapping up the Live Food Experiment this week, so let’s recap all the fun things we learned and how the experiments went for each school!
Our Data
Here are some observations the students made while running the experiment:
Did our teacher feed the fish already today?
Does the behavior of our trout seem calm or stressed?
What if we added an underwater camera to observe the fish, to reduce the anxiety of being watched?
Did it just spit up a daphnia?
Did it actually eat 45 daphnia, or has it been breathing?
It ate 0 daphnia today, does this mean it will never eat live food?
Why is the experiment exactly 6 minutes long?
Look at all this critical thinking! Your students were able to recognize different variables that could impact their experiment.
What Do Trout Eat?
The trout we raise are strictly carnivores, and are opportunistic feeders. This means, they’re able to adapt to eat available food. Here’s a list of food your trout might eat in nature:
Macroinvertebrates
Dragonflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, mayflies, snails, worms, and more
Other (smaller) fish and eggs
This is why you might see cannibalism in the aquarium!
Crustaceans
Crayfish and scuds
Amphibians
Frogs and salamanders
Mammals
Mice and young mink
Remember…our trout are opportunistic!
Common (incorrect) answers:
Krill
Krill was a common thought among students this year! Although they live in the ocean and, therefore, can’t be trout food, it’s not a bad guess. Krill are also zooplankton and crustaceans. This shows us that the students were able to recognize what kind of food trout might be attracted to.
Krill vs Daphnia
Algae
This answer tells us that students know trout search for something plentiful and smaller than themselves. This month, they learned that trout are carnivores, and don’t purposefully eat algae.
Rocks
Our trout don’t want to eat something that’s not nutritious!
Use the sheet below to play a game with your students! Would My Trout Eat This?
