School News

The River Wide Known Steelhead

Averie Hendren, 5th Grade Orchards Tribune

You have probably noticed that the steelhead have arrived in the fish tank by the office, but many of you probably don’t know a lot about them. Well if you don’t, you are in the right place. In this article I will be teaching you about the life cycle, habitat, and diet of a steelhead. All of these are really important factors in a steelhead’s life, and I guarantee that after you read this, you will be an expert on steelhead. Enjoy!

Have you ever seen a steelhead egg? Well if you know one thing about fish, it is that they don’t stay in their egg forever. When the steelhead is in its egg, eventually you will be able to see two little black dots, now you might be wondering, “ What are those black dots?” They are actually the baby steelhead’s eyes. After a while the baby steelhead will break through the egg so then it will look like a really small fish with an egg sac which is called a fry. Then eventually the egg sac will get smaller and smaller until it is gone. By then, the fish will start to pop up to the surface looking for food. Once the steelhead are old enough, the 5th graders get to release them into the Snake River so that they can find their way to the ocean, and after a few years, they will migrate or come back to the Snake River to spawn more eggs. Another important factor in a steelhead’s life is having the right habitat. Having a good habitat for a steelhead means making the water to keep it clean. As you can tell, making sure that the steelhead has a healthy habitat requires a lot of different needs. In order to make sure that the steelhead grow big and strong, they not only just need a healthy habitat, they also need food! Wild steelheads eat mollusks, crustaceans, fish eggs, minnows, and other small fishes. But, hatchery steelheads can’t find all of the food that wild steelheads eat. Therefore, when they’re in the sac fry stage transitioning to the button fry stage, they eat tiny animals in the water called zooplankton. When the steelhead gets bigger, insects, small fish, and fish eggs are also on the menu. sure that the water is the right temperature, or that there is enough space for all of the steelhead to have room to swim around and get larger and stronger. Also, you have to make sure that there is a filter in the water so that when the steelhead produces waste in the water the filter takes out the waste in

In conclusion, you have learned about a steelhead’s life cycle, a steelhead’s habitat, and a steelhead’s diet. I hope you have enjoyed taking the time to learn more about steelhead trout! Now that you know more about the steelhead the next time that you walk past the tank you will know everything that you need to know about steelhead! I told you that you would be an expert!