How to Identify Trout Perch Eggs

Trout perch --- also known as grounder minnows or sandrollers --- are fresh water fish with thick bodies and dark colors. Female trout perch gestate eggs and dispenses them into the water up to 48 hours prior to hatching. Identifying trout perch fish eggs with a microscope is most advantageous --- especially when dealing with miniscule, underdeveloped eggs.

Things You'll Need

  • Microscope
  • Petri dish
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Instructions

    • 1

      Look for eggs in fresh water bodies --- lakes or streams, for example --- with a temperature between 68 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit. A temperature in this range makes the water appropriately warm for hatching developed eggs.

    • 2

      Place the eggs into a Petri dish and look at them under a microscope. Examine the size of the eggs. Underdeveloped eggs measure as small as 1 mm in diameter. Fully developed trout perch eggs measure up to 39.5 mm in diameter.

    • 3

      Inspect the texture of the eggs. Soft and sticky eggs indicate young eggs with an underdeveloped, liquid membrane on the inside. Hard and nonadhesive eggs are indicative of mature trout perch embryos.

    • 4

      Pay attention to the amount of time it takes eggs to develop and hatch. Trout perch eggs grow for a period of 26 days, on average, before hatching. An embryo develops optical lobes, optical capsules and a brain 11-13 days after fertilization. Ventral fins and dorsal fins are visible in mature eggs at 18- to 26-day mark.