By JACKIE MAJERUS
Staff writer

BRISTOL — He’s the kind of guy who eats his own, but the kids loved him anyway.

Tiny the trout turned out to be the star of the Trout in the Classroom program this year at St. Anthony’s School.

“He’s a cannibal,” said Adam Levesque, a fifth grade student at St. Anthony’s.

“He eats other fish,” explained Kendall Malenfant, who is in sixth grade at the school. “We think he might be our firstborn.”

Excited to share their own fish tale, the boys told how they had to break Tiny of his nasty habit of gobbling his fellow hatchlings in their big tank in the science classroom.

“We put him in an egg basket and he couldn’t get out,” said Levesque. Then, they fed Tiny only fish food until he was so hungry that he had no other choice but to eat it.

Trout in the Classroom, which involves an educator from Trout Unlimited, an enthusiastic teacher and a room full of eager kids, started last November at St. Anthony School.

Carl Swanson and Cindy Donovan, who are volunteer educators for Trout Unlimited, brought the fish eggs to the school in November and talked with teacher Melissa Savino and students in the fifth through eighth grades about how to take care of them.

Swanson said the idea is to get kids to connect with nature, and to understand their role in caring for it.

On Tuesday morning, about 30 students from St. Anthony’s, some teachers and a few adult volunteers took the trout fry in a special transport bucket to Rockwell Park to release the fish into the Pequabuck River.

“It was wonderful to have the hands-on experience,” Savino said. The students kept journals and did drawings of the trout as they grew. She said the kids learned every job involved in caring for the fish.

“I didn’t touch the tank, ever,” said Savino. “They took care of everything.”

Now that the school has all the equipment, they can continue the program next year, said Swanson. The only costs will be for some maintenance and the trout eggs, which adds up to less than $100.

For their part, the fish were far more dramatic than the kids expected.

“They basically became kind of classmates for us,” said Levesque.

Fifth grader J’ziah Rouse said it was exciting to have the fish, especially since they couldn’t have other pets in their classroom.

“It was a good activity,” Rouse said. “It taught us about responsibility.”

Olivia Zettergren, a fifth grader, said they learned about nature, but it was more than that.

“It was kind of fun to watch the fish fight,” Zettergren said.

Zettergren said Tiny is the favorite, because he’s the biggest and therefore, the coolest.

“We had a fight between our two cannibals, Tiny and Jaws,” Levesque said. “Tiny won.”

Jaws lived to see another day, Levesque said, but from then on, carried battle scars.

Donovan said she’s surprised that out of 100 eggs, 46 of them survived, because normally, more would have died.

“The kids did a tremendous job,” Donovan said. “I’m very proud of them.”

Every one of the 100 eggs got a name, said Emily Sklenka, a fifth grader.

“And we marked them off as they died,” Zettergren said.

Sometimes, they weren’t sure who was who.

“It’s very hard to keep track of them,” Levesque said. “I think Tiny’s last meal was Jim.”

Donovan said funding for the St. Anthony’s Trout in the Classroom materials came from the Gnazzo-Reidy Charitable Fund, the Merriman Family Fund and the Main Street Community Foundation.

Jackie Majerus can be reached at jmajerus@bristolpress.com or by phone at (860)584-0501 ext. 217.