LIFE Dee River Hatchery Project

Welcome to the LIFE Dee River Hatchery Project!

Have you ever thought what changes happen as fish eggs develop from tiny eggs into fry, and then into fish? It’s almost impossible to witness these developments as they happen on the riverbed, so this is a fantastic opportunity for you to witness the hatching and development of Brown Trout live on your computer monitor!

Over the coming weeks the fertilized fish eggs that you see below, which are located at our temporary hatchery at the Llyn Tegid Warden Centre, will hatch and develop into small fish. Once they are large enough they will be released into their natural habitat in the Afon Twrch river near Llanuwchllyn where their life cycle will continue.

Hatch-cam 1

Hatch-cam 2

Unfortunately, all eggs are not expected to develop and survive, so an important aspect of Arwel and Robat’s job, the Wardens who will be overseeing the hatchery, will be to remove any unviable eggs from the tank to prevent them from infecting the other healthy eggs or fry.

When the tiny trout have grown large enough to be released into the river, before doing so they will need to be subject to specific health checks in a laboratory to ensure that they do not carry any diseases to the native wild trout stock in the Afon Twrch river.

Why establish a Hatchery?

This project has been developed for children and young people with the aim of nurturing an appreciation and interest in aquatic life, river ecology and the natural environment in general.

This project led by the National Park Authority’s Warden Service, comes under the broader remit of the LIFE Dee River project, which is a multi-partner project with the aim of transforming the River Dee and its catchment by restoring much of the river and its surroundings back to their natural state. If you would like to find out more about the fantastic work undertaken by this project then you can visit their web page here.