When my son was in high school he shadowed a friend who worked at the University of Washington salmon hatchery thing, next door to them. He came home with 4 baby Chinook salmon, a couple gallon jugs of water and food for them. When I picked up my son I was told how much food to feed them and to keep the water at about 45 degrees F. We happened to have a couple little aquariums, I think they were each 2 or 2.5 gallons. i thought no problem, we can keep them until the salmon release picnic. So we get home, clean the tanks and put 2 of the fish in each tank. One is in the living room and the other in his bedroom. We're doing good....until a couple days later I glance at the thermometer in the living room tank and the water is definitely not at 45 degrees. I go back and his room and it's the same. So I realized I needed to get the temperature down. I took a little plastic container of water out of each one and put them in the freezer. Every morning I'd put their frozen ice in and take water out to refreeze. I had to do that every day for the next two or three months to keep the temperature down. But all 4 of them made it to the picnic and were released with the rest of the fish. But when the UW friend was giving his talk before releasing he mentioned my son and flat out said he didn't think they'd make it, and was very surprised and pleased when we came back to release all 4. It was very educational... for all of us. We actually got to see them with and without their markings, as they grew.
