GRAND JUNCTION — A Fruitvale Elementary School class poured six fish and nine months of hard work into the Colorado River Monday.

Dave McCall’s fifth grade class fed, measured and tested water pH and ammonia levels for a half-dozen razorback sucker fish all school year long before dumping them into the river system at Connected Lakes. The fish are endangered, and it takes federal approval to possess one. The only three schools in the nation given permission to raise razorback suckers this year are all in School District 51 — Fruitvale, Pomona and Dual Immersion Academy.

The fish came from a Grand Junction endangered fish hatchery and will swim the Colorado River, home of their ancestors for 3 to 5 million years, with tracking tags inserted in them. The “pit tags” include the date and location where the fish were released, as well as the name of the school that raised them.

This is McCall’s first year with the fish. He hopes to repeat the process with next year’s class. The class’ data sheets will be sent to Washington, D.C., for federal information. Students also used the fish for math, science and writing assignments.

“(The students) could sit in front of the tank for 10 minutes and write a paragraph. Before it was like pulling teeth to get some of these boys to write,” McCall said.

Student Kenzie Lange, 10, said the fish became kind of like pets to the class. She and classmate Veronica Izquierdo, 11, enjoyed watching the fish burrow under rocks, then race each other to the top of the tank the three times a day they were fed. One loved feeding time so much he grew to 58 grams (the next largest fish weighed 30 grams). The children named him Stan, in honor of the man who helped create the classroom aquarium program that brought the fish to their class.

Kathleen Tadvick of the Division of Wildlife is more than willing to place the lives of endangered fish in the hands of children, who take the task of raising razorback suckers very seriously, she said. Tadvick is an education specialist for the division, which gets the fish through a permit with the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program in Denver. She goes into classrooms about four times a year to make sure the kids are taking good care of their fish.

“The fact that the program instills in them a sense of taking care of an endangered species is wonderful,” Tadvick said.

Seth Krebill, an 11-year-old student in McCall’s class, wants the fish to live “at least 10 years.” The students chanted “Staying Alive” as they released the fish one-by-one Monday morning.

Classmate Hannah Puckett doesn’t care how far the fish will swim, as long as they keep swimming.

“I’m hoping they stay alive and have a good life and don’t get caught in a fish ladder,” Puckett said.

Twelve-year-old Craig Purtell said raising the fish was “fun.” Douglas Good, 12, summed up his year with the fish in 15 words.

“They got big and they’re neat and our class is lucky to have these fish,” Good said.

Reach Emily Anderson at eanderson@gjfreepress.com.