Science Project

[Wolfdog]

Im a Junior in High School, and ive got a science fair project i have to do.

I would like to do something that revolves around fish! I was wondering if any one had ideas on what i could do, with fish keeping.

I would like something not too hard to do, but not really easy either. Ive got a 29gal with yellow labs, a 10gal with guppies, and another 10gal with neons. If that would help at all.

If anyone knows of any good sites, of has done any good projects let me know! Thanx!

Wolf

 

[The-Wolf]

how about breeding the guppies and selling the fry,
providing there is enough time before the project is due.

 

[Wolfdog]

Ive got 8 weeks, I need my topic by this Friday!

If no one has ideas on fish and some other great science projects, feel free to post them too!

Wolf

 

[Jen21]

Is there a certain theme?

 

[Wolfdog]

nope no theme at all, pretty much anything i want...

Wolf

 

[hellohefalump]

I agree with the breeding idea - you could also do loads of research into fry development and different types of breeding eg: livebearer, mouth brooder, egg layer etc. If you could manage it you could even try breeding the neons or labs and if you don't manage there's always the guppies.

 

[Jen21]

Maybe you could do something along the lines of seperating 2 identical species in 2 different tanks and see how they adapt.....

for example....

feed the two tanks different foods-
add other types of fish-
differ the lighting-

You could observe each and note the differences/similarities...

 

[OohFeeshy]

Umm... quick search on google-

How does water temperature affect colour of fish?
Breeding rate of guppies
Schooling of neons
Behavioral differences between 1 guppy alone and x together

 

[Nik_boyd]

Just a quick thought, if your into electronics you could make a temperature sensor that beeps when it gets too cold, like in the case of a heater failure. I'm a UK uni student and have just completed a very similar minor project, message me if you want to see the schematics

Nik.

 

[Blue Lobster]

How about PH effects on behavior? I always noticed that my fish get restless when the PH was too low.

 

[smb7676]

Factors that speed up tank cycle? Maybe you can get a new tank or two out of your parents.
Good luck whith what ever you go with.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

you could do a pavlovian-style experiment with the guppies... you know, train them to come to a certain location for food at a specific stimulus. labs might be smart enough to be taught tricks using food! if you taught some fish to navigate a maze of sorts, you could use that to disprove the 3-sec memory theory... the maze thing could easily be done with a bunch of plexiglass.

there's all sorts of cool things you could test with bettas! pattern recognition, threat responses, fight vs flight impulses, or any of the experiments mentioned in the previous paragraph. the maze thing would work especially well with bettas. you could also examine how tank size affects aggressiveness in bettas. the only thing is that you'd need to acquire 5-6 of them... that might be a bit much for you.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

you can do something with genetics with guppies. see if fish really have taste, like give it a pellet, and in the middle of the pellet is something gross.

 

[Synirr]

I like Pica's ideas

 

[pnyklr3]

Myth Busters had an episode where they had goldfish manuever holes in plexiglass to get to food. The holes were not present in the tank during the normal life of the fish, only during the experiment time. You could modify it by having the holes be exactly the same until they have it down-pat, and then alter the placement of the holes to see if they know to go through the holes, or if they just follow the path that led to the food.