Science Fair Project

[Liz05]

Does anyone have a good idea for a science fair project involving fish that isnt stressful or cruel to the fish? I'd like to use goldfish, and I don't want to cause any harm. The problem is, it isn't allowed to be an "easy" project. So I don't know.

 

[snotirl]

maybe u could show how much poo one fish does in a day

 

[fishyjessie]

Ive heard(I dont know if it is true) that goldfish turn white if they are left in the dark for prolonged periods of time. I would look this up before you do the project tho...you are right in not wanting to harm the fish And it may also be that someone was trying to pull my leg. Just a idea

 

[juliethegr8t]

You could always try something with fish memory - like trying to teach your goldfish to respond to a certain thing a certain way before he is fed, etc. For example, maybe when a certain light is shown he has to go to a certain area of the tank. I've heard about this being done, and maybe it's too difficult or time consuming, but then again - maybe you can come with an idea of sorts from this. Good luck!

 

[juanveldez]

my wife taught hers that if she taps on the glass then holds her finger there that they are going to be fed it is really funny too cause they will follow her finger where ever it goes!!!

 

[kevy]

Yea, I've heard the goldfish thing too.

You could keep x amount of goldfish in light conditions and x in complete darkness. Then feed them the same amount of food, and have everything else the same. Then you could weight them and compare weight. Plus when you’re done, it’s cool to have something alive in your display.

Or you could, if you had enough time, compare the reproduction rates of different livebearers. I’m doing a similar project now.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Liz05

A week or so ago a schoolteacher started a thread asking for ideas for things that her students could learn involving fish. Perhaps if you look it over you may get some inspiration from it.

Here's a link to that thread:

http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?sh...=0&#entry103988

Good luck. Be sure to let us know what you deceide to do and how the project turns out.

 

[Chunandler]

anything involving vertebrates has to be supervised by a vet and requires 2 years of paperwork ..look somewhere else..

 

[StiX]

my wife taught hers that if she taps on the glass then holds her finger there that they are going to be fed it is really funny too cause they will follow her finger where ever it goes!!!

I did that with my guppys I've got a video clip if I knew how to upload it

 

[fishdude]

i have goldfish and they are turning white because we don't give them enough light. Like fishjessie said. Also you could compare them with regular fish and when you open the lid of the tank they'll come up and put there mouths above water and sometimes eyes too.

 

[Ron]

I'm going to school to be a biology teacher so I have a few books with experiaments in it. There's one where you can train goldfish with a ringing bell. Set up a routine ofr your fish, before each feeding ring the bell. After several days, whenever you ring the bell teh fish will immeadiatly to go to teh surface and expect food to be there. There's also one where you can create a pond in a 10 gallon aquarium, with pond plants, water, snails, gravle, wood, rocks and then add fish. You can show how a pond ecosystem works. The snails clean the floor, the little microscopic animals eat the plants, and the fish eat the small animals. You can also tell how the plant filters teh water. These are just a couple...Good Luck.
Ron

 

[zook94]

My 11 year old did a project with fish for a science fair. We used a 20Gal long tank, and divided it in half with an inexpensive tank divider. His project involved feeding the separated fish different types of food, and measured results. No harm to the fish, and they swim happily alongside my albino Oscar today.

 

[peter101]

I did a science fair project on conditional reflex. I conditioned my fish to beg for food when the light turns on, a sep tank for when the light flickers, when the bowl is tapped twice etc. i used betta for this, just to lower the cost
good luck

 

[Moe]

How about trying to see if fish can learn. You could use 2 betta. 1. Control test - see how many times a beta flares in a one half hour period. 2. Put a real beta in a separate bowl next to him for one half hour see how many times he flares. 3. place a mirror next to his bowl and count how many times he flares at his reflection. (You might want to break it into 10 min intervals.) The point could be to see if he "learns" to identify his own reflection by slowing down or stopping how many times he tries to attack his own image. It would be pretty easy and inexpensive and then you would have 2 nice betta at the end of the project. Never put the fish in the same bowl though because they will fight to the death. Good luck.

 

[Alien Anna]

We did experiments with bettas to find out what he was responding to when he flared - the colour? The shape of another male betta? The fins? The eyes? Then we scared our bettas with various cut-outs and tried moving them and keeping them still. For example, we discovered that a betta won't react to a perfectly still photograph of another male betta, but would react to a red feather on a stick waggled at it.

This experiment would also not get you into trouble with the animal experimentation licensing people, since its not cruel and there's even scientific research to say its good for bettas to give them "exercise" like this.