Science Project

[TheDiscusKid]

I need some ideas for a science project that I have to do. since I like fish alot, and if i do a project on fish , i know it would make this porject fun. This project has to be chemistry related. I would rather do this project working with african cichlids or discus. I was going to do the project "which brand fish food enhances the color of the fish the best" That would have been a great project to do with african cichlids, but my teacher said is was unacceptable. What was wrong with that? That is chemistry related IMO. It would really be considered biochemistry. The fish food would be considered the chemicals in it right? If you all can give me some ideas on how to tell the teacher that this is chemistry related and giving me some examples, I am going to try to fight with my teacher on getting this topic. Or if any other ideas that i can do another project on fish with chemistry in it, it would be alot of help. Thanks

Bruce

[Carol_Roberts]

How long can this project run? Perhaps you could get 12 babies from the same spawn and raise one batch in pH 6.0 and another in pH 8.0 and compare growth. This would work even for feeder goldfish.
Carol :heart1:

[Rod Coleman]

Hi Bruce

My advice is - don't try to fight with your teacher. You can guess which side of the student/teacher relationship I'm coming from! LOL ;D

What about something to do with the chemistry of water. We're all interested in pH, for example. Why not leave the fish out of it, use a separate tank or tub and experiment with various agents to buffer the water, alter the pH etc? You could look at the effect of peat or other biological substances on the water. What about adding different substrates or rocks and seeing what they do - or vary the strength of airation. The knowledge you gain will surely help your discus. A project like this could fit into just about any timeline.

Good luck, and please post your project findings.

Rod

[TheDiscusKid]

This project must me turned in somewhere in january. Teacher has to get the TOPIC that i am going to do on thursday. Thanks for the advise Caro, hopefully i can get some more suggestions. :)

[Liz_Streithorst]

The teacher probably nixed your origional idea because the results would require a subjective judgement rather that something scientifically measurable.

Give you an idea of your subject. I found a bucket of red rain water located underneath a red flower plant. So I collect some of them and make a pound of BH and feed it to some of my fish. These are the before and after pictures taken 7 days ago before my experiment and the after pictures were taken this evening.

Retired 8 years old Ghost breeder.
http://photo.msn.s8.com/MS8zLzEwMzcyNTU5NzQvMS80MDE4LzE1NS8zMi8yNWMtQWlVTG R0MUw1MnRXbWIyYk13/463bb0aeae13980474fc1f1b045f8867/clbk=HcZNnT9kkUgHBnZCLqii7Obzja1Hrc8Z1D8we4*o5Mbvm flfPu7gado1o*O4bwIHq!dFztcFGPs$/jpg.jpgURL

after
http://photo.msn.s8.com/MS8zLzEwMzcyNTU5MjkvMS80MDE4LzE1NS8zMi9aWUVNZE9ZVm VpelI5MVJ0eHVFUVFB/cd6a374eac009f427abe48f30e106db9/clbk=HcZNnT9kkUgHBnZCLqii7Obzja1Hrc8ZdwZqhkJXayz2N y7G5Mu709dJAr6h5T79l4kz!iH5Umo$/jpg.jpgURL

A juvenile Red Melon.
http://photo.msn.s8.com/MS8zLzEwMzcyNTU5MjkvMS80MDE4LzE1NS8zMi9WNmh6TmVlaF FBSXcwcElUVVlMeENn/0ed8439f434649de73427280431c4899/clbk=HcZNnT9kkUgHBnZCLqii7Obzja1Hrc8Zp2WMWvEYS7ruC yJLRa5SU9J2WrT7ciHNzdSOTzgX!WM$/jpg.jpgURL

after
http://photo.msn.s8.com/MS8zLzEwMzcyNTU5MjkvMS80MDE4LzE1NS8zMi9lY1o4NDIzSW l2Z050R0Vfbkk1NjJB/ca895d7f5cabc44fa99771a312552c0e/clbk=HcZNnT9kkUgHBnZCLqii7Obzja1Hrc8ZewR89PWC8lAu5 Q0ylCfsHh3VldXFiPNP7vtZsBXmROw$/jpg.jpgURL

A BDXWild Alenquer
http://photo.msn.s8.com/MS8zLzEwMzcyNTU5NzgvMS80MDE4LzE1NS8zMi8zcUhhWnhLR2 5mRVlHSTl3MF9iaVZ3/c3ef689825b7d78246cb9eb510f2054c/clbk=HcZNnT9kkUgHBnZCLqii7Obzja1Hrc8ZO8XnFsaqAyd0C VZaUDdpE3CJLOGG503BYSHi62apcMA$/jpg.jpgURL

after
http://photo.msn.s8.com/MS8zLzEwMzcyNTU5MjkvMS80MDE4LzE1NS8zMi9xWVV2YnlpUG toQ2NzdXByb1VhZXNR/4cebf375b0d0a48e1353e64fda009ab7/clbk=HcZNnT9kkUgHBnZCLqii7Obzja1Hrc8Zjbra3pp4bzhvd qQ49BNp5GMGkjylcmPg0P5Uu59WWd0$/jpg.jpgURL

Feel free to use the photo for your project. I forgot the name of that plant. It something like Glardina. grow in dry hot place. I have to fine it's name. HTH

Jimmy.

[April]

wow...thats very interesting jimmy...how did you know the water was safe..and not full of stuff. that could harm them. find out the name of the plant.
maybe you should bottle it and market it . you might get rich.

Jimmy,

Sounds to me like a Gaillardia otherwise known as the "Blanket Flower" is a very hardy perennial in zones 3 and up. I have them growing in most of my gardens. Do you have a pic of the plant. I could be of better assistance if I were to see it. Nice pics! Mother nature is truely amazing.

Julz

Better yet... Did it look like this?

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/perennials/gaillardia.html

[April]

heh good flower sight julz.

Hey thanks. Flowers are my passion!. Right up there with the Discus...

Julz

[April]

yeah i love perennials. cant have them now...though. :-\
but still have tons at the shop .
my garden took a back seat to water changes though. lol;
ok sorry bruce no ideas for your project. but yes..think the ph stuff sounds quite good...how different stuff affects it.
add coral also or oyster shells. or some rocks. like i had a piece of flag stone that mustve had lime init and the ph went way up.

Yes Bruce, I have to agree.

I can send you all the coral, shells, etc. I have tons of the useless stuff along with gravel. Back in the days when I didn't know squat about fish keeping.

You could also show the diff between W/C and no W/C... Amm is quite the chemical if u ask me....

Let us know what u decide..

Julz

(BTW Pril.. Don't feel bad.. u should have seen my poor pathetic gardens this year. Not to mention my orchids... due to Discus. Oh well...I chose my battle correctly, imo.. lol)

That's it. Garllrria or whatever. My wife bought them from a package of seeds. They come back every year. Perannanial or whatever you call it. April. I know it's safe. cause my cat drink from it and I empty my bird seeds in there and I don't find any dead birds from my yard. Only the stupid cat get them sometimes when they learn to fry. I don't know how safe to the discus. So far none of them die. this is my first trial. Too bad it's winter time and I'm only able to collect a last few flowers and I have to wait till next year.

jimmy.

Jimmy...

Have the Mrs. grow some in the basement, under lights, using fish water for fertililizer. Hmmmm I just gave myself an idea. :idea: Move over Orchids... Time for red fishies.....

Sorry Bruce.... Science Project.... :P

Julz

[georgef]

Hey, Bruce --

How about the nitrogen cycle? Explain how fish use O2 (oxygen) in the water and release NH3 (ammonia) via respiration and waste production. Take into account that NH3 is very poisonous to fish and appears in the aquaria when pH is higher than 7.0. At a lower pH, ammonia is in the form of NH4 which is non-toxic. NH3/NH4 feeds the nitrosomonas that release NO2 (nitrite) which is also poisonous to fish. That in turn is consumed by nitrobacters that release NO3 (nitrate). In nature or a planted aquaria, plants consume NO3 (nitrate) and release O2 back into the system thus completing the cycle.

Again, we're talking more in terms of biochemistry, but maybe the nitrogen cycle, along with water chemistry in the aquaria in general (pH, GH, KH, TDS, conductivity, etc., and their relationships with each other) would make a good project.

There's tons of reference material on the subject all over the internet. Some good stuff right here on this forum, too.

George

[TheDiscusKid]

That sounds like a great idea George. Maybe with all that big vocabulary I can fool the teacher into letting me do something with this. :) Thanks for the other ideas, more suggestions are welcome and thanks. :)

[daninthesand]

Jimmy.

That experiment with the flowers shows some really keen insight on your part! Way to go! Who would have thought it could work?! Opens the door for all kinds of experiments. With all the flower colours out there, who knows we might finally see some purple discus!

Too cool. More details on this experiment would be neat to know. How much flower petals did you use etc things like that.

Daniel

[DarkDiscus]

Jimmy,

Wow. Very cool experiment.

I could use some of that flower juice for my ancient Nicaraguan cichlids...

John

I lernt that trick from my grandfather who was a herbalist (medicine man). He once told me the dogs and cats are the best doctor and teachers. They'll eat a certain plant when they get sick. Anything is not edible or posionous. they'll stay away from it. I always remember he told me to catch 5 hugh spiders about 4 inches across to cure a lifeless child who had diarrhea and grossly dehydrated. After the spider juice mixed with her mother's milk. She was up and playing in 2 days. I really don't know how he knew about it. Whenever I asked. He just simply said the animals told him.

jimmy.

Jimmy...

Impressive...

Bruce.. You have started quite the thread here!..

Julz (oops.........Science project.... thinking.... more :idea: or r u cool? I honestly think George is on to something as well...)

[Dragonexpress]

It would be good to find a project that would be kinda long term. Something that i can observe for about 2-3 weeks. I was given an idea to test different brands of ph reducer solutions but i thought that might just take a couple of days and it would be too simple. So a good long term project that I can make some good observations by would help alot. Thanks