Ok if i were to do it on behavior how could I do this??? lol like what do you think i could do, lol can teach a fish to roll over lmao jk but I think it would be really difficult to do a maze and it seems to common alot of preople do this with mice and other animals I just want to do something different and have fun with it.
converting a freshwater fish to saltwater
- Thread starter darcy12877
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I've moved freshwater atlantic stingrays (Daysatis sabina) into saltwater. There are several asian species that can live in both as well. Don't try it with any of the South American species, they lack the glands to excrete salt...
Ok, the point of a science fair project isn't just to throw something weird together.
When I was in school we got a paper that gave us a choice in the type of experiment or demonstration we were going to do. Whichever one we picked had a set uf rules that we needed to follow and the proper completion of those rules in the experiment would be judged at the science fair. We were also judged on how unique and creative our project was, but that was not the only point.
So really, I suggest you discuss your experiment with your teacher and get her view on. She'll be able to give you pointers and tell you whether she thinks it's appropriate or not.
It doesn't really sound like you have a goal in mind. Acclimating freshwater fish to saltwater for what purpose? What do you hypothesize will happen? What are you trying to demonstrate through your experiment?
Freshwater fish are built to survive in freshwater, not saltwater. Most freshwater fish will only survive for a short amount of time in saltwater, though some species may TOLERATE the saltwater better than others.
Fish such as sailfin mollies can be acclimated to saltwater because they're not fully freshwater fish. Sailfin mollies live in freshwater, brackish and marine water in the wild. Many people tend to think they do best in brackish and marine than freshwater (I'm one of those people).
What you COULD do is demonstrate that certain species of fish live in both freshwater and saltwater enviroments, instead of just acclimating fish that won't survive long term in saltwater. You could have a setup showing that one molly is doing well in freshwater and one molly is doing well in saltwater, and perhaps research what allows these fish to live in such varied enviroments.
If you really want to acclimate a fw fish to salt I suggest you choose guppies. Guppies have been well studied and it has bee shown that they can survive salinities higher than in the ocean even (don't use fancy guppies though - not sure how well they'd do). Maybe you could do this to demonstrate how some species fish are able to survive sub-optimal conditions even though it isn't necessarily their natural enviroment.
Either way, don't pick a project that will just demonstrate some kind of random outcome. Pick one that demonstrates something that will show you've done research and actually put effort into the project. Something that will prove some kind of point, not just be weirder than the other students projects.
When I was in school we got a paper that gave us a choice in the type of experiment or demonstration we were going to do. Whichever one we picked had a set uf rules that we needed to follow and the proper completion of those rules in the experiment would be judged at the science fair. We were also judged on how unique and creative our project was, but that was not the only point.
So really, I suggest you discuss your experiment with your teacher and get her view on. She'll be able to give you pointers and tell you whether she thinks it's appropriate or not.
It doesn't really sound like you have a goal in mind. Acclimating freshwater fish to saltwater for what purpose? What do you hypothesize will happen? What are you trying to demonstrate through your experiment?
Freshwater fish are built to survive in freshwater, not saltwater. Most freshwater fish will only survive for a short amount of time in saltwater, though some species may TOLERATE the saltwater better than others.
Fish such as sailfin mollies can be acclimated to saltwater because they're not fully freshwater fish. Sailfin mollies live in freshwater, brackish and marine water in the wild. Many people tend to think they do best in brackish and marine than freshwater (I'm one of those people).
What you COULD do is demonstrate that certain species of fish live in both freshwater and saltwater enviroments, instead of just acclimating fish that won't survive long term in saltwater. You could have a setup showing that one molly is doing well in freshwater and one molly is doing well in saltwater, and perhaps research what allows these fish to live in such varied enviroments.
If you really want to acclimate a fw fish to salt I suggest you choose guppies. Guppies have been well studied and it has bee shown that they can survive salinities higher than in the ocean even (don't use fancy guppies though - not sure how well they'd do). Maybe you could do this to demonstrate how some species fish are able to survive sub-optimal conditions even though it isn't necessarily their natural enviroment.
Either way, don't pick a project that will just demonstrate some kind of random outcome. Pick one that demonstrates something that will show you've done research and actually put effort into the project. Something that will prove some kind of point, not just be weirder than the other students projects.
I second what ShadowBass has said. Also, you need to think about what is allowed in science fairs. Out here, we were/are not allowed to do science experiments that involved any vertebrate animals. If you wanted to do one you needed special permission, or else your project would be rejected. I don't know what your local guidelines are, but this type of guideline is definitely something you want to consider.
lol good point but im not doing it to be weird lmao i think that it would be amazing if a freshwater fish could slowly convert to strait salt water. The only thing is that i dont have science this semester so i dont have a teacher to ask these questions to. This is bec. im in the enriched science department at my school and every enriched student must do a science fair project even if they dont have it this semester. The guidlines for this project are:
-that there must be a exibit table for each student
-develop a hypothesis
-write procdures
-conduct the expieriment
-organize your data
-state the inclusion
-the report
-areas of concern and evaluation (is the project unique, have alot of creativity, etc)
So for the project i just want to do something that really interests me and I think that this experiment could be very rewarding but is also very risky if I were to lose the fish. But i am in no way doing this becasue i just want to have a different project, im doing it because it is something that interests me and I think it could be very rewarding.
-that there must be a exibit table for each student
-develop a hypothesis
-write procdures
-conduct the expieriment
-organize your data
-state the inclusion
-the report
-areas of concern and evaluation (is the project unique, have alot of creativity, etc)
So for the project i just want to do something that really interests me and I think that this experiment could be very rewarding but is also very risky if I were to lose the fish. But i am in no way doing this becasue i just want to have a different project, im doing it because it is something that interests me and I think it could be very rewarding.
Also we are aloud to do projects with vertebrate animals to some reasoning (obviously
not dogs or anything like that) but one of the like 30 examples was the study of social hierarchy amoung fish, which is the domanince hierarchy (domant fish in a school, etc.). But i will ask the dep. head tomorow if he thinks if this would be a good idea to do this topic as a science fair project on.
not dogs or anything like that) but one of the like 30 examples was the study of social hierarchy amoung fish, which is the domanince hierarchy (domant fish in a school, etc.). But i will ask the dep. head tomorow if he thinks if this would be a good idea to do this topic as a science fair project on.
there are fish that are brackish that do this naturally you could try differn't types and amounts of salt and try to breed them or something for a project or another fish based project mabye see which fish can survive the most salt or if changing things like PH will affect the amount of salt they can handle
converting any true freshwater fish to marine conditions would take millions of years for the fish to evolve any fish would die in our life time
if you have alot of time then you could breed fish try breeding fish and tracking there traits like trying to get luetistic or platnium fish you could also make some $$$
but if you have under a year i'd say try to breed convicts and see if you can get the marble/Koi varient that would be much faster and much eazier but would take many tanks and probably more time then you have
converting any true freshwater fish to marine conditions would take millions of years for the fish to evolve any fish would die in our life time
if you have alot of time then you could breed fish try breeding fish and tracking there traits like trying to get luetistic or platnium fish you could also make some $$$
but if you have under a year i'd say try to breed convicts and see if you can get the marble/Koi varient that would be much faster and much eazier but would take many tanks and probably more time then you have
I talked to the dep. head for the science program at my school and he said that he would look in to it for me and that he thought the only rule would be that the fish can not die. So I might try some columbian catfish bec they have been converted before and I think that I could do this within the time that I have. But does anyone have any other cool ideas I can do for this project related to my fish???
go for sailfin mollies(P. latapinna) or a cross between a sailfin and shortfin molly like the silver molly that still has many of the traits of the sailfin. i've got a silver in my 29g SW that took ~45min to acclimate and has been doing quite well for months. you can easily get wild caught sailfins from florida on aquabid.com in the native fish section. anther interesting thing you can do is acclimate some SW fish down to BW levels. from the research i've done, as long as you stay above 1.012 the fish will do very well.
ya, mollies are definately the easiest way to go. i did that with some fry i had when i used to have a few wild sailfins. too bad i was usin fry cuz they got eaten by the damselfish once in the sw tank. it wont take longer than a week to convert them. just add a little more salt everyday
