Science fair project topics related to MFK

[mikkisixx]

Hi,
For my school I have to design a science experiment and keep a journal to show my progress and data over the course of several months. The project has to be something that has quantitive data and I would like it to be relatively cheap-I'm a student in high school so I don't have a lot of money to spend on this. I was thinking of something along the lines of doing something with water quality, or possibly doing something with 2 different breeding setups and a control to see which produces more offspring but I am open to any suggestions that you guys have. Thanks so much in advance

 

[Mac.]

If you want to go with breeding, I would include convicts since they are easy to spawn But i think a breeding project would be a little much

 

[JoeTurner14]

How about doing a breeding setup with prolific breeders such as convicts, or even easier, livebearers. You could have 2/3 tanks differing in temperature and see how this affected breeding behaviour, gestation and growth rate??

Holy crap thats such a cool idea I want to go do that now!!!


I command you to post pics, details results etc

 

[reptileguy2727]

I think the number of offspring produced would have way too many errors involved. Keep it simple and it will be the best and most thorough from a scientific point of view. Something like two tanks with the same number (and roughly same mass) of fish being fed two different foods and seeing which one has higher nitrate production or growth rates in the fish would be really good. You could compare two different brands of food (maybe two with VERY different quality levels) or two different formulas from the same company.

You could also do something with tank size. Keep the same number of fish in a 10 gallon and a 55, don't do water changes on the 55 but do a lot on the 10 and see which ones grow faster (monitoring nitrate concentration the whole time).

 

[JoeTurner14]

I think the number of offspring produced would have way too many errors involved. Keep it simple and it will be the best and most thorough from a scientific point of view. Something like two tanks with the same number (and roughly same mass) of fish being fed two different foods and seeing which one has higher nitrate production or growth rates in the fish would be really good. You could compare two different brands of food (maybe two with VERY different quality levels) or two different formulas from the same company.

You could also do something with tank size. Keep the same number of fish in a 10 gallon and a 55, don't do water changes on the 55 but do a lot on the 10 and see which ones grow faster (monitoring nitrate concentration the whole time).

Yeah this sounds good too

 

[RMorrow]

My daughter did an experiment looking at schooling preferences in fish. She divided a 55 into thirds and and set up windows and one-way cones in the dividers. This allowed the test fish in the middle to choose a side without the others coming into the middle. Then one side had a large school the other had just a couple of fish and she would record how the test fish reacted. You could also then look at if it is just other fish or species specific. You could cover windows to see if it is visual cues or pheromones in the water. Lots of options.