Help me come up with aquarium/fish related science fair ideas...pls

[Chewbacca773]

I have a science fair coming up and I wanna do something fish-related because that's something I know a lot about. They said generally stay away from plants tho unless you have something "incredible". I would love for the project to be a built-in excuse to get a 5gal or something, but hey, I'll take what I can get
EDIT - She said no fish, only inverts

 

[WendiWoo]

"Does API Nitra-Zorb really reduce ammonia, nitrites, nitrates". How does the chemistry work?

 

[peachsonas]

What about something to do with brine shrimp? You could do two or three separate hatcheries with varying factors like water hardness, temp, light, etc and how they react to them/which ones thrive better?

 

[Chewbacca773]

What about something to do with brine shrimp? You could do two or three separate hatcheries with varying factors like water hardness, temp, light, etc and how they react to them/which ones thrive better?

Ooh I like it that could actually be really fun

"Does API Nitra-Zorb really reduce ammonia, nitrites, nitrates". How does the chemistry work?

I gotta ask my teacher about it but I will def try that if I can, even if not as a science project

 

[Chewbacca773]

UPDATE - I'm thinking I wanna do something on neocaridinia shrimp, anyone have some ideas that I can test?

 

[Yeoy]

UPDATE - I'm thinking I wanna do something on neocaridinia shrimp, anyone have some ideas that I can test?

I'd just pick an aspect of the shrimp and then think of the variations on that. Not sure how this works or how long you have to do your experiment. You could try different things like temp, ph, tds, food type/frequency etc... And look how they impact activity, breeding, colour, growth or any other factor.

 

[Chewbacca773]

M

I'd just pick an aspect of the shrimp and then think of the variations on that. Not sure how this works or how long you have to do your experiment. You could try different things like temp, ph, tds, food type/frequency etc... And look how they impact activity, breeding, colour, growth or any other factor.

Maybe I'll do food but I'm having trouble imagining variables for that

Like what I was thinking was -

Control - Feeding some basic pellet food
Independent Variable - different types of food
dependent - ?

What am I measuring? Do I need to do 3 tanks, Like a control, one kind of food, and another kind of food? Or can I do like 2 tanks, but with changing out foods. Idk what to measure. I'm gon do 5 gals btw


UPDATE - I figured it out im going to measure colony size at the end

 

[Chewbacca773]

ANOTHER UPDATE - I'm going to do feeding a mixed variety of foods vs feeding one specialty food.

 

[SQW]

Take a planted tank, and use it to explain the nitrogen cycle in detail.

 

[Chewbacca773]

Take a planted tank, and use it to explain the nitrogen cycle in detail.

Yeah I'm gonna do something like that as my backup. Maybe since I have to experiment I'll do which kind of filter cycles the most efficiently
ANOTHER UPDATE - I sketched out a rough idea for the tank setup, what do you guys think? I need more surfaces I think...

 

[ProudPapa]

Back about 50 years ago I did a science fair project on the effect thyroid medication had on the development of tadpoles. If I remember right I had one control group that didn't get any, and two other groups with varying dosages. There were distinct differences on how fast each group turned into frogs, but I don't remember any more details.

I don't know if you have access to tadpoles, but it might give you some ideas.

 

[kansas]

Put two colors of neo shrimp in a tank, see how many of each you find n the offspring.

 

[Chewbacca773]

Back about 50 years ago I did one a science fair project on the effect thyroid medication had on the development of tadpoles. If I remember right I had one control group that didn't get any, and two other groups with varying dosages. There were distinct differences on how fast each group turned into frogs, but I don't remember any more details.

I don't know if you have access to tadpoles, but it might give you some ideas.

What kind of tank do they need? also, what do you guys think of my tank setup for the neos?

Put two colors of neo shrimp in a tank, see how many of each you find n the offspring.

Imma make that my other backup option thanks

 

[SchoolofFish]

What kind of tank do they need? also, what do you guys think of my tank setup for the neos?

Imma make that my other backup option thanks

I think anything to do with color genetics will be a great exploration for the science fair, but you may be on a tight timeline for enough generations. I would try something like effect of planted tank versus not / natural
Light cycle versus sporadic on breeding numbers, etc . Or specific foods and colony reproduction, like you mentioned above. You could also do exponential rise of unchecked population (nothing else in tank) with one as a community. You could also tease out quality within your shrimp, determining how many of each rating come from 2 of a specific rating and any mutations, culls, or unexpected happenings.

 

[Chewbacca773]

I think anything to do with color genetics will be a great exploration for the science fair, but you may be on a tight timeline for enough generations. I would try something like effect of planted tank versus not / natural
Light cycle versus sporadic on breeding numbers, etc . Or specific foods and colony reproduction, like you mentioned above. You could also do exponential rise of unchecked population (nothing else in tank) with one as a community. You could also tease out quality within your shrimp, determining how many of each rating come from 2 of a specific rating and any mutations, culls, or unexpected happenings.

The reason my shrimp breeding one got rejected was we only have 4-6 weeks and there isn't enough time, but I will definitely look into the not natural vs natural one, what do you suppose I would test/ I like that one better than my current one, which is testing if different filters cycle faster than others..

 

[The_fishy]

You could look at activity levels under different light sources.

 

[Chewbacca773]

You could look at activity levels under different light sources.

wait I could do how a planted tank vs an artificial tank and how they progress, both in cycling and in overall tank health

I would stock both with a nerite snail and see how the tanks live out under the exact same conditions

 

[Revan]

Hmmm, that sounds nice! You probably only need 2 tanks for that, and say the control is the fake plant, as you’re testing the effects of real plants in tanks. However, I’d decide on a specific dependent variable to measure, as you might not get approval if you don’t…