KMH+ZF+Week+2

Katie's Logbook

KMH ZF Week 2 Logbook

Monday 12/10/2007

Internet down in lab. Cleaned out tanks 2 and 3 Washed gravel in tank 2 Set up brine shrimp hatchery Still have not received an email back from Dr. Hyde CLeaned out fry tank and putthem in to a clean container Made more salt water Tomorrow: finish cleaning tank #3 Work on milestone map/paper thingy I believe the incubator is the reason that they are still alive because that is all that has changed since our last breeding. It could be that the temperatures in the lab vary too much overnight seeing as we only have on small radiator by the window and also because there are windows on two of the walls (lots of cold air). All the other tanks have heaters and thermometers to keep track of the temperature of the water but there is no way to heat the water in the fry containers. So the warm temperature is most likely the reason for the increased survival rate. Another idea that I think would be beneficial is to keep the container of water that we are going to transfer the fry to in the incubator so that it is the same temperature as the egg water. This way they will not have to undergo any temperature changes.
 * //Observations//**: This is the longest that we've been able to keep our fry alive. They are now 6 days old and only 1 has died.

Tuesday 12/11/2007

Internet is up today, and I posted my log frmo Monday Fed fry and fish in the morning and during class. Fry have moved on to Powder 0 & I Finished cleaning out all of the gravel, to get rid of the bleach smell. Washed out tanks 2 and 3 to rid it of bleach
 * Set up breeding tank with two male albinos from Tank#4 and two female albinos from tank #5

//Observations//**: Tanks #1 and #4 (containing male albino and male wildtype) are looking murky and discolored when compared to tank #5 (which contains all of the females, albino and wildtype), the water is a completely different color. The water in the male tanks is still clear but it is tinted yellow. There is no trace of any mold, as there was in the other two tanks, and the fish are healthy as usual. It is something we'll have to keep an eye out for.

"**//Observations//**: Tanks #1 and #4 (containing male albino and male wildtype) are looking rather yellow. Compared to tank #5 (containing all females, albino and wildtype), the water is a completely different color. The water in the male tanks is still clear but it is tinted yellow. There is no trace of any mold, as there was in the other two tanks, and the fish are healthy as usual. It is something we'll have to keep an eye out for..." --LGS (TL) __Wednesday 12/12/07__

I fed fish breakfast with brine shrimp Lesley fed fish lunch with brine shrimp Fed fish 10th period as usual with brine shrimp Breeding: --->no eggs --->females still appear to be "full" (usually after breeding their bellies are considerably smaller) Fed fry wth powder 0+1 Returned gravel to #2 (gravel doesn't smell like bleach) Filled tank #2 about 1/3 of the way with water ---> we would have filled it up all the way but we emptied out the reservoir of the reverse osmosis sytem (...it only collects so much a day)
 * returned fish to original tanks (females to tank #5, males to tank #4)
 * Finished outline for milestone map

//**Observations**//:There are several concieveable possibilities as to why we were unable to breed the fish. The cold water temperature, the limited space in the breeding tank, or possibly what we thought to be a boy was a girl?

__Thursday 12/13/07__ I fed them breakfast, lunch and dinner. Washed down all of the shelves on the lab. Setup a new brine shrimp hatchery. Went down in the computer lab (I was lonely). There are researched articles on fetal deformations and its causes on PubMed.

Observations: This research gave me a possible idea for my research project second semester! I will have to ru it by the chief first (Lesley but possibly something that has to do about embryo formation. Possibly we could manipulate the eggs with the same thing that the fetus' are experiencing.....

__Friday 12/14/07__

I fed fish breakfast Katie fed fish lunch Fed fish 10th period Fed fry in incubator/ half of fry are dead... Added more water to tank #2; almost full

//**Observations**//: Over these past months, we've been able to "master" our brine shrimp hatching skills. Over the summer the process was slightly differerent; there was the same set up but we emptied the hatchery every day and concentrated the shrimp into a smaller container with less water. But we realized as we've been continuing the process this year, that we end up wasting a very large amount of eggs. Only about half of the brine shrimp eggs hatched overnight and so we ended up sending them down the drain when we collected only the hatched shrimp. Since we had learned the brine shrimp can stay alive for about three in the temporary aquarium we made with a soda bottle and salt water, we decided to let them "brew" in there for a day or two longer before emptying the aquarium. It worked! Also, by doing it this way we were able to use one setup for a longer period of time. It used to only last about one day, but now we are able to collect brine shrimp for up 4 days!!! This is very cost and time efficient! Which is what I like! We found that almost all the shrimp eggs hatched and our daily collections were much more heavily concentrated with shrimp. Our daily collections are definitely helped by the lamp we use; the shrimp swim toward the light and heat so it is easier to collect them. When the air tube is removed and the lamp is set in place, the empty shells sink to the bottom and the shrimp swim to to the side making the collection VERY easy.

Newly hatched brine shrimp: YUM!
 * [[image:http://www.aquariumlife.net/images/shrimp.jpg caption="The image “http://www.aquariumlife.net/images/shrimp.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors."]] ||
 * The image “http://www.aquariumlife.net/images/shrimp.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. ||

Picture from www.aquariumlife.net.