Fish Life Under Water Lab

Tevin Prince

Stephanie Koury

BSC 110L

September 22, 2014

Life under water

Abstract

In open waters fish benefit in many ways from schooling. They can protect themselves from predators, they assure the safety of others as they travel together, and find food together. This experiment is trying to further the knowledge of fish schooling by conducting many experiments. In this experiment 3 trails were experienced. The first trial was to tap the center of the fish tank for 10 seconds at the same rate. The second trial was tapping on the fish tank for 20 seconds at the same place and also the same rate. The third and final trial was to tap on the glass for 30 seconds at the same rate, same place and all with the same person, which in this case would be my fellow

classmate James Valentine.
Introduction
Fish have many reasons why they have the reactions of schooling together and bonding to defend each other. When fish are in a school they have a broader range of the environment around them. Having a wider range of view enables the fish to have a better interpretation of predators that are approaching them. Schools of fish also have the advantage because they have more than one set of eyes to help keep lookout for the incoming predator (Nishimura, 2002). Once a fish spots a predator the behavior of the fish will change in order to notify the fish of a predator (Jeon et. al. , 2013). If fish protect themselves by schooling, then they will group and school together to protect each other for survival tactics.

Materials & Methods
This lab experiment requires a fish tank of at least 10 gallons, 8 fish, and 5 people.

In the experiment we have a time taker, tapper, and 3 observers. The tank should have a black line straight down the middle of it, however, if the 10 gallon tank does not already have a line down the central part of the tank, take a sharpie and draw one exactly down the middle. Once you acquire the tank make sure there are 8 fish in the tank, if not, position 8 fish in the tank. The first trial that was done required the tapper and the time taker with 3 observers. The tapping began for 10 seconds while the fish behavior was observed by the 3 of us observers. After the 10 seconds the results were verified and discussed among the observers. There was an elimination period for 1 minute, and trial 1 was repeated again for the second time making it trail 2 for 20 seconds. The results were documented once again and discussed. The second trail that was done required a little more focus to assure the tapping and placement was the same as the one before. After 20 seconds the results were recorded. There was a rest period for 1 minutes, and trial 2 was repeated making it trial 3 for 30 seconds. The results were

noted.
Results

Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3
James-10 sec. Tap. James- 20 sec. Tap. James-30 sec. Tap.
1 fish fled, Guppies schooled together Guppies remained in same position(schooled) during tapping, then spread- Gold Fish went to corners Guppies stayed in the same position then dispersed after tapping- Gold Fish remained spread out and scattered

Discussion
Throughout the experiment many results were concluded. Each trial that was tested proved different things through the processes of each of the experiments and of what we assumed would happen to the fish. As we pondered to determine what the fish will do with the testing of the tapping on the glass. Many thoughts off the top of the head were implemented. Fish are territorial and that may cause the fish to school more to protect their territory. (Gunji, et. al. , 1999). With the first test we all thought they would just flee away from the direction of sound that was produced. As discussed we all thought of the situation as that if there are loud sounds that causes fear for someone they would run the other way trying to get away. After the second trial it was mentioned how that maybe after the first testing the fish realized nothing happened so what makes the second trial of tapping any different from the first? Then the assumption was made that maybe the first sound was a warning to them and the second one could mean serious things could be about to happen. However, instead of tapping from the same spot throughout the trials maybe tapping in different areas would make a different scene of the fish because it could possibly be closer to them and have louder sound waves.
Literature Cited
Gunji, Yukio-Pegio, Kusunoki, Yoshiyuki, Kitabayashi, Nobuhide, Mochizuki, Toshinano, Ishikawa, Masaki, Watanabe, Takanori. April 1999. Dual interaction producing both territorial and schooling behavior in fish. Biosystems. Volume 50: Pages 27-47.

Jeon, Wonju, Kang, Seung Ho, Leem, Joo-Baek, Lee, Sang-Hee. 15 May 2013. Characterization of fish schooling behavior with different numbers of Medaka (Oryzias latipes) and goldfish (Carassius auratus) using a Hidden Markov Model. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications. Volume 392: Pages 2426–2433.

Nishimura, Shin I. February 2002. A predator's selection of an individual prey from a group. Biosystems. Volume 65: Pages 25-35.