Experimental Inquiry Project
Our question is, how can different environments effect the behavior and lifetime of a fish? A few changing variables are, the number of fish in each tank and the amount of décor and plants in each tank. Things that will be staying the same are the times we are feeding the fish and the amount of food they are being fed.
A few predictions we made were that the fish would not be affected at all by the different environments and are all going to act the same. Another is that the 2 fish in the tank with plants and décor will be swimming around and acting more lively than the lonely fishes. The lonely fish in the bare tank will be the most affected but the lonely fish with décor in its tank will act the same as the 2 fish in the tank with décor. But our final hypothesis that we support the most is that the fish in the isolated tank that is alone will die before the other 3 fish. We also think that when it is alive it will be hiding in the corner of the tank acting sad and not swimming around. Some reasons for our predictions are that the first one, the fish would not be affected by their surrounding environments is because they are both in the same temperature of water and are being fed at the same time and the same amount of food, so how can some plants and décor in the tank affect them? This might be because the fish are able to adapt to their environments. We also predicted that the 2 fish in the tank full of decor will be swimming around and acting more lively than the lonely fish. This might be because they are surrounded with a natural environment like plants and rocks and also have another fish with them so they aren’t lonely. Finally, we believe that the lonely fish in the bare tank will die, this might be because it is depressed and not used to living in just a bowl of water alone and with nothing else.
There will be 2 fish in one tank, 1 fish in another and another fish in a different tank. The 2 fish that are in the same tank will have décor like plants and rocks in the tank. One of the single fish will be lonely and will just be in a tank of water nothing else. The other single fish will have décor in its tank. We will be taking photos daily to see how these fish are behaving and acting in their different living conditions. We will also be feeding them at the same time and the same amount of food so the only changing variable is the environment.
An ethical issue could be animal cruelty, because of how we are treating the fish. We are still feeding the fish but 1 of them will just be alone in an isolated tank with nothing else it. This is because we are seeing how the fish will act or survive in these different conditions. There are no environmental issues just that if the fish aren’t treated well they could not survive. Also some people believe that fish or animals shouldn’t be used in experiments. Some might see this as us using animals as “test dummies”.
We will need a few different things to help out with our experiment like 4 fish, 3 fish bowls, plants and décor for 2 of the tanks, fish food, and someone’s phone to take photos daily.Some of the safety concerns for our experiment are if we have any pets like cats or dogs that may disturb our fish. Also another concern is that the fish my die if they aren’t treated well or are depressed. A way to fix this is to make sure we put the tank in a safe place away from pets and make sure we feed them on a regular basis.
First people’s perspectives relate to out project because we are looking at the idea of interconnectedness. We are seeing how one thing can affect another. For example, we are seeing how the environment can effect an animal’s behavior (fish). In our experiment we look if a different environment can affect a fish negatively or positively. Also the perspective of sustainability can be related to out project because we are seeing how we can make a fish live longer. We are seeing if a different environment can affect a fish in a negative or positive way.
The relationship between the variables is that on each day each of the fish were either in the different places of their bowl or on the same side as the previous day. Each day their swimming patterns were similar as before. The changing variables are the amount of fish in each tank and the amount of décor in each tank. These definitely had a relationship to the final product as if the number of fish and amount of decor was smaller the fish were negatively impacted, until one eventually died.
There weren’t many inconsistencies. Everything stayed the same throughout the time they were in the bowl. From day one, the isolated fish went straight to the bottom and never ate. From day one the two fish in one bowl swam around and ate as normal. The fish in the bowl with plants and rocks was the most inconsistent. On day one it moved around and it did the same day 2 but as it went along through the days it stayed in the same general area but it didn’t move around. One day it would be floating on the right side. The next day it would be floating in the middle of the bowl. It wouldn’t be swimming around, but it would be floating in different places.
Yes, our findings did support our hypothesis because we assumed that the isolated fish, with nothing in its bowl, would be affected the most. It was affected the most in the sense that it didn’t eat its food at all and it stayed at the bottom of the tank since it was put in there. The isolated fish ended up dying after 4 weeks of being in the bowl, like we had predicted. The bowl that carried the two fish with plants and rocks swam around its bowl and ate their food as they should. One hypothesis that we didn’t foresee was the fish that was in a bowl by itself with plants and rocks acted almost the same as the two fish in one bowl. It ate its food, as normal, but it stayed majority of the days, on the right side of the bowl.
We set out to test out how fishes were affected by the environments that they lived in by isolating one fish with nothing in its bowl except for water. Two fishes in one bowl with a plant and rocks at the bottom, and then another fish in one bowl with a plant in it with rocks at the bottom. The objective was to show that the environment a fish, or any other aquatic animal is affected by the environment it is placed in. Yes, our findings did support our hypothesis because we assumed that the isolated fish, with nothing its bowl, would be affected the most. It was affected the most in the sense that it didn’t eat its food at all and it stayed at the bottom of the tank since it was put in there. The isolated fish ended up dying after 4 weeks of being in the bowl. The bowl that carried the two fish with plants and rocks swam around its bowl and ate their food as they should. One hypothesis that we didn’t foresee was the fish that was in a bowl by itself with plants and rocks acted almost the same as the two fish in one bowl. It ate its food, as normal, but it stayed majority of the days, on the right side of the bowl.
There weren’t really any errors with our experiment, everything went as planned. Also the only confusing variable to us was why was the single fish acting different than the 2 fish even though they were in the same type of tank with the same rocks and plants in it, this might have been because of the number of fish, something we didn’t really plan on investigation.
Ways we could improve our investigation and the quality of the data is if the question wasn’t so general. Rather than having how different environments affect the lives of fish we could’ve made it more specific such as how did it affect their eating habits or swimming patterns. In that way, we could’ve been more sure on what we were looking for instead of just taking pictures and finding the differences which is harder because every fish acts different no matter the environment. Also we could have maybe carried our experiment on for a longer amount of time, this would then give us more accurate results when looking at the lifetime of the fish.
Alternative explanations and conclusions that could be pulled is that the isolated fish wasn’t tolerate of the food that it was given to eat and could be a possibility of why it didn’t eat and ended up dying in the end. The fish that was by itself stayed on the right side of the bowl possibly because something was blocking it from moving and swimming freely on the other side of the bowl.
In conclusion, our experiment started off with buying the fish. We had some problems when we set up the fish bowls, but eventually we had an isolated fish in one bowl, a bowl with two fish in with plants and rocks, and the last bowl had one fish with plants and rocks. We decided to take picture every two day of how the fish reacted in their environment, and that way it affected their movement as in swimming. We also looked at their food consumption and how or if they ate the food they were giving which was small little pellets. After about the ninth day of photos which we took photos every two days, the isolated fish sadly died, since it didn’t eat. We think it might have been depressed, the behaviours of the other fish were all different. The bowl with two fish in it, they were always swimming around their bowl, the other fish was on the right side of the bowl which stayed there all the time. We think it stayed on that side of the bowl since the fish bowl with two fish was on the left of him so he didn’t want to go near the it. One thing we learned was that not only does the surrounding environments affect the fish but also if the fish is lonely in the tank and the amount of fish in each tank. We can back this up by looking at how the 2 fish in the tank with décor acted compared to the single fish in the same environment. The single fish acted much different the than other 2, in a negative way.So concluding our experiment we have learned with our findings that yes, the environment surrounding a fish does affect its life time and behaviour as does the number of fish in each tank.
One fish in the bowl with plants/rocks Two fish in one bowl Isolated fish
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