Hello! Help please!

S

SarahTang84

SarahBubble
Oct 25, 2005
19
0
0
42
Cambridge, UK
Hello! I'm doing a foundation degree in marine aquaculture, and pretty soon I have to come up with a final project idea. I'd like to focus mainly on reef aquariums - fishes, invertebrates, corals etc as that's what I'm really interested in now. My problem is that I don't know what to do with it. I was thinking about looking into something to do with fish (or cleaner shrimp!) behaviour, maybe territorial or predatory? Could anyone help me come up with an idea? :read:

Thank you in advance!

Sarah x :dance:
 
What's your timeline? Are you looking to replicate existing data for documentation, or establish a process for something (ie, aquaculture techniques), or investigate new areas? Lots of stuff for studies...Some thoughts: cultivation of captive bred species (corals, fish, crustaceans, take your pick, there isn't a lot known about a variety of species), identification and cultivation of bacteria within the home aquaria, parasites within the aquarium versus wild populations (tons of options here as well, since there are a number of parasites on corals, fish or crustaceans), or studying a specific species--one of the worms, or pods, for example.
 
What kind of resources will you have? There are lots of things I can think of, but some are more expensive than others.

Here's a possibility with cleaner shrimp. A few years ago, I came across an article that claimed a pair kept together will alternate molts. That is, each will molt every 2 weeks, but staggered by a week, so that the other can inseminate it. It was in Pacific Science, so the quality wasn't fantastic, but I can get the ref if you want it. Anyway, it made me wonder what they do in bigger groups. Does some kind of hierarchy arise, and one shrimp plays the male most often, or is there some kind of alternation? Or maybe it gets completely random, with each shrimp molting on its own schedule and getting inseminated by whoever happens to be nearby.

Another thought is to have a look at the growth/survival of sponges on different commercial food preparations. It would take more tanks, and a supply of sponges of the same species (or one big enough to carve into decent chunks). Other filter feeders may be just as good. There is a serious lack of real information in the hobby about the preferences of filter feeders.

Well, those are a few.
 
Brilliant ideas! :clap:

I have until May to finish the project, and I've been told that the best marks are achieved for investigating 'new' ideas (rather than replicating old experiments), and I think I'd rather do that because it seems like it'd be more interesting!

Mogurnda - I'm really interested in the cleaner shrimp molting idea, (I've been aiming for an 'observational' project idea rather than doing loads of experiments) if you could get me the ref I'd be really grateful, it sounds like just the thing I'm looking for! I'm hoping to get funding from my university, I'm going to get in touch with them asap to find out what kind of scale I can do my project on, I've already priced up equipment from various sites so I have a vague idea of what to expect!

Thank you so much! :dance2:

Sarah
 
Here's the reference.

G.C. Fiedler (1998) Functional, Simultaneous Hermaphroditism in Female-Phase Lysmata amboinensis (Decapoda: Caridea: Hippolytidae) Pac Sci 52:161.
"Several species of hippolytid shrimp of the genus Lysmata are described as protandrous hermaphrodites, with speculation that some Lysmata are simultaneous hermaphrodites and/or store exogenous sperm. The objective of this study was to ascertain the presence of simultaneous hermaphroditism in L. amboinensis De Man. For this experiment, four pairs of female-phase L. amboinensis were isolated until each shrimp spawned two fertile clutches of eggs. For two of the four pairs, pair-mates were then separated and isolated in an identical fashion. Paired individuals continued to spawn and hatch fertile eggs. isolated individuals spawned only infertile eggs. Paired shrimp also synchronized their molt cycles in a staggered fashion, such that individuals alternated sexual roles. Histological and morphological examination shows that each female-phase individual possessed an active male and female portion of the gonad with corresponding gonoducts. The results indicate that this species is a functional, simultaneous hermaphrodite. Previously, this pattern has not been adequately described in any decapod crustacean."
 
I've already got some questions!

I've kept freshwater tropicals before but never marines, what would you say is the bare minimum equipment I will need on top of the obvious filter, heater etc? I've read about skimmers etc but some say you need them and some say you don't. I'm sure it would all be clearer in a shop but I can't get to one at the moment :dive:

Thanks again!

Sarah :dance2:
 
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