Potential biologist looking for advice

[angeljazz711]

Hi. I stumbled upon this forum while trying to learn more about fishkeeping. I have two goldfish and a betta (each has his/her own tank). But anyway, in order to get my Bachelor's degree, I need to do this sophisticated senior project. I witnessed a lot of ethics violations concerning fish care at my school, so I wanted to do a behavioral/ethics-oriented fish experiment. I wanted to get feedback from hardcore fish enthusiasts like the people of this forum. My dream is to introduce interesting and safe objects to my fish (and perhaps store fish) to stimulate their senses and maybe allow them to have a more-enriched life. I saw fish at my school with NOTHING in their tanks, and I felt really sorry for them. So, this experiment is going to be designed as a wake-up call, that organisms (even if used for science) should have good, stimulating lives. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of objects I could use based on the behaviors of their own fish... I was thinking short PVC pipe to maybe hide in or play in, maybe a bright plastic floating ball they could poke at, something moving outside of the tank that resembles possible food items... I'm not sure what else fish might "like" that is safe to test. Any input is appreciated. Nothing is "stupid."

Thanks for reading!

 

[Rbishop]

Welcome to AC!

 

[psyche]

This sounds like a good idea. Hit me up if you need more references for fish environmental enrichment. Laboratories now routinely give their zebrafish floating plastic plants.

What you could do is an ethogram showing how the fish act now and of their is any abnormal behavior. Add enrichment tailored to the species, and then measure it again to see if their behavior becomes more like a wild fish would show/more normal.

 

[ktrom13]

Hm... Sounds really cool. Ive heard of this thing called the Walstad( idk if i spelled it correctly) Method and its something you should consider looking up. Personally since ive had live plants ive noticed my fish start to become more active, at least my shy fish. So maybe add some floating plants- fake or live- and PVC pipes would also work for benthic fish.

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