Research Fish and Stories

[Tifftastic]

I'm about to start another series of experiments and finally getting broods for my current ones, so I have a feeling I'll be taking more pictures. As well as having some stories, so I thought I would just create a new thread for that. I'll update it as I get more stuff.

Today I needed to split my sub-adult Lamprologus ocellatus into smaller groups to try to get some breeding pairs established. They're just about there, some of the males are getting those nice colourful cheek patches and starting to act territorial of shells. In order to properly move them and due to the project requirements, I needed to get rid of the shells. Now, getting these guys out of shells is incredibly difficult. I had tried a few different methods, but ultimately had to go with putting them under a mild anaesthesia. It works really well, they start feeling funny (its mostly ethanol, so they get drunk basically) and they swim out of the shell. I grab them with a gloved hand and move them to highly oxygenated fresh tank water and they make a full recovery within seconds to minutes. There's always one stubborn male though that falls asleep inside the shell and has to be gently shook out of it. Luckily, because of the anaesthesia, they can't splay their fins and stay lodged in, so a couple gentle twists of the shell and the sleeping fish falls out. He was recovered in about a minute and a half =). All in all it was a fairly stress free protocol.
So, here they are! My seven stubborn little buggers. I ended up with four groups of seven. I'll be watching them closely throughout the week to wait for a male to take over and I'll start consolidating fish to go to pet homes.

 

[Rbishop]

and that aggressive snail is trying to invade their tank...

 

[Tifftastic]

Well, that's what happens when you get too drunk I guess

 

[Tifftastic]

Being a Biologist is not Glamorous

Today I spent my day in the basement of my building. It houses all of our aquarium rooms and basic equipment storage (tanks, office furniture, polystyrene, fish tank stands etc).

I had three goals today:
1) a "shelter" experiment on a group of 60 day old Lamprologus ocellatus. This consists of placing a PVC tube with a cap (which they've never been exposed to) on one end of a small tank. Release the fish from a plastic cup and allow them to explore for 10 min. If the fish enters the shelter that time is recorded, then when the leave the shelter that time is recorded. At the end of 10 min I drop a plastic binder clip into the center of the tank, to see if they will flee to the shelter when startled. Today I did my fourth group. So far not a single fish (out of 20) has entered the shelter. Which I find interesting as they are shell dwelling fish. I'm aiming to see if different rearing environments will result in them inspecting a novel shelter differently.


(You can just barely see the baby fish in the top left hand corner. They're so tiny. This one was only 14.2 mm)

2) An "open field test" on a group of 90 day old L. ocellatus. This is basically transferring the fish to a tank they've never been in and letting them explore for 20 min, while recording them. Later you can analyse the videos for how much the fish moves, a bolder fish is more active in an environment it has never been in while a shy fish is less active. I want to see if fish that have different rearing environments vary in boldness.


(You can see how fancy biology is lol)

3) final and easiest is to catch some Tropheops "red cheek" that the mother just released and measure them. Then measure the egg tumbler reared siblings to compare. Does rearing environment change development rates? Spoiler, probably.

Now that's the scientific explanation. What this really looks like, well for goal one it's just fish in a critter keeper and me using the stop watch on my phone. The simplicity of the shelter and the "novel object" (binder clip) have already been explained. For goal two. . . Well I have critter keepers on top of a solid white piece of plastic, a piece of grey plastic between them (so I can film two fish at a time) and a GoPro taped, yes TAPED, to a mic stand. Science can be really simple and DIY equipment is my specialty as I have basically no funding.

So at the end of the day I've spent too many hours dealing with 25 C and I kind of smell like fish water and sweat. But it's all worth it in the end.
Also, while I was waiting for the video to finish up I was watching these guys in the tank behind me.

 

[Tifftastic]

Today I'm thanking the gods of biology. My new Dimidiochromis compressiceps have finally started spawning. I've got one female that's had a brood for about a week and a half, so she's due to release in a couple of days. Unfortunately, I didn't catch her soon enough to split the brood, but I'll be able to use the offspring anyway. I also had a second female spawn over the weekend and I guessed she was about 72 hours post fertilisation today, I happened to guess pretty close. I took 13 eggs from her today and they haven't developed eye spots yet, so they're under four days since spawning. They're some of the healthiest looking eggs I've seen in a about a year and I'm incredibly happy. She's got about 20 left that I'm letting her brood. My science is moving forward and it's fantastic! There's nothing like seeing healthy eggs bouncing around.

 

[pbeemer]

perhaps your PVC shell is just too big to make a good hiding place?
perhaps the fierce binderclip is obviously small enough to reach inside to get the little fish, which is why they don't waste the effort to hide?

 

[Tifftastic]

perhaps your PVC shell is just too big to make a good hiding place?
perhaps the fierce binderclip is obviously small enough to reach inside to get the little fish, which is why they don't waste the effort to hide?

I wondered that myself, but two days later they are using them in their tanks and actually going in. They just are not afraid. They don't even dart away when you drop something heavy into the tank. Nothing bothers them.

 

[fishorama]

Tiff, I'm following along & interested, I just don't have any questions or comments... yet.

 

[Tifftastic]

My new eye biters are finally getting used to me and don't hide when I go down to the aquarium room. I sat and watched them for a while the other day and managed to get a good picture of my male.

 

[SnakeIce]

Given that the shell dwellers use small spaces to hide, and that lack of movement may be a protective strategy, (lots of kinds of eyes are tuned to changes in the visual field i.e. movement) I wonder if their lack of startle response is due to a smaller "personal space" or if they use non movement as a protective strategy no matter what.

Would dropping the foreign object closer to them make any difference?