Biology DOOM??

EmoJellyfish

My Biology teacher is making us do an experiment next week with live Goldfish. I want to know if this will kill them.

They are in a small glass. We will be counting the amount of times their mouths open and the amount of time their gills move. Then the glass will be placed in a glass a little larger than the one they are in. The space around it will be filled with crushed ice, dropping the temperature ten degrees celcius. (or to ten degrees celcius, I couldn't hear well.) to see how it effects them. I do not see point to the experiment. Will this kill these poor things?

I am in the process of e-mailing him to explain why I do not want to participate. Any details I should include to make my reasoning more convincing?

Thank you,
Charlene

EmoJellyfish

I was going to include the high ammonia levels being in such a small container will produce due to the fact that Goldfish produce high loads of ammonia because of their lack of a stomach, shock from the quick change in water temperature, nitrAte and nitrite levels being high due to lack of cycling, and stress from all of the above and more. I want to make this as factual and convincing as possible. The rest of the class is stoked and I know he will not cancel the experiment, but I just cannot take part in such an act of in my eyes, cruelty. The Goldfish he showed us was sitting in the bottom of the glass gasping for air.

Gav

Ask him what it is he plans on doing with the fish after the experimet. How many fish will be used in the experiment?
They may only have a memory span of 3 seconds, but every 3 secs is a new adventure waiting for them as they explore their 'new' surroundings (well as much of it as possible in such a short time), also see if he realises they can live for 25 years+ and ask him how he would like it if someone cut his lifespan by 50% or more, but please do not word what I have said in the way I have said it, I don't want to be responsible for you gettin papped out of your Biology class lmao.

EmoJellyfish

I don't know how many fish. Three seconds or three years this is not right. He says he has arranged homes for the fish, but I don't think they will be proper. I have written three paragraphs already and have only covered 15% of what I plan on telling him. I may post it when I'm done, I may not. I wish Lupin would chime in here.

EmoJellyfish

So far I've gone over the following:
Parameters
Lack of Stomachs
Socialization
Tank Size
Full-Grown Size
Why they are kept in small bowls
Hardiness
Temperature
PWCs

Still to come:
Feeding
Testing the Water
Shock
No Planted Tanks

Can anyone think of anything else I should add?

aunt kymmie

Your biology teacher sounds like my juinor high school science teacher. He placed a small Goldfish in a very large petri dish and shot the image up on the blackboard via an overhead projector. His experiment was to then add alcohol to see how a drunk fish behaves...as if we kids didn't already know what alcohol does to the brain.

I'd PM Lupin for some advice. Good Luck.

EmoJellyfish

That's horrid. I'm a freshman myself and this is the third week of school.

ALSO: I think my Oscar is killing my snails!! I woke up to my ivory mystery snail having a chunk missing from it's shell and it's door pulled very far inside. My Oscar is playing with it like a ball! Hes picking it up and throwing it! My larger gold mystery snail is fine. My Oscar is 4" and killed two 3" pleco already. My friend needs to get rid of an 8" pleco, would he kill it too??

Twistersmom

If the Oscar has already killed to plecos, I would not try adding another one.

EmoJellyfish

Those were smaller ones. A larger one wouldn't be okay?

Twistersmom

You already know that your Oscar does not like tank mates. Why put another fish in there to get picked on and live in fear?