posted 02-13-2004 06:36 AM         

What type of fish should I get that grow rapidly and will work best in my experiment?

I am using a 50 gal tank and a 5 gallon tank.

posted 02-13-2004 09:57 AM         

Not that I'm your thesis advisor, but what kind of controls are you using and what result are you aiming to achieve.

Do you wish to measure tank size vs fish growth or are you actually looking at stocking levels; inches of fish/gallon vs fish growth. It's not the same thing.

Also, do you intend to measure the effect of concentration on environmental conditions or do you hope to maintain identical conditions in each tank? In either case you will require a fairly thorough testing kit. You might even want to look at ammonia and nitrite tests that can measure below 1ppm range.

Last point, I don't think you should be looking at a large, fast growing fish but a population of moderately sized fish (I'm picturing gouramis or certain barbs) in the 3-4" range. This is for 2 reasons. First of all, evaluation of the average growth rates of two populations will be much more conclusive evidence than the evaluation of two individuals, which could very well grow at 2 different rates in the same conditions for a variety of genetic and health related reasons. Also, when the experiment has yielded it's results, the poor 5 gallon fish can be added to the 55 gallon tank allowing them a decent retirement.