My First
Aquarium:
How
many times has this happened to you? You go to a local carnival and play that
game where you try to throw ping-pong balls into little brandy glasses on a
table. If your ball gets into one of those glasses, you win the prize - a
bright orange goldfish swimming around in a tiny cup of water. So, you take the
fish home in a plastic bag and when you get to the house you realize that all
you have to put it into is a large mayonnaise jar. You wash out the mayonnaise
jar, fill it with cold tap water and pour the fish in. Now it's swimming around
in the jar as happy as can be!! You might even add some bread to give it food,
but you notice it is not eating. It's getting late so you go to bed wishing the
fish "good night". The next morning you find what typically happens
to thousands of these ping-pong carnival goldfish each year: it's now swimming
near the top of the water and slowly gasping for air. It is definitely not
looking healthy! To make matters worse, the bread you had put into the jar the
night before is all soggy and the water is turning cloudy. A few days later,
the fish is floating belly up with a wide goggle eyed stare, quite dead to say
the least!! I really wonder how often this story repeats itself across America!
My
Introduction to Science:
I've
been interested in fish since I was five years old and I regret to say that
I've been guilty of the very scenario described above numerous times in my
life. But, over the years, my fascination with fish and aquariums has led me to
learn a lot about the art of fish keeping and the science that goes with it. In
this article I'd like to discuss with you some of the aspects of fish keeping
and how this hobby relates to scientific disciplines as chemistry, animal
physiology, biochemistry, field ecology and even microbiology. For convenience
this article will only discuss freshwater systems.
