Experimental Setup

First, let me preface this blog: I'm writing it for me. It's basically going to be a log of what's done when as far as my summer research experiment is concerned, so if anyone asks me questions about it when I'm presenting the experiment or something, it'll be easier for me to remember what happened. I'm not planning to talk about my experience at UF very much at all. As such, for you random reader passers-by: Don't expect anything too interesting. Though, if you really want to read it, you might learn a little about how scientific research is performed--I'll be learning it at the same time.

But, on to the entry.

Today was a hell of a day. Got in at 10AM, got out at 6PM. But, I'm definitely happy about it--we spent today cleaning out aquariums, cleaning gravel, and putting said gravel in said aquariums so we can start the experiment (hopefully) on Friday. We've got 7 set up--4 are going to act as pair forming aquariums, the other 3 will be the choice-making decisions. We might end up setting a few more up tomorrow, when Samantha gets more gravel.

Wait, what am i talking about? Choice making tanks? Pair forming tanks? What the hell?

Well, here's how our experiment is going to work. My part of the experiment involves defense response to predation: We're going to have pairs of convict cichlids together in the pair forming tanks, and we'll let them breed and lay eggs, which we'll let hatch and become free-swimming before we initiate the experiment.

In the control tanks, I'll use a predator model (a 3" long picture of a tilapia on an acrylic rod, basically) and simulate a predator attacking without actually taking any of the young out. (This will be our good parents, for the later part of the experiment)

In the experimental tanks, I'll use the same predator model, except I'll slowly take out half of the fry over the course of a week. (This simulates a bad parent)

My experiment will be testing to see if removing the fry causes the parent to attack the model more or less. It could go either way, really--either the parents will think, "Hey, my kids are getting taken away, this sucks, I'm gonna kick this guy's ass", or they'll think "Well, most of the kids are already gone... I'd better save my energy for the next time I mate."

Once that's done, Samantha's part of the experiment begins. We'll take the pairs out, and put them in a "choice" tank with two nests and another male with partitions separating them. We'll let them acclimate to the environment, then we'll take the partitions out. What we hope to see is that, with the bad father (the one where I take out half the young), the female will be more likely to change mates than in the pairs with a good father.

So basically it's all a test to see whether predation affects sexual selection.

My part of the experiment stands alone--that is, it's publishable by itself given good results, but hopefully the whole experiment will work, allowing Samantha and I to put our experiments together, which we can publish as a "full picture" article in a better journal. (Animal Behavior anybody?)

At the very least, this beats what most of the people in this REU have been doing, at least the chemists. I got here Monday, and we might get our experiment underway on Friday. Most of the people I know got here last Monday and still aren't getting started with their setups.