Aquaculture: the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions.
PS 28's Adventures in Aquaculturing!
The Mosquitos...or how it all began
One one of our first visits to the reservoir, we came home COVERED with mosquito bites! How could our school achieve its goal of making the reservoir a place to relax, learn, and enjoy if visitors would be attacked by mosquitos? Our teachers challenged us to find a way to do something about the mosquitos. We challenged ourselves todo something to decrease the mosquito population at the reservoir. Little did we know that that would start us down a path that led to a project bigger and better than we ever could have imagined!
Before we began, we needed to know just how many mosquitos there actually were at the reservoir. We headed over to the reservoir to collect water samples. Back at school, we examined the samples under microscopes to count the mosquito larvae in our sample. Considering it was late October, we only found three! But what we did encounter while looking for larvae was a swarm of adult mosquitoes concentrated in a small area with standing water.We filmed a video that day while collecting samples in a 20 square meter section of the reservoir. We watched the video and paused it to count and estimate the number of adult mosquitoes within the swarm. Our estimated average was 628 mosquitoes within the 5 x 4 foot section. Based on our own observations from our trips to the site and using a Google Earth image, we estimated that the reservoir had 34 similar sized locations that would be ideal for mosquito reproduction. As a result, we multiplied our population density of 628 mosquitoes by 34 and resulted in an estimated population density of mosquitoes within the entire reservoir at 21,352 individuals! No wonder we had some many mosquito bites last year! Who would want to share their nature retreat with that many mosquitoes?
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Why there is a need for mosquito control |
The Aquaculture Labs
(click each picture to see more pictures.)
Aquaculture Room # 1After extensive research, we decided that fathead minnows would be the best all natural, sustainable mosquito control that we could introduce. Because it was fish, and not chemicals, it would not be bad for the environment. If we were successful in raising them and releasing them into the reservoir, they would hopefully eat the mosquito larvae in the water. They would also hopefully reproduce on their own in the reservoir water and their population would continue to grown. Also, the fish would be food for different birds and animals that might visit the reserervoir, thereby increasing the biodiversity of the area. So we gathered some fish tanks and an old pool and set up our Aquaculture Room in the storeroom of our school's Science Lab.
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Aquaculture Room # 2Newark Museum heard about our project, and donated their old 500 gallon aquariums. Our principal offered an unused storage room in the basement as our new "Aquaculture Room #2". We got to work setting it up properly. The Project Reservoir Team quickly began the process of getting them cleaned, painted, and ready for water. We moved some of our upstairs tanks to the room and built special grow stations under lights that could stay on for hours. Now we were in business! On December December 1, 2011 we filled up buckets and began the process of filling the tanks.
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Keeping Track of the Data
We kept data about our adventures in minnow breeding. We carefully tracked when and what each tank was fed, if the water was changed, the number of fish and/or eggs present, and any general observations we had. We had many challenges. In order to make sure we had a good ratio of males to female, we had to identify gender. Have you ever figured out the sex of a fish? It's not so easy! We learned that males are darker in color, have "pointier" fins, and a larger head. When the males are ready to reproduce, they get a dark stripe down their body. We became VERY involved in the reproductive habits of fat head minnows. We also had to experiment with the optimal water temperature, lighting, water aeration and oxygenation, and food source. Our initial success rate was not that great, as we only had 7 babies out of approximately 500 eggs laid. However, we now feel that we have the best conditions for reproduction, and have a large population of active adult minnows ready to breed. We expect that come spring, our minnow population is going to explode!
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Bringing Up Baby...They eat WHAT???When we started aquaculturing, we assumed the fathead minnows would eat fish food. After losing quite a number of fish, we realized that we needed a better food source...one that was similar to what the minnows would eat in the wild. Our research lead us to a microorganism called paramecium. The only problem? We now had to breed them too! So our aquaculturing program expanded to include the breeding of paramecium as a food source for our fathead minnows. This means feeding the paramecium yeast and wheat germ and twice daily sampling of the tanks and examination under microscopes to check that the population is increasing.
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Videos produced by the Project Reservoir Team explaining the Aquaculturing Program
Three of the Project Reservoir students explaining their experiences in the aquaculture of the fathead minnow.
Nick Rentas of New Jersey Pain and Rehabilitation wanted to learn more about Project Reservoir so he scheduled a tour with a few of our specialists! They were very exicted to share their story with an individual from an organization outside that of education. NJ Pain and Rehabilitation was also Project Reservoir's team sponsor for our Community Awareness and Educational day at the reservoir this past June. Nick and others from the organization attended the event and provided each student with a Project Reservoir graphic shirt. Thanks again, NJ Pain and Rehabilitation! |
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Determining gender, Part 1 |
Determining gender, Part 2 |