Re: [Killietalk] Research projects

[Bill Martin <bill_martin at und_nodak.edu>]

Hi Jeremy,
At 10:36 AM 5/6/2008 , you wrote:
>
>I was hoping to get a few ideas on some research projects that I  
>could have some of my students work on at the high school level.  
>These would be juniors and seniors and they would have 6 to 8 months  
>to start and complete their projects. This is an open topic  
>scientific research class, where most students lean towards physics  
>or chemistry. I would like to boost the biology side of things, and I  
>think killifish would be a great model specimen. I am trying to think  

>of a few possible ideas that I could use to help get them started,  
>then let them run with it.

I have lot?s of ideas for research projects for fish.  Not many can be done
with killifish and some involve physiology, some genetics and quite a few
on fish behavior.  Some would involve little more than effort while others
in the right hands could win money for college.  My feeble attempt at
influencing the sex of swordtails before they were born with methyl
testosterone was enough to get me into the semifinals of the Westinghouse
(now Intel) Science Talent Search and paid for a substantial portion of
four years of college.  Years later some very similar research succeeded in
producing 100% males that were fertile and led to the rewriting of the
genetics of sex determination especially swordtails and platies.

The idea for killifish is similar to the one already mentioned.  But trying
to influence sex through pH, temperature or another environmental factor
will probably involve too much time and work.  I once lost all my male
gularus and was left with four females that all had previously spawned for
me.  I kept them in the same tank and after six weeks, one started to morph
into a male and actually spawned with the others.  Using methyl
testosterone, try to induce sex reversal in female killifish that had
previously produced eggs.  You can be sure that you will get some visible
effects but the real test is breeding the treated females back to untreated
females and looking for fertile eggs.  You can extend it to investigating
the sex ratio of any fry you get.

I suspect that within several months you would succeed in producing fry and
in six months get a 50/50 sex ratio fathered by a fish that at one time
produced eggs.  

Email me if you want more ideas regarding angel fish genetics, territorial
behavior or inter species reactions.

Bill Martin



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