The Effect of the Concentration of Salt in Water on the Activity of Brine Shrimp

Table: 15
Experimentation location: Home
Regulated Research (Form 1c): No
Project continuation (Form 7): No

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Abstract:

The salinity of the water did affect the activity of the brine shrimp, the farther away from the optimal water salinity in the tanks, the lower the activity of the brine shrimp. I think that this happened because the brine shrimp couldn’t handle having too much or too little salt in their system. A source of error would be having too much water in each bucket for it affects the concentration of the dilute (salt).

The farther away from the optimal water salinity in the tanks, the lower the activity of the brine shrimp.

Additional Project Information

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Project files
 

Research Plan:

 

PROCEDURE:

  1. Make your special tanks by cutting a hole the width of the tubing in the lid, attach one end of the tubing to the airstone and put the other end through the lid and put silicone caulk around the hole in the lid to form an airtight seal. 
  2. Then, to break the seal, (you don’t want air trapped in the tank) cut a hole about the size of a quarter in the lid.
  3. Attach the end of tubing that does not have the airstone to the aerator.
  4. Fill the buckets with 1 gallon of water.
  5. Have your tanks at a temperature of about 82°F (28°C)
  6. Put 8 tablespoons of salt in two buckets, 10 tablespoons of salt in two buckets and 12 tablespoons of salt in the remaining two buckets. 
  7. “pH should be on the alkaline side, from 8.0-9.0. As pH decreases fewer eggs will hatch. pH Adjusting agents should always be on hand as well as water test strips or fluid tests to monitor chemistry in between and after water changes.”
  8. Set up a lamp “A continual source of aeration and good illumination increases the rate of hatching. Fluorescent lamps are best for the light source, but any 60-100 watt bulb placed a few inches from your hatch cone will work fine. Be cautious of a light source which might overheat your hatchery!”
  9. Turn on the aerator.
  10. Monitor the tanks everyday (up until their death) by pipetting them onto a petri dish and examining them with a microscope, then take notes on what you see. (Film what you see in the microscope for evidence)

Safety Precautions - 

  1.  Make sure the aerator is functioning throughout the experiment so that the shrimp have enough oxygen in the water.
  2. Be careful when working with salt, for it can irritate your skin or eyes.

 

 

 

Questions and Answers

1. What was the major objective of your project and what was your plan to achieve it? The major objective of my plan was to prove an idea that I had.

       a. Was that goal the result of any specific situation, experience, or problem you encountered? The goal was a result of me wondering whether salinity affected activity of brine shrimp at different depths of water. I was at an aquarium and after seeing a tank of brine shrimp, I saw that salinity is somewhat dependent on water depth, meaning that at different depths of water the salinity differs. And I was wondering if that mean that brine shrimp had different activity rates at different depths.

       b. Were you trying to solve a problem, answer a question, or test a hypothesis? I was trying to test my hypothesis that brine shrimp had different activity rates at different water salinities. 

 

2. What were the major tasks you had to perform in order to complete your project? The most major task I had to perform in my experiment was keeping up with the brine shrimp and their health everyday.

       a. For teams, describe what each member worked on.

 

3. What is new or novel about your project? During research, I discovered that very few (if any) people had performed this experiment before. Additionally, it seemed to be somewhat of a commonly asked question.

       a. Is there some aspect of your project's objective, or how you achieved it that you haven't done before? This was my first time taking care of brine shrimp before and it was definitely a challenge documenting their change and health.

       b. Is your project's objective, or the way you implemented it, different from anything you have seen? This project differed from what I have ever seen because of the fact that it was done by someone my age, usually I find that studies like this are performed by trained adults accustomed to the field.

       c. If you believe your work to be unique in some way, what research have you done to confirm that it is? I believe, after researching, that my project is unique due to the fact that I didn't see that it had ever been done before.

 

4. What was the most challenging part of completing your project? The most challenging part of completing my project was the work I had to do to find their activity rate, I eventually found that if I adjusted my microscope a certain way and configured my phone in a way that allowed me to properly videotape their movement, I could monitor their activity, and even after that I still encountered trouble with documentation

      a. What problems did you encounter, and how did you overcome them? A problem I encountered in my experiment (like stated in last question), was finding a way to properly film their activity. I overcame the problem by fashioning a tripod out of other tripods and stands.

      b. What did you learn from overcoming these problems? By overcoming the problem, I discovered that I could solve problems if I put enough thought into it.

 

5. If you were going to do this project again, are there any things you would you do differently the next time? If I could do this project again, I would probably do a trial shrimp tank to properly prepare for the duties I would gain. 

 

6. Did working on this project give you any ideas for other projects? Working on my experiment gave me the idea that I should do another experiment with aquatic creatures. It was quite fun.

 

7. How did COVID-19 affect the completion of your project? COVID-19 affected the completion of my project by stopping me from easily and safely purchasing scientific products like petri dishes or pipettes.