12/15/13

Today I officially started my olive rockfish project. I went to the aquarist ally and got frozen smelt and a box of frozen squid. While the smelt was easy to thaw, just had to put it in a pitcher of water, the squid was not. I had to let it sit until it became soft enough to cut out one from the block. I actually had to have help with this because I wasn't really sure how to do it at first. Then I had to prepare them. I gutted the smelt and chopped the two up. I had to measure out 0.5 grams smelt, 0.5 grams squid and then 0.5 squid and smelt. Then I had to remove the plants from their tanks and replace it with my inch graphs. I had to be careful though because they jump when they're scared. After this I video taped each for one minute before feeding. Then I fed each fish their assigned food with a feeding stick. Then I took video footage again of each for one minute. Then I drained the tanks until they were low and took pictures of each fish and their graph. Then I filled the tanks back up fully. This all took a really long time because it was my first time doing this all. Andres and I decided that since my fish were bigger than we had originally thought they'd be, we changed the grams of food from 0.5 grams to 1.0 grams.

Olive Rockfish Week 3 Length/Girth (in inches)

1. Ulrich Mohr
   Length:3.526
   Girth: 0.491
2. A.V. Sellwood
   Length: 3.984
   Girth: 0.616
3. Atlantis
   Length: 3.614
   Girth: 0.590
4. Komet
   Length:3.674
   Girth: 0.581
5. M-18
   Length: 3.757
   Girth: 0.569
6. Tirana
   Length: 4.112
   Girth: 0.648
7. B-17
   Length: 3.800
   Girth: 0.600
8. T-34
   Length: 3.700
   Girth: 0.600
9. P-51
   Length: 3.500
   Girth: 0.530

Olive Rockfish Profiles

These are the names of my Olive Rockfish, so in future posts if I call them by number or name you may refer back to here

1. Ulrich Mohr
2. A.V. Sellwood
3. Atlantis
4. Komet
5. M-18
6. Tirana
7. B-17
8. T-34
9. P-51
   

12/08/13

Okay, so I've obviously been neglecting to post my blogs so prepare for the onslaught.Today I was supposed to start my project with the Olive Rockfish, but due to some complications I have to wait until next week. So instead I went to a bio-statistics workshop up in the library. This was actually pretty interesting and helped me figure out  how to interpretate and present my collected data. Besides that, it was pretty much a normal day. I did a.m. feedings, helped with cleaning and p.m. feedings.

12/01/13

So today I fed Jelly Lab in the morning along with the Red Abalone. Then I started to wash out my tanks first with fresh water and then with salt water. After the washing I had to put them in the water tables and start making and connecting the air and water lines. I needed 9 air lines and 9 water lines. It took a really long time to connect the airlines because they were hard to fit over the nozzles. Then I had to go find a lid for my tanks. Andres was a great help and took me to the 'hobbit' room and helped me fins them. Then I had to go catch the Olive Rockfish.... this was also hard because they are fast and like to jump. Plus they're in a dark holding tank so it was hard to see sometimes. But with the help of Daisy and Andres I finally

11/24/13

Alright, today was focused completely upon my tanks! I finished cutting my mesh dividers and then had to start gluing them in. I had to use hot glue, and as anyone who knows me can tell you, I should never touch one of those.... but I got it all glued in even if it isn't very pretty looking. This actually took up the whole day.

11/17/13

I finished bleaching my last tank today. With not nearly as much leaks as the last one. That took a while. then I started cutting mesh to make my dividers. Yep. That pretty much consisted of today. And I did do some afternoon feeding, but today was mostly dedicated to working on my tank.