Observing the Operculum Movement of Goldfish Under Different Environments

Introduction Water pollution is almost widespread all throughout the world and it affects a lot of living things, health-wise and environment- wise. The operculum is a hard, bony flap covering and protecting the gills. For fishes, the operculum is vital in obtaining oxygen. It’s movement and the movement of the mouth floor are coordinated to produce a stream of water, in through the mouth, over the gills, and out of the operculum.

If the operculum is damaged, the fish will have difficulty breathing. This experiment aims to see what happens to the movement of the fishes’ operculum when immersed in a different/polluted environment.

Objective/Problem What will the happen to the fishes’ operculum if it is immersed in a different/polluted environment?

Hypothesis Null: ◦ - There is no significant effect in the fishes’ operculum movement if immersed in a polluted environment. Alternative: - There is a significant effect in the fishes’ operculum movement if immersed in a polluted environment.

Materials 2 goldfish 3 liter set 2 thermometers 1 stirring rod 1 graduated cylinder 700 ml of tap water 5 g of detergent

Methods After filling the liter sets with 700 ml of tap water, we took the temperature of the two liter sets. Liter Set Temperature 127 degrees celcius 2

The second liter set had 5 g of detergent mixed in and had it’s temperature taken again after 2 minutes. Liter SetTemperature 1 27 degrees celcius 2

The two goldfish have been placed in the liter sets without detergent and the liter set with detergent. Their operculum movement have been counted and observed for 2 minutes and the results have been recorded.

Results The operculum movement of the goldfish in the water with detergent was significantly greater than the one in the water without detergent. Liter SetOperculum Movement 1 55 flaps per minute 2 68 flaps per minute

After 2 minutes, the fish in the liter set with detergent is removed and placed in the third liter set with clean tap water and was observed for the rest of the day. The following observations are as follows. Its’ head enlarged. After 2 minutes, gills had started to protrude and bleed. The fish had started to jump and thrash around. 3 minutes later, it stopped thrashing. 1 minute later, blood is excreted through the operculum. The fish has recovered but now moves languidly. At 9:20 AM, the fish is dead.

Discussion Due to the fact that the water enters the fish through the operculum, the water with the detergent entered the same way and may have possibly damaged the other breathing organs of the fish. This has been supported by the fact that the second fish’s operculum has seen to be bleeding after it’s transfer to the clean water to enable it to recover.

The detergent may have damaged the fish’s gill filaments to have caused it to protrude from under the fish’s operculum. The damage to these filaments made it more difficult for the water that entered the fish to be properly expelled and it ended up circulating to and fro the fish’s breathing organs which may have lead to it’s death.

This goes to show that if ever detergents or any other form of contaminants ever goes in the water, it may affect other fishes in the same way it affected the goldfish. And since detergents are an example of organic water pollutants, this may just happen in the near future.

Conclusion Therefore, the group has concluded that there is a significant effect in the fishes’ operculum movement if immersed in a polluted environment.

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Authors: Group Three BESARIO, Vince DIAZ, Cherie Loriel GO, Amiel Bruisse URIARTE, Dua Aeka