ds9scienceofficer
Supporting Member
Hello all, finally starting my tank journal!
I posted about my research in my welcome post, but I'll sum it up here because its been a while. I'm a high school student in the South Bay, and I'm doing research on Melibe leonina, a local species of sea slug! Since I last talked about this project, I've gained two lab partners and have started big work on protocol writing and tank design! We're in the works of getting in our materials (live sand and such), and have found a source for our slugs! Huge shout out out to Monterey Abalone Company for helping us out. Hopefully I'll have some pics to attach soon :3
Goals for now:
- Getting our chiller!!! Still the biggest struggle for us, as these things are expensive and most people selling them second hand won't accept returns if the product is broken, which is a deal breaker for our supervisor. If anyone knows anyone looking to get a chiller off their hands, please please please let us know!
- Begin divider construction; Our tank is divided into a section for juvenile rearing (culture jars, etc) and an area for adults (seagrass + live sand bed) and although we'll only have adults in the beginning, were hoping to have them lay some eggs that will hatch out, so we need to build a divider. We landed on a mesh divider with an overflow slot above to prevent any blocking that may happen from the seagrass. Better to plan for that now then to come in to a overflowing tank later lol
- Writing future protocols for our research! We're ultimetly looking to examine the effect of advanced heat, and if we have time lowered pH, on larval development. Ultimately we're looking to get a better picture of how this species may react to climate change.
Hopefully next time I post an update, I'll have some photos of our work! Hope this is interesting for some of you, and that you're all having a good September so far :]
I posted about my research in my welcome post, but I'll sum it up here because its been a while. I'm a high school student in the South Bay, and I'm doing research on Melibe leonina, a local species of sea slug! Since I last talked about this project, I've gained two lab partners and have started big work on protocol writing and tank design! We're in the works of getting in our materials (live sand and such), and have found a source for our slugs! Huge shout out out to Monterey Abalone Company for helping us out. Hopefully I'll have some pics to attach soon :3
Goals for now:
- Getting our chiller!!! Still the biggest struggle for us, as these things are expensive and most people selling them second hand won't accept returns if the product is broken, which is a deal breaker for our supervisor. If anyone knows anyone looking to get a chiller off their hands, please please please let us know!
- Begin divider construction; Our tank is divided into a section for juvenile rearing (culture jars, etc) and an area for adults (seagrass + live sand bed) and although we'll only have adults in the beginning, were hoping to have them lay some eggs that will hatch out, so we need to build a divider. We landed on a mesh divider with an overflow slot above to prevent any blocking that may happen from the seagrass. Better to plan for that now then to come in to a overflowing tank later lol
- Writing future protocols for our research! We're ultimetly looking to examine the effect of advanced heat, and if we have time lowered pH, on larval development. Ultimately we're looking to get a better picture of how this species may react to climate change.
Hopefully next time I post an update, I'll have some photos of our work! Hope this is interesting for some of you, and that you're all having a good September so far :]
