O B S E R V I N G  F I S H


                        p r o j e c t 1 :: w e e k  1

O B S E R V A T I O N S
Tatiana, Keung and I spent a period of time videotaping, photographing and observing two gold fish in a bowl. After letting the gold fish swim on their own for a period of time, we conducted a series of small experiments attempting to get the goldfish to react to outside stimulus.
My personal observations of the behavior of the gold fish follow. The fish both eagerly swim to the sides of the bowl when I approach for the first time. This is a consistent phenomena that occurs probably because the fish are hoping that I will feed them. Accept for both coming together for food the two fish hardly interact with each other. I noticed that the fish tend to stay in the mid level of the tank, eith exception of when food is put in the tank (and they swim to the surface). The fish are constantly moving, but due to limited room in the pool do not swim very often. The swimming motion seems to be a wriggle across the body from front to back.
The most interesting observation that I had was the breathing/eating motion of the fish. The mouth of the gold fish looks like a suction cup. The fish are constant pushing the entire mouth out and what looks like sucking and then retracted the mouth closed. The same motion is used consistently during swimming and when eating. During feeding, the fish produce many bubbles at the surface, probably because of this sucking action. Since the assignment called fro deconstruction of a motion I have illustrated it below :

E X P E R I M E N T S

 
 The experiments are as follows :

            1. Add Food : At first fish didn't react, but gradually both 
                          fish moved to surface of water and  ate for a 
                          significant period.  Sucking action produced 
                          lots of bubbles.
            
            2. move light source above tank : The fish tended to move 
                          away from the light source to the opposite side
                          of the tank.  However, this result was not 
                          immediate.
            
            3. tap on tank : Fish did not react.
            
            4. place mirror on side of tank : no change in behavior.

            5. rapid hand movement : Fish showed the most dramatic reaction
                          to rapid hand movement.  In each case, both fish
                          swam away very fast.

L I N K

Michael's video and comments on the results.