Recording/ Analyzing Data

The way we recorded our data was by taking daily notes at the fishes' feeding time. We separated a notebook into three sections for the three weeks we experimented. Every day, as the fish were eating, we would analyze their eating habits. These are some of the things we noticed:

The goldfish were very responsive to our project.  From the very first moment we held the black card up to the aquarium they curiously swam towards it.  The fish at first were too interested to even eat.  The second day the fish noticed the food and stayed near the black card for the rest of the day.  They continued this behavior for several days, only noticing the food when it sank to the bottom.  If anything they understood that the food fell from the right side of the aquarium, but they did not see the food floating in the ring above them.  This same day one of the three fish died unexpectedly for reasons unrelated to our experiment. The behavior remained the same until the following week when we taped the card on the left side of the aquarium.

  The second week the goldfish swam to the right side looking for food.  Only after the food fell to the bottom of the left side did the fish eat it.  The second day the fish swam to the card looking for food.  Only one of the fish swam to the other side looking for food.  The next few days the fish stayed mostly on the right side but swam over to the left side when the card was held up.  The third week we alternated the cards to see what they had truly learned.

            At first the fish went to the right side of the aquarium even though the card was on the left side.  The second day both fish were waiting on the left side.  One fish went to the right side when he saw the card.  The next day the same fish went to the side the card was held to.  We stood on the right side of the aquarium and held the card to the left side.  The fish immediately swam to the right side.  The next few days the fish swam to the side we were standing by and ignored the card.  Only when the fish could not see us did they swim to the card.