This week was a long week. Both Erica and Julie were out for the entire week, so I had the entire lab to myself. Half of my mornings were spent testing water. I stole water from the crab lab and used it in the spectrophotometer and Frank to calculate the water's pH and total alkalinity. I managed to get the entire process—setting up to cleaning up—down to one hour and twenty minutes. In my other time, I have been preparing my isopod experiments and taking care of our hundreds of crabs. The crabs are fed every other day, but they constantly molt; twice a day I remove the molts and remains of the eaten, freshly-molted crabs. Since implementing a feeding schedule, I've noticed that the crabs have become slightly less cannibalistic, but they still reliably eat each other. My isopods have been put in isolation. There are 33 containers housing an isopod. I have found no effective way to get water to every container, so I must replace the water every other day. Changing 33 buckets of water takes a surprisingly long time, but it's easier than hooking up 33 hoses. Most of the isopods are doing fine in their new homes—one keeps escaping from his bucket and out to the bucket holder. As far as the testing goes, I haven't been able to gather any data because my y-maze broke. I popped one of the laminar flow tubes off the maze, but it wasn't a big issue. I have been working with one of the maintenance men, James, to engineer better buckets for my seaweed. To do this, we had to pop off the back of my tubes for bigger nozzles and drill a few holes in some plastic tubs. Once the glue and sealant are dry, I can collect olfactory data.
Next week I will have my olfactory data and will start collecting visual data.
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About MeMy name is Natalie Thompson and I am from Colorado but live in Oregon. I'm interested in marine invertebrates and am always down for experiencing and learning new things. Archives
August 2018
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