Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

my partner and i are testing the effect of electrolytes on daphnia and we came upon a question. do daphnia swim fast, and if they do are we going to need some kind of thick liquid to slow them down?

thanks,
Aaron

This site has an animation of a swimming daphnid; you can determine if the daphnid is swimming "fast" or not:
http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/Dre ... aphnia.htm

If you are measuring the heart rate of daphnia (as an effect of electrolytes on daphnia), you will not neeed to slow down the daphnia.
This site gives a detailed procedure for measuring heart rate:
http://www.biotechinstitute.org/resourc ... _1_ags.pdf

This site has an animation of the beating heart of a daphnia and a quick explanation:
http://ebiomedia.com/gall/classics/Daph ... have2.html

Good Luck.

Daphnia do swim quickly. Here is a website that suggests how to get around that:

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/no ... .Mi.r.html

Protoslo is a viscous solution containing cellulose (long chain of sugar that makes up plant cell walls).

Hope this helps!
Sonia

Lise Byrd wrote:Daphnia do swim quickly. Here is a website that suggests how to get around that:

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/no ... .Mi.r.html

Protoslo is a viscous solution containing cellulose (long chain of sugar that makes up plant cell walls).

Hope this helps!
Sonia

I'm Aaron's partner on this project.

Is Methyl Cellulose okay to use as opposed to the Protoslo. I already have access to Methyl Cellulose at school. I could order the Protoslo, but since we have the Methyl Cellulose already, i think it would be easier.

Methyl cellulose should work fine-- from what I've found, protoslo is also a kind of methyl cellulose solution.

Sonia