Goldfish Metabolism Experiment

Introduction

Metabolism is the sum of all anabolic and catabolic reactions within a living organism to sustain life. The energy required to perform these reactions is provided by oxygen in the form of ATP, therefore the oxygen consumption rate can be measured to determine the metabolic rate. Since oxygen is obtained through respiration, the efficiency of an organism’s respiratory system affects its metabolism. Previous studies have shown that caffeine affects the human respiratory center and occasionally dilates bronchus. It can thus stimulate human respiration and increase the metabolic rate (Haggins et al, 1915).

Including human, most mammals and birds are homeotherms that regulate their body temperature internally to keep it relatively

Before getting the goldfish subjects, two beakers were filled with 200 ml fish water and weighed. Four goldfish were then collected gently from the fish tank and each two of them were transferred into one beaker. Each beaker along with fish and water was weighed again to determine the weight of each pair of goldfish.

For the control group of each trial, the oxygen chamber was firstly filled with 200 ml fish water; after two goldfish along with 200 ml water were transferred into it, it was sealed in order to prevent oxygen exchange with the ambient environment. The built-in probe in the chamber measured the dissolved oxygen concentration in the chamber’s water (mg/L), which could reflect the oxygen consumption rate of goldfish. After the fish accommodated to the new environment, the oxygen concentration data were collected every 20 seconds for 10 minutes by the Logger Lite program. The data were then plotted into a scatter chart and analyzed with a linear trendline, to obtain

Nonetheless, besides fish, many other kinds of poikilothermic animals, such as snakes and frogs, use lungs instead of gills to breathe, and further researches may be conducted to explore if caffeine has an effect on their metabolism. For example, forty northern leopard frogs with similar body size will be captured and divided into twenty trials, and each two frogs will be tested in the same control and experimental conditions as the goldfish metabolism experiment did. The collected slopes of oxygen concentration will then be converted into oxygen consumption rate and analyzed by the paired t-test. If the difference in the oxygen consumption rate between the control and experimental groups is statistically significant, this experiment will show that caffeine affects the metabolism of frogs, one kind of poikilotherms that use lungs to