How would fish in a tank of water be affected in zero gravity?
I would think the transition from Earth’s gravity to no gravity would be less traumatic than it would be for humans considering the fact that fish live in an environment where they float around their entire lives anyway.
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Fish would be disoriented and have a difficult time swimming. They’re not very adaptable to other environments, and if their usual methods of swimming didn’t produce the expected results, they’d probably just keep trying them.
Also, the bubbles that normally rise from fish wouldn’t rise, but would stay near the fish. Before long, I assume the fish would be surrounded by such a bubble and would drown.
</WAG>
Your Quadell
I would think that all the water would just turn into little floating droplets and since the fish get their oxygen from swimming in water, they would probably be floating around dead.
Never criticize a person until you walk a mile in their shoes… this way when you do criticize them you’ll be a mile away… oh… and you’ll have free shoes. :o)
Well, fishes have slim bladders that are “gravity-sensitive” which enable them to swim straight. Therefore, in zero gravity, they’d be flopping around, not knowing which way was up.
I’m sorry, but I keep seeing this title as
Fishshshsh I-i-nnnnnn Spa-a-a-a-a-ce
and picturing voices dubbed by Frank Oz and company.
Check out http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_097a.html - the page is in Japanese, but it has links to four MPEG files. The 4th one shows fish not just swimming around in zero gravity, but mating. This “experiment” was flown on the Shuttle in July 1994.
scr4 - ???
Fish do fine in space. You fill the tank, and stir it to keep it mixed up. They just don’t know which way is up.
The launch forces probably aren’t as bad on them.
Sorry, must have cut-and-pasted the address from the wrong window. The correct link for the “fish in space” page is http://cosmo.ric.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SPACEMEDAKA/movie_J.html
Sorry again, turns out there is an English version of that page after all, at http://cosmo.ric.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SPACEMEDAKA/movie_E.html
Damn you! You beat me to it! When I saw the title, I couldn’t wait to make that post.
Things are random only insofar as we don’t understand them.
Criminy! I beat you by two and a half days! You’ll have to visit more often.
Actually, my cable line got cut over the weekend, and I lost internet access (cable modem). It’s still not truly fixed, but I finally got it working well enough with some copper wire.
Things are random only insofar as we don’t understand them.