Excretory Systems of Fish and Earthworm..

[aaaaaaaaaa17]

I had this experiment where i put Fish and worm in tanks of water overnight to provide sample containing their excretory products. Here is the info :

Organism Weight (g) Organism in amount of water (ml) Time (Hours)
Worm 7.3 200 24
Fish 45 6000 24

After 24 hours i calculated the concentration of Ammonia and Urine in the water sample.( I made sure that the original water was ammonia free)

Ammonia (mg/ml/h)
Fish: 8.0246e-3
Worm: 8.3713 e-3

Urea (mg/g)
Fish : 0.015
Worm : 0.00573

Now, the question asks us to come up with a discussion about these results, or to come up with a scientific reason for my answers. I don't know where to start. If someone could point me in the right direction, it would be appreciated.

Billy.

[JackBean]

You have kind of wierd units. Once you use mg/ml*h and the other time you use mg/g?

[aaaaaaaaaa17]

Sorry, i hope this helps.
Ammonia (mg/ml/h)
Fish: 8.0246e-3
Worm: 8.3713 e-3

Urea (mg/ml/h)
Fish : 0.015
Worm : 0.00573

[JackBean]

Little better...
apparently, in both cases the concentration of amonia is quite similar (but what about the absolute amount?)
That's not the case of urea, which is obviously more concentrated in fish's water (what about the absolute amount?)

[aaaaaaaaaa17]

Absolute amount? You mean the amount that was already in the water tank?

[jwalin]

how about considering the massess of the 2 organisms

[jwalin]

and how about considering the number of organisms

[jwalin]

don't know how numbers will help
but masses will

[aaaaaaaaaa17]

well Fish = 45 g in 6000 ml over 24 hours
Worm= 7.3 g in 200 ml over 24 hours

Another information i have is that the fish has an optical density of 0.14 and the worm 0.80.

I hope i was able to provide what was needed.
Thanks

[jwalin]

when i say consider mass.
then 7.3 gm worms produce whatever amounts of urea and ammonia then how much will 45 gm do

use net amount created

i have an idea.
do you know if water content somehow affect the amounts of the substance created. would rather suggest you standardize the weights and amounts of water. and carry out the experinebt again

else do not use conc. and do as i told.



hope that helps
best of luck

[JackBean]

The absolute amount is the total amount (conc.*volume;). Imagine you have 6 l tank or 60 l tank for the fish. The fish will probably produce the same amount in both, right? But concentration will be different, because you have larger volume in second case.

Also, as jwalin suggested, maybe using organism mass or number (fish was maybe 1, but what about worms?) could help as well.

[mith]

might also want to measure how much food you fed them