Long Live the Bettas

My General Experience with Adaptive Management

My general experience with adaptive management has been quite a pleasant one. At first, like many, I want too keen on keeping a fish in such a “small” and “closed” environment but then as we went on I realised that it was necessary to actually do experiments such as these not only for our knowledge now but for the future as well.

As the time passed, I did grow close to my little blue Betta and visited the lab often J I started to pick up on key actions in the fish’s daily behaviour which I would not have done in the past and realised with this experiment that there is much more to a fish than just swimming around in an aquarium. Fish play a vital role in almost all water bodies as it provides nutrients for most plant aside from soil and also remove algae and can help sustain certain populations of insects. In this case, the Betta helps manage Malaria carrying mosquitoes.

During this project or module, I also realised that keeping and maintaining an aquarium system is not as easy as it may appear. I always thought that all one has to do in maintaining an aquarium is just do water changes and feed the fish. I came to the knowledge that aquariums require intensive care and constant as well as close monitoring to operate properly. All this care is quite expensive as chemicals, filtration system and all tools that are used to maintain the aquarium does not come cheap at all.

On the water chemistry side, I learned that there is a lot one has to do maintain good water quality such as regular testing as well as water changes that will ensure that pH levels and other chemical levels stay in balance for the water to remain in a good condition.

When it came to the taking care of the plant at home part, I at first showed no interest and though that this plant would die in no time at home if it was not placed in soil.  Soon I realized that there is more to a plants growth than just soil. It is as if I gained respect for the plant! To this day, I am still surprised as to how well my plant is doing and how it has adapted to just being suspended in water and exposed to very little sunlight. I am hoping to plant my plant in soil and then to see how it develops from there.

Our trip through the Cape Flats Nature Reserve also made me aware that there is more to UWC than just academics J there are many different species of fynbos in the reserve as well as many species of animals. The Cape Flats Nature Reserve is under constant monitoring and that helps to maintain the fynbos and the success on the reserve.

Lastly, I really enjoyed this module as I learned a lot that I did not know before and found it really interesting. It also encouraged me to keep an aquarium system in the future. I also am hoping to take good care of my plant and watch it grow.

Long live the Bettas!

Stay Green **