Thesis subject
Pregnant fish swimming project
You are a pregnant fish trying to escape from a predator in a natural water stream. Maybe your bigger girth, altered muscles and the extra energy investment on the reproduction will play you the trick of leaving you to the mercy of the hungry fish?
What if you have a placenta and your abdomen grows gradually? What about having multiple broods in different developmental stages? Would this bring any advantage when facing predators? How does your body respond to your urge to swim away? Are you agile and fast enough to keep alive?
To test the effects of pregnancy on the mobility of females and the possible advantages of having a placenta or multiple overlapping broods, we work with livebearing fish from the same family of the colourful guppies.
We test the escape response, prolongued swimming, oxygen consumption and changes of muscle and body shape of females through pregnancy.
If you are interested on pursuing a THESIS in any of the above subjects, the following projects are available:
- Effects of pregnancy on escape response
- Effects of pregnancy on prolonged swimming
- Effects of pregnancy on oxygen consumption
- Effects of pregnancy on the body shape and drag production
- Effects of pregnancy on muscle composition and distribution
| Examiner: | prof.dr. Johan van Leeuwen |
| Group: | Experimental Zoology |
| Supervisors: | Elsa Quicazan-Rubio |
| Bart Pollux | |
| Contact: | Elsa Quicazan-Rubio (via contact form) |
| Credits: | depends |
| For: | BSc and MSc Animal Sciences and Biology |
| Requirements: | depends |
Phone: +31 (0) 317 4 82749 / 83509