In science class, we did a lab called toothpick fish. There were different colored toothpicks to represent each fish allele (green, yellow, and red). The green alleles were dominant to all of the other alleles. The yellow alleles were recessive to the green alleles and incompletely dominant to the red alleles. The red alleles were recessive to the green alleles as well and incompletely dominant to the yellow alleles. The genotype for a green fish was GG, Gr, and Gb. For a red fish the genotype was rr. The yy genotype was for a yellow fish and the genotype for an orange fish was yr.
The first generation of my fish consisted of seven green fish, no red fish, one yellow fish, and four orange fish. This means that about 58% of fish were green, 0% of the fish were red, 8% of the fish were yellow, and about 33% of the fish were orange. However, all yellow fish are eaten up quickly and unable to survive. That meant that the one yellow offspring died. In the second generation, there were 7 green fish, one red fish, and 3 orange fish. In other terms, about 64% of the second generation were green fish, 9% were red fish, and about 27% were orange fish. Then came the third generation; six or 55% of the fish were green, 9% or one fish was red, 9% or one fish was yellow, and about 27% of the fish, or three fish were orange. Because there was another yellow fish, that fish died. In the fourth and final generation, 6 or 60% of the fish were green, 1 or 10% of the fish were red, and 3 or 30% of the fish were orange. Unfortunately though, all the green fish are eaten because of an environmental disaster. In the end, there were four fish remaining: one red and three orange. This was the data analysis of my toothpick lab.
This not only happens in labs, but in our environment. In an ecosystem, there are fish. They are eaten by their predators. However, sometimes there are large breakouts in which many fish are eaten more rapidly than usual. For example, one of the large breakouts could be an increasing population of sharks. These sharks would then eat many fish, and the fish would start dying at a faster pace, which would significantly decrease the fish population. This community of fish would be a lot less than what it was before. There are many scenarios like this that occur once in a while. This proves that fish population alters in our environment, as well ecosystems and environments around the world.
