Re: Fish tank in orbit?

[Herbert H Gottlieb <herbgottlieb@JUNO.COM>]

When you go to the pet store to buy a new
tropical fish for your aquarium, they usually
net the fish and place her in a transparent
bag full of water. Then they seal the top of
the bag so you can transport the fish home
alive.  Since the fish can exist in this bag for
a relatively long time, I assume that the fish
would have the same kind of experience when
her transparent bag in placed in a space capsule.
Since such fish have an almost neutral buoyancy
they should be able to remain suspended in the
center of the space bag with out any problem.

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where fish seldom swim with their dorsal fins
touching the bottom of our fish tanks)



On Tue, 10 Oct 2000 20:45:18 -0500 cliff parker <cparker@CHARTER.NET>
writes:
> One of my students asked an interesting question today.  She had
> been wondering over the weekend (I love it when they wonder) what
> would happen if a fish tank with a fish inside were were sealed
> with a lid that would not leak and placed into orbit on the
> shuttle.  The tank would contain water, fish, and a small amount
> of air.  Her first questions were:  1) What would happen to the
> air space?  2) Would the fish be able to swim and if so what
> would it look like?
>
> My thoughts on the air space are that it would tend to stick
> together into one large bubble because of the surface tension of
> the water.  Many small currents caused by things like, thermal
> convection, inadvertent jostling, and perhaps even random
> molecular motions, would be present causing the bubble to move to
> and fro  somewhat like a confused lava lamp.
>
> As to the swimming fish I would guess that such a fish would be
> very confused indeed but would most likely swim more or less as
> it would normally.
>
> Any thoughts.  What factors should we consider that have not
> already been mentioned?  Does anyone know if NASA has ever
> conducted such an experiment?
>
> --
> Cliff Parker
>
> Never express yourself more clearly than you can think.  --
> Niels Bohr