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Quiz about In the Freshwater Aquarium
Quiz about In the Freshwater Aquarium

In the Freshwater Aquarium Trivia Quiz


Good trivia often comes to a familiar, at least recognizable, answer by an unexpected route. This quiz isn't easy, but I hope it isn't merely "trivial!"

A multiple-choice quiz by hawgshoes. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
hawgshoes
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
119,855
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Very Difficult
Avg Score
4 / 10
Plays
9022
Awards
Editor's Choice
Last 3 plays: kaykaypm (1/10), Guest 73 (6/10), 804K (5/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. "Shelldwellers"-- the "desktop cichlids"-- are miniature cichlids that defend a small territory based on an empty snail shell in Africa's Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Some fish colors are produced by pigment-bearing cells in the skin. But the interference patterns of light as it's refracted among closely-layered guanine crystals are responsible for fishes' butterfly-wing "structural colors" in shades of Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. The phrase "balanced aquarium" is about a hundred and fifty years old. It refers to the balance Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. The world's first public aquarium was opened in 1853, situated prominently in Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. The sensitive "feelers" of Pearl Gouramis and Three-Spot or Blue Gouramis, and of Dwarf Gouramis too, are actually highly developed Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. The Amazon is perhaps the world's oldest continuously-flowing river system, with the largest number of tropical fish species of any single watershed. Its sediment in the Atlantic Ocean is visible from space. Has it ever emptied into the Pacific?


Question 7 of 10
7. If you maintained a separate "species" aquarium for each and every genuine species of fish scientifically described so far, both in freshwater and in the seas, how many tanks would you need? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Your plants are overrun with snails! You pick out all the large ones. Which fish will do the best job of finding all the little ones and eating them? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. The closer you look, the more kinds of tiny worms you see in the aquarium, all less than half an inch long. Some glide along the glass. Others thrash in mid water. Still others work through the gravel. None of them is Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Zebra Danios are one of our most familiar fishes. The heart of "Danio country" has been well-explored. But if you were to strike out around the unexplored edges, finding new Danio species, would you dip your net in the little rivers of Hint



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Most Recent Scores
Nov 19 2024 : kaykaypm: 1/10
Nov 03 2024 : Guest 73: 6/10
Oct 30 2024 : 804K: 5/10
Oct 01 2024 : Guest 2: 10/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. "Shelldwellers"-- the "desktop cichlids"-- are miniature cichlids that defend a small territory based on an empty snail shell in Africa's

Answer: Lake Tanganyika.

In many of these Neolamprologus species, the female is even smaller than the male, and it is only she who can get all the way into the shell, where she deposits her eggs. The male is larger, to defend the territory. Lake Nyasa is the alternate name for Lake Malawi. Lake Victoria, not in fact a rift lake, was the lake featured in the last sequences of "The African Queen."
2. Some fish colors are produced by pigment-bearing cells in the skin. But the interference patterns of light as it's refracted among closely-layered guanine crystals are responsible for fishes' butterfly-wing "structural colors" in shades of

Answer: blue and green.

The pigment-carrying structures are called "chromatophores." Reflective guanine crystals by themselves are responsible for silver and white. The changeable, "shot" colors of blue and green, also familiar from some tropical butterflies, demonstrate the "Tyndall effect" named for the British physicist who first gave a satisfactory explanation of it.
3. The phrase "balanced aquarium" is about a hundred and fifty years old. It refers to the balance

Answer: between carbon dioxide and oxygen production.

The "balance" refers to the plants' production of oxygen, which is respired by the fish, which in turn give off carbon dioxide, which the plants require for photosynthesis.
4. The world's first public aquarium was opened in 1853, situated prominently in

Answer: London.

Though the current London Aquarium, across the River Thames from the Houses of Parliament, was opened in 1997, the first London Aquarium, opened in Regent's Park as an adjunct to the Zoological Gardens, which Londoners were quick to dub "The Zoo," was the first public aquarium anywhere. Within three years, however, P.T. Barnum had opened an aquarium in New York.

In the age of steamships, Hamburg was always the main port of entry for tropical fishes imported into Germany.
5. The sensitive "feelers" of Pearl Gouramis and Three-Spot or Blue Gouramis, and of Dwarf Gouramis too, are actually highly developed

Answer: ventral fins.

The operculum is the gill-cover. Fishes have no "opercular" fins. The caudal fin is the tailfin. The ventral fins are paired fins down by the vent. The gourami species name Trichogaster trichopterus refers to these "thread fins."
6. The Amazon is perhaps the world's oldest continuously-flowing river system, with the largest number of tropical fish species of any single watershed. Its sediment in the Atlantic Ocean is visible from space. Has it ever emptied into the Pacific?

Answer: Yes

As South America rifted apart from Africa, the Amazon began flowing westward, away from the high rifting "welt." The system continued to flow into what was becoming the Pacific Ocean, until the rise of the Andes blocked its way. For many millions of years, vast freshwater lakes formed in the heart of the continent.

Then, as the Andes were further uplifted, the Amazon found a new outlet, back towards the ever-widening Atlantic Ocean!
7. If you maintained a separate "species" aquarium for each and every genuine species of fish scientifically described so far, both in freshwater and in the seas, how many tanks would you need?

Answer: About 26,000 or so.

William N. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes, published in 1998 in 3 vols. and on-line, is the most complete fish reference ever put together, with about 26,000 valid species, and growing at a rate of 200 to 300 species added each year. The modern teleost fishes are the most successful vertebrates ever, judged in terms of the number of species they have evolved.
8. Your plants are overrun with snails! You pick out all the large ones. Which fish will do the best job of finding all the little ones and eating them?

Answer: Clown Loaches (Botia)

Clown Loaches and other Botia species will slurp up snails even from shells too big to crack in their jaws. None of the other species has any reputation for snail-eating at all.
9. The closer you look, the more kinds of tiny worms you see in the aquarium, all less than half an inch long. Some glide along the glass. Others thrash in mid water. Still others work through the gravel. None of them is

Answer: a parasite.

All worms are invertebrates, without backbones. You can distinguish a nematode from a planarian easily: the nematode thrashes tirelessly in the water, while the planarian creeps along surfaces, including the water's surface. The wormlike aquatic parasites of fishes have no visible life-stage separate from their host: their eggs are microscopic.
10. Zebra Danios are one of our most familiar fishes. The heart of "Danio country" has been well-explored. But if you were to strike out around the unexplored edges, finding new Danio species, would you dip your net in the little rivers of

Answer: northern Burma and Thailand?

The "heart of Danio country" is India, with species in Sri Lanka and ranging eastward as far as southern China. In fact, new Danios have recently been found in northern Burma and the upper Mekong. But there are no Danios in dry Afghanistan, none in South America at all. And New Guinea has a freshwater fish fauna entirely separate from the rest of Asia.
Source: Author hawgshoes

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
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