Effects Of 11-KT On Growing Scarlet Shiners

Brittany, James and Alexandra have finished measuring the brains of young scarlet shiners exposed to the hormone 11-KT for 6 months. The short answer is, 11-KT seems to stimulate the growth of significantly larger brains compared to wild similar-sized individuals from the same creek. In particular, the ratio of brain weight/body weight is higher in 11-KT exposed fish. We tested this hypothesis with a Mann-Whitney U-test, and the test rejected a similarity between the two data sets with a p<0.001. So 11-KT seems to be very good at stimulating overall brain growth. Our data don't show that any one brain region is bigger than others as a result of 11-KT, just the brain in its entirety is bigger. And also our experiment seems to show the efficacy of adding the 11-KT to aquarium water for fish to take up across their gills, rather than injecting the fish with 11-KT. A juvenile scarlet shiner is so small (~22 mm) that I think the mortality rate from injection would be high.