Page 69 - Abstract book - TJSSF-2020

Thailand – Japan Student Science Fair 2020 (TJ-SSF 2020)
“Seeding Innovations through Fostering Thailand – Japan Youth Friendship”

Why do American Crayfish Prefer Herbal Feed to Animal Feed?
- by analyzing the body changes caused by different feed -

Takafumi Komatsu
1

Tokai University Takanawadai Senior High School
1

Abstract
We started our study with this question: Why do the majority of crayfish which live in a natural habitat
have a red body color? They are supposed to be omnivorous, and the body color of the crayfish is
determined by carotene contained by the food they eat. The purpose of the study is to find any evidence
that the omnivorous crayfish spontaneously eat a lot of carotene-containing food and that it is good for
the crayfish bodies. We divided the crayfish into two groups, one group of crayfish were fed with
anacaris as plant food and the other group was fed with kibinago as animal food. We kept doing this
experiment for a month. As a result, we found the feces of the crayfish which were fed with plant food,
contained calcium carbonate in their feces.

Keywords: crayfish, body color, carotene, food, plant food, animal food, feces

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