March 10

Forgot to mentioned that the date for sampling was on the 6th of March, 2009. That was like two weeks from the date which we had prepared the equipments needed for sampling.

As mentioned, after sampling is where all the hardwork begins. First thing that we need to do is to grow the bacteria from the mucus on the petri dish. One sample of mucus could consists of more than one kind or one species of bacteria.

Experiment: Growing bacterias from a mucus sample (Testing the existence of bacteria in mucus)

Materials: Two mucus samples from Grouper fish and Barramundi fish one each, 4 Petri dishes with Marine Nutrient Algae (MNA) labelled as K1A, K1B, S1A and S1B in which K stand for Grouper fish and S stand for Barramundi fish, inoculating loop, fire flame, parafilm.

Method:

1. Make sure that the laminar flow is clean and free from any living bacteria. Sometimes the UV
been switched on for 10-20 minutes to kill the bacteria, if not, to mutate any living bacteria in
the laminar flow. But the laminar flow should be cleaned with ethanol whenever before using.
2. Move all the things into the laminar flow. Flame the inoculating loop and let it cool down.
3. Open the cover of the Bijou bottle that contained mucus that we collected from the sampling
trip. Dip the loop into the Bijou bottle and get a touch of the mucus. The more mucus on the
loop the better. Flame the cover of the Bijou bottle and close it immediately.
4. Open the cover of Petri dish and start streaking the mucus on the MNA using the four
streaking method.
5. Repeat step 4-5 for the rest of the mucus sample. Make sure that the right Petri dish is used
for the right mucus sample.
6. Parafilm all the Petri dishes and Bijou bottle. Put the Bijou bottle back immediately to the
fridge of 4C and the Petri dishes that contains mucus sample in ambient temperature.
Observe result after 24 hours















































































































Result:

The picture above shows result of the bacteria from the mucus of Grouper fish. The different colours and colonies represent different species of bacteria. There were three colors of bacteria observed from the mucus samples of both fish so far and they are orange, yellow and white. The most common is white and the uncommon one is yellow. Orange is in the middle.

Conclusion:

Clearly that there is more than one kind of bacteria from one mucus sample. Compared to the mucus that I get from before, this time the result seems to satisfying as the mucus sample is still fresh and thus there are more chances for bacteria to survive.