The sampling of the Gambusia holbrooski was done in Hennington Pond at FIU. The class was divided into five groups each tasked with obtaining thirty samples of mosquitofish. These samples were obtained randomly using a landing net and a bucket of water that contained water from the pond to put the fish. The collected fish were measured and their length recorded (in mm) from the apex of the lower jaw towards the posterior end. The measurement was done using a small ruler and to make sure the same fish was not measured twice; the measured fish was put in a separate bucket. After the experiment, we released the fish to the pond. The data collected was used to construction of the vertical life table. The vertical table was favored over a horizontal table since it is ideal for analyzing organisms of different ages at specific point in time. …show more content…
The next step (n(x)) needed to be calculated to determine the fish alive at every stage. An assumption was made that every individual samples was alive in the first age class. Thus, n(0) was equated to the sum of s(x) column . Next, to order n(x) of the second age class, (n(0))-(s(0)) for each class was done. After these calculations, the survival rate for a certain age class can be determined. Additionally, we calculated the number of offspring produced per fish in each age class by multiplying I(x) by the fecundity rate for each class b(x),