There's clearly something tantalising about exactly what goldfish choose to eat.
Certainly, Ryan Whelan, a year 8 pupil at John McGlashan College, Dunedin, and the proud owner of several goldfish, has recently spent quite some time scratching his head about precisely which food goldfish prefer and also what food generates the greatest weight gains in these shimmering pets.
And, not content with idle speculation, Ryan has conducted his own experiments.
Over 28 days, he fed each of four goldfish the same amount of one of four types of home-made fish food - consisting of, respectively, ox liver, tuna, oat bran and, yes, that celebrated vegetable extract, Vegemite.
And Vegemite is the winner, his entry, at the latest Aurora Otago Science and Technology Fair, wastes no time in announcing. Vegemite produced not only the greatest weight gain but also resulted in the largest number of bites during feeding, this latter measure suggesting greater eagerness, he says.
He had initially thought meat-based food would have produced the greatest eating enthusiasm and weight gain, and was surprised this was not the case.
He finds goldfish lively pets -"they're quite fun to be with"- and plans to continue his experiments.
A study of eight brands of sausages by another fair participant, Annabelle Alloo (11), a year 7 pupil at Balmacewen Intermediate School, also produced interesting findings.
Many of the sausages had a high fat content, several more than 20%, but all below the 25% recommended maximum.
Most surprisingly, she found the fat content in many cases was not greatly reduced by frying, perhaps because binding agents kept the fat in place, she said.
A total of 265 entries have come in from 25 schools throughout Otago for the latest annual fair, which opens to the public in the museum's 1877 Gallery at 10am tomorrow and runs until Sunday afternoon.
Judging began yesterday and prize-winners will be announced at the University of Otago's St David lecture theatre at 3pm on Sunday.
