zebrafish development

[Brian Garvey]

I am an AP Biology student from Beaverton High School (just 
outside Portland, OR) and I am hoping to conduct an experiment 
on Zebrafish. I want to test the effects of sex hormone on 
development and determination of zebrafish cells and anatomy. I 
would like to use the opposite sex hormone in the correct stage of 
development of the zebrafish to see if it is possible to change its 
sex. We had a couple of different ideas of carrying out this 
experiment. One consisted of taking a large group of zebrafish, 
inserting one sex hormone into all of them noting their development 
and final sexual characteristics/ability to reproduce. We're hoping 
that inserting the male hormone would cause all fish to reproduce 
as a male, and inserting female sex hormone would cause all fish 
to reproduce as a female. As of now, we are not sure how feasible 
this experiment would actually be. Also we do not have the current 
knowledge as to when to inject the hormone, what the hormone is, 
and will it actually have an effect. I would appreciate any of your 
input on whether or not you believe this is a feasible experiment, as 
well as any comments or suggestions that could help us in our 
scientific endeavors. I am very grateful for your time and would 
appreciate any response concerning this matter. 

Sincerely, Brian Garvey