Open AccessConstruction of an Affordable Open-Design Recirculating Zebrafish Housing System
Author(s) -
Seong Lin Teoh,
Shaiful Ridzwan Sapri,
Mohd Rafizul Bin Mohd Yusof,
Mohamad Fairuz Yahaya,
Srijit Das
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of the american association for laboratory animal science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2769-6677
pISSN - 1559-6109
DOI - 10.30802/aalas-jaalas-19-000167
Subject(s) - zebrafish , purchasing , fish <actinopterygii> , lateral line , process (computing) , aquaculture , business , environmental science , fishery , computer science , engineering , operations management , biology , operating system , biochemistry , gene
Recently, the zebrafish has gained in popularity as a vertebrate animal model for biomedical research. Commercial zebrafish housing systems are available and are designed to maximize stocking density of fish for a given space, but these systems are expensive and purchasing them may not be feasible for emerging laboratories with limited funding. In this article, we describe the construction of a simple and affordable recirculating zebrafish housing system. This system can be constructed in 3 working days, with materials readily available in hardware stores. The cost for construction of the system was only 3,000 MYR (750 USD). The system consists of a water reservoir, a supply line that delivers water to the shelves holding the zebrafish tanks, and a drainage line that receives water from both the supply line and the shelves containing the fish tanks and returns this water to the reservoir. This system also has a 3-stage filtration process to ensure that clean water is delivered to the zebrafish tank. The system can house up to 360 zebrafish. This low-cost housing system may make research using zebrafish feasible some laboratories.