Welcome Packet: All you need to know about starting a fish lab facility

Hello!

Of course, we help you with acquiring the FISH you need for your research, but this guide will highlight aspects needed to “feed, clothe, and shelter” your fish in a fish lab (aka vivarium, fish room, “Fish-ility,” aquarium tank system…).

We love answering any and all questions about what you may need to start your own fish research facility. Send any questions to sticklestockcenter@gmail.com or click the button below.

This guide will link to other protocols and include lists of what we believe is needed, helpful, and ideas to help your lab start a fish vivarium.

Important note!

Some local Fish and Game Authority or Department of Natural Resources Agencies require information about your research to ensure your fish are not released into local waters after research is complete. Check with your local authorities if they require any information on your research or have any forms to submit in this way.

Fish room basics:

Aquarium/Tanks

  • These can be as small or as large as is possible with your room and space. Often, premade systems can include any tank size ranging from

    • 1 gallon/3.78 L,

    • 2.4 gallon/9 L,

    • 20 gallon/75.7 L, or

    • 40 gallon/151.4L

Pumps for circulation

  • This can hang on the back/side of the tank or be a stand-alone pump; pre-made rack systems exist and many providers will build custom set-ups for specific fish rooms

  • When deciding what kind of system and how many tanks you need in your room, look at our Multi-tank or Rack System information guide

Hanging pumps reside on the edge of a single tank. There is a little reservoir for filtration. This is one method to keep a tank isolated for treatments or quarantine.

If you only require a few tanks, individual systems are manageable. Once you incorporate larger research questions, parameters, and goals, rack systems help streamlin water chemistry across all tanks at once. One negative is larger systems can lead to issues if proper quarantine protocols are not in place or if a horizontally transmitted pathogen occurs.

Airlines and Tank aeration

  • 3/16" Flexible Airline Tubing is the standard size

  • Air Pump for aeration

    • I have a multi-port pump in case we needed to aerate multiple buckets/tanks at the same time during acclimation or fish isolation for research

    • Air Pumps in addition to a Circulation Pump are set up to be a backup in case one fails. Fish in stagnant water are no good for Dissolved Oxygen (DO) levels, but if the circulation pump fails overnight, the aerator will be enough for the fish to be okay until the next fish care technician arrives. Since Stickleback enjoy cooler water, colder water also holds DO better than warmer water

  • Air stones

    • these can be 1” to 4” for a tank. The larger the tank, the larger the airstone. Stickleback do not require a lot of agitation in the water, so a valve or way to adjust and dial back the air flow is key. These are easy to fine from online suppliers as a piece that goes between the air source (pump) and bubbler (air stone)

Bioballs or place for biological filtration

  • These are usually located in a sump or floating in a stand-alone tank. Surface area for biological filtration is key for nitrogen cycling—an integral step for fish health

In-line Chiller and backup heater

  • Chiller and backup heater are a must with a larger system; if available for a small system, ensure there is always flow into the chiller. The heater and chiller are checks and balances: they’re set to help the system maintain the desired temperature. The heater is set to the lowest possible level but is present if the chiller malfunctions and overworks

  • If the fish are housed in a room with insulation and air conditioning, this can also work to chill and maintain the water temperature where fish reside and a chiller or heater is not required

Aquarium Salts

  • We use Instant Ocean, but any aquarium salt works

    • We use the salt to create a high conductivity brine to help adjust the conductivity with a dosing pump but you can also have reserve tank water in a barrel or large brute can to refill tanks after a water change

  • I like a separate salt bucket for each fish room, but an open bucket or bag exposed to the air for longer periods of time will have a moisture problem and turn into a solid block of salt. Ensure your protocol keeps your salt dry by:

    • Keeping the lid tight when not in use

    • Managing an open bag of salt

    • Or always using an entire bag of salt at a time

pH adjustment

  • Sodium Bicarbonate is an easy way to help keep the pH in a system elevated where stickleback are comfortable. Usually, our systems stay between 7.0 and 7.4. With appropriate system cycling, the bacteria release H+ into the system from breaking down Ammonium. A sodium bicarbonate solution helps to adjust the pH of the water in the right direction

Reverse Osmosis Water Source

  • Reverse Osmosis (RO) removes ionic and non-ionic impurities in source water unlike De-ionized (DI) water

  • Having a better source of base water for your system removes any additives source water (often City Water) may contain (including pathogens, chlorine, heavy metals, etc..)

Fish Food

  • Adult and Juvenile food mixes are important to give appropriate food sizes to the fish, and hatchling food—Hatch Brine or Artemia—requires extra equipment and time to prepare the brine shrimp the day before feeding (18 to 24 hour hatch is the perfect size for Stickleback)

Way(s) to test water parameters (this could be a submersible, mobile probe or sensors that monitor water data continuously)

  • temperature

  • conductivity/salinity

  • pH

  • ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate (nitrogenous waste)

    • usually, a test kit is used for the early stages of the nitrogen cycle since ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish when enough is present (you can read about the Nitrogen Cycle in “Troubleshooting your Vivarium/Fish Room”)

Rack system: Air Conditioned room

This complete system is:
1) located in an air conditioned room (lacks an in-line chiller) and
2) includes both a pre-fabricated Zebrafish setup (left) and a custom multi-rack system (right).

It includes sumps with wells for biological filtration, pleated filter and sock mechanical filtration, containers for flow-through activated carbon, and Ultraviolet Radiation. The room has one large air pump with ports at every tank. Two small pumps pull water from the sumps past filtration and return water to the tanks. It also has conductivity, temperature, and pH probes which monitor tank data 24 hours a day with alarms if the parameters stray from their normal range. There are two dosing pumps with reservoirs set to raise conductivity and pH separately.

Cleaning and Siphoning tools:

Adult tank cleaning:

  • 12” and 24” rigid tubing at 3/8” outer diameter, usually thin plexiglass

  • 3/'8” inner diameter tubing to make a siphon with the tubes above

  • Hose clamps to secure hose to rigid tubing

  • Scrub pads

    • I buy larger scrub pads and trim them for scrubbing grime or algae inside the tank and dirty tank items at the sink

    • Foam erasers such as the Magic eraser works well for tougher algae spots and rinse well between uses with no harsh chemicals

  • Glass or acrylic (tank dependent) scrubbers with long handle

For cleaning juvenile tanks:
Hatchlings and juvenile fish are easy to raise in smaller enclosures such as breeder boxes which limit flow of water and can hold debris. Careful cleaning can be done with the following:

  • Rigid airline 3/16” tubing trimmed to 12”

  • Airline tubing attached to rigid airline for siphon into a bucket

    • combined, these make a very small siphon that can navigate hatchling or juvenile fish and debris

  • Small pipette

    • If you are concerned with overfeeding or debris in a tank with hatchlings or young juvenile fish, you can also use a small pipette to collect uneaten food to protect the young animals from

 Water Quality:

  • Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrite test kits

    • These were mentioned before, but kits are especially important with an immature system that has not fully completed the nitrogen cycling (read about it in Troubleshooting your Vivarium/Fish Room). You want to test these areas daily if you add a lot of fish to an immature system to know if you need to perform daily water changes or how the % of tank water needs replacing. Fish waste and uneaten food contribute to heightened nitrogenous waste

  • Bacteria Dosing

    • These optional liquid solutions are added to a system to jumpstart the bacteria for nitrogen cycling or some allow dosing with fish are already present. They are not required but help with water quality with an immature tank


Additives—liquid or dry

  • Water Conditioners

    • SeaChem Prime is one example of a water conditioner that helps remove chlorine, chloromine, and ammonia and detoxifies nitrite and nitrate. You can add SeaChem Prime to a system that already has fish present or to a cycling, uninhabited tank

  • Water buffers and regulators 

    • New systems may not have the ideal pH before introducing fish. They make liquid and dry buffers to add to systems to help raise or lower pH while being safe for fish if they’re already in the system.

  • Ammonium Chloride

    • If you want to start cycling a system before fish are added, you have a few methods to feed the bacteria and allow them to grow

      • Add fish you know are clean to add food and waste to the system

      • Use bioballs or filtration pads from a currently cycled system to jumpstart your bacteria colony

      • Add food to the system without fish and allow it to feed the bacteria

      • Dose with Ammonium Chloride to feed the bacteria

        • Ammonium Chloride comes as both a solution and in a solid (salt) form   

Medical Supplies

Ensure you have approval from your IACUC and protocols set in place for anesthesia and euthanasia should your research require or a fish need present itself. We use MS-222 and keep it on hand for such purposes. Always have IACUC approval for the uses of medications with research.

Food additive:

  • Selcon for our anadromous fish populations

Research shows that anadromous fish do best when their food has a omega-3 HUFA supplement   

Ways to reach the top rack

OSHA Compliant step stool, ladder, or work platform (looks like a bench in the photo above) allow you to access tanks higher in the rack system that you cannot safely access from standing. Below are a few pictures of examples.

Odds and ends

These help keep a fish room organized and fish care equipment off of the ground

  • Adhesive, removable hooks for hanging equipment on the walls or racks safely

  • Various sizes of food containers for storing mixes

  • White window vinyl for labeling the tanks/populations

    • This is helpful because it is not a sticker but stays, yet it is opaque so you can write on it and read it easily

  • Dish rack or designated drying surface to allow items to dry without off of the sink surface

  • Chlorine test strips

  • PVC Pipe Tees and Plants for fish decor

    • Stickleback do well with places to hide or at least items like plastic plants to block a direct line of vision

Holly Valentine