
Our zebrafish facility consists of two rooms for fish housing, containing one aquarium for quarantine and nine aquarium cabinets for a total of about 1500 fish containers. Every cabinet lodge adult fish and juveniles in 1-10 liter tanks. The system is provided with an osmotic pump delivering highly purified water of controlled conducibility. Osmometer, pH-meter and thermometer allows pH and temperature (28C) control daily. Some cabinets are used to grow and maintain transgenic lines. One cabinet is equipped for pair-wise or population crosses as well as to raise young fish. Embryos and larvae are reared apart, at 28.5 C, in small tanks and beckers located in a 80-litre air incubator.
All the embryos and adult fish are managed according to standard procedures listed in the Zebrafish Book (M.Westerfield ed.). Embryos are reared into small boxes (1 litre) without recirculation for 15 days (with manual water change) and fed daily with micronized dry food. At day 15 larvae are transferred to small tanks (3 litres) with water re-circulation and, thereafter fed three times a day with dry food and artemia. All boxes and tanks are cleaned at least every month or when required from wastes accumulated during rearing. When the fish reach the appropriate size, they are transferred to 5-litre tanks and grown to adulthood. Adult fish are allowed to spawn in pairs inside the tanks with a small net on the bottom. The collected eggs are observed under a dissecting microscope and sorted according to their stage or phenotype. Embryos to be analyzed beyond 24h post-fertilization are raised in 2 mM 1-phenyl-2-thiourea (PTU) medium to prevent their pigmentation.
UNIT OF
REGULATIVE BIOLOGY
AND TRANSLATIONAL GENETICS