Establishing and maintaining a low-cost zebrafish breeding and behavioral research facility

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe how to establish and maintain a low-cost zebrafish facility that can be used for both teaching and research purposes. The cost of the facility ranges from about $250 to $1,000, depending on the size of the facility and the experiments that will be conducted. The facility plan presented here also has the advantage that it can be disassembled so that it need not function year-round. A detailed list of supplies and materials is provided, along with detailed instructions on how to set up and maintain the adult and breeding portions of the facility. Finally, there is discussion of some of the general uses of a zebrafish facility, including a variety of procedures that are currently being used in behavioral research with this species.