Fish 422 Duties and Standard Operating Procedures

You will have access to the fish Monday through Friday. Fish cannot be accessed on Sat and Sun for feedings, but scheduled maintenance should be accomplished/checked prior to the weekend to ensure things continue working until Monday (EG: thio drips, if these fail, fish may die).

Equipment: The necessary equipment needed to complete all assigned duties will be provided to you during the Second and Third laboratory periods. If you need additional materials, or need help in using the materials given, ask your instructor for assistance. Do not wander throughout the rest of the lab in search of tools or equipment. We are not the only ones utilizing this facility and need to be respectful of others and their equipment. Instruments and other materials given are to be used in the prescribed manner and returned to the proper location when finished. Failure to do so will result in points being removed from your final grade.

Daily Care and Maintenance:

Perform a system check

-Check that the water is on

-Check that the air stones are functioning

Do not adjust the water or air flow rates without consulting the Instructor. If you adjust the flow rate to your tank it affects all the other tanks as well. As supported biomass will be based off of flow rates for some of the tanks, changes to flows in your tank will result in mortality in tanks that lose water flow as a result.

-Monitor the condition of your fish. Don’t just glance in and see that they are there. Look at their appearance and behavior for abnormalities.

-Check the temperature

-Clean tank as needed: A minimum of 1 time per week, 2 times would be recommended especially in the recirculation system. This involves scrubbing the sides and bottom with a brush and a quick flush of the debris. It may be advisable do perform debris flushes up to 4-5 times a week.

-Remove any mortalities: Place them in the Ziploc bag labeled Fish 422 morts located in the freezer on the west wall of the lab.

-Fill out bench record

Feeding

Both the amount of feed and times that you administer your feed will be determined by you and your group. Recommendations for % Body Weight for feeding can be found in the Klontz textbook and various other aquaculture textbooks. Nevertheless, during the 5 day weekly cycle you are required to feed your fish at least once a day. A feed bag labeled Aquaculture 422 will be kept in the feed freezer which the instructor will show you during Lab 3. If your fish are not interested in food, this means something is wrong. With hold feeding if the fish are not eating and notify the instructor so any problem can be corrected as soon as possible.

Water Quality: Water quality should be monitored once a week for each system. The test kits for this are located in the cabinet labeled Cain in the storage room in the Southwest corner of the lab. Please let the instructor know when any of the reagents are running low so they can be reordered. The YSI probe can give many of your calculations for the water quality. Units are given on the probe for the reading except for Salinity (Sal) which is in ppt (parts per trillion) which relatively equates to µg/L. As I mentioned in Lab it will be important to be delicate with this probe. For use, unscrew the storage cap with sponge and replace with the sensor guard. Take your reading, then swirl in a container of distilled water to clean, and replace storage cap after removing the card before putting the unit away. Also, make sure you turn the power off when you are finished, otherwise the batteries will be run down and the system will need to be recalibrated after they are replaced.

Fish Inventory: Fish should be inventoried every two weeks. Two “grab”(random) subsamples of 5 fish each from each tank should be netted, anesthetized, individually weighed, measured for length, and observed for abnormalities or signs of disease. Fish should not be fed for 24 hours in advance of scheduled inventory. The scale to be used and length measurement board will be stored under/on the table at the west end of the lab. Disinfect the measuring board after usage by dipping it in iodophore and then rinsing with fresh water. The scale should be wiped down with 70% ethanol after each usage.

MS-222 usage: It will be necessary to anesthetize the fish that will be individually weighed and measured. A stock solution of MS-222 will be kept in the Cain cabinet. This is labeled as to how many mL of solution to add per liter of H20 to achieve the desired final concentration in parts per million. 80 ppm is the standard dosage to anesthetize RBT with an expected quick recovery. However it is always better to start lower and work your way up. You can always add more anesthetic, but can only kill your fish once. Fish will be properly anesthetized when they loose equilibrium and stop forward movement. Prolonged exposure to the MS-222 will eventually euthanize the fish, so be prompt in removing the fish after the anesthetic has taken effect. Please rinse out all graduated cylinders and other containers that have been used in this procedure. MS-222 will leave a residue if this is not done. This chemical has been shown to have negative human handling effects, so please be careful and wear gloves.

Iodophore usage: Iodophore is used as a disinfectant in aquaculture. All nets should be disinfected by dipping them and storing them in the rubber totes at the west end of the tanks. All containers such as Tupperware or buckets that have been used to handle fish should be disinfected after usage. To do this take a small amount of liquid from the rubber totes and swirl it around in the buckets. Rinse the buckets with fresh water after this. The iodophore solution is safe to dump in the floor drains or sinks.

Bench Records: clip-boards are provided and a bench record template can be found on the lab website. This record should be updated daily and every time a change has been made. All other additional records such as feed consumption, fish inventory, water quality etc… can be kept on the clip-board or in a separate notebook. Periodically the instructor will review these records and you will be graded as to their neatness, accuracy, and how up-to-date they are.