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Sexually segregated housing results in improved early larval survival in zebrafish

Lab Animal volume 39, pages 183–189 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Large-scale aquaculture facilities require highly optimized husbandry protocols that maximize fecundity and embryo health while minimizing cost and effort. Although zebrafish are being increasingly used for preclinical drug screens, functional genomic research and toxicological and behavioral studies, many of the basic husbandry procedures that are used for these fish have not been thoroughly tested. In this study, the authors compared the breeding success of zebrafish housed in sex-separated and those housed in mixed-gender arrangements. They observed a significant increase in fecundity (egg production) between the first and the third breeding and found that egg survivorship tended to increase during successive pairings. The authors also found that zebrafish had higher fecundity, egg viability and seemed to have a higher breeding success rate when males and females were housed separately than when they were housed together.

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Figure 1: Clutch size (total eggs collected including unfertilized) from a total of 144 harem breedings (2 males, 1 female) of fish housed together (empty bars) or separately by gender (shaded bars).
Figure 2: Survivorship of eggs at 30 hpf from fish housed together (open circles) or separately by gender (filled circles) from a total of 144 harem breedings.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by grants from the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (grant #1R21DK075888-01A1) and the National Center for Research Resources (grant #5R01RR023190-04), both of which were awarded to J.R.H. We thank Mikah Coffindaffer-Wilson for her comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory Animal Medical Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

    Mark S. Kurtzman

  2. Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

    Michael P. Craig &  Jay R. Hove

  3. Department of Genome Science, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

    Brenda K. Grizzle

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  1. Mark S. Kurtzman
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  2. Michael P. Craig
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Correspondence to Jay R. Hove.

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Kurtzman, M., Craig, M., Grizzle, B. et al. Sexually segregated housing results in improved early larval survival in zebrafish. Lab Anim 39, 183–189 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0610-183

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