Fish Lab

Wet lab facilities for fish research and equipment testing

The FISHBIO fish lab includes 1,000 square feet of tanks, refrigeration, and work benches, and is available for many uses. We have more than 20 fish tanks of varying styles and sizes, ranging from 10 gallons to 2,000 gallons. Flexibility built into the plumbing allows us to isolate one or many tanks as needed, and water temperature can be maintained to accommodate cold-water or warm-water species. We have an array of glass aquarium tanks ranging in size from 10-gallon isolation tanks to 250-gallon tanks suitable for adult fish, as well as a bank of five round 200-gallon tanks that are commonly used in fish labs and aquaculture facilities. The fish lab also includes a 600-gallon rectangular tank mounted on wheels that can be moved outdoors, as well a custom-built oval flume tank mounted on wheels in which water velocity can be carefully controlled.

We use the lab to hold live fish for equipment testing, physiology studies, and training on fish tagging procedures. We conduct tag retention studies to see how long tags remain on or in test subjects, test fish survival after being subjected to invasive procedures, and determine the battery life of acoustic tags. Environmental factors like temperature, water chemistry, water velocity, and dissolved oxygen can be strictly controlled for fish physiology research. Our fish lab has played an important role in developing new technology and testing equipment prototypes like FISHBIO’s Smolt Spy camera system, Innovasea’s (formerly HTI) acoustic predation transmitters, and a resistivity fish counter for the U.S. Forest Service.