Inported post from wordpress blog: 3/8/16

I wish I had more to write about. Life isn't that eventful sadly. My lab fish are still alive even though we had some issues with the dosing of the tanks and worry about the pH and conductivity of the tanks getting too high. Slowly things are coming together. Tomorrow we are getting another undergrad who was hired so they can be here for morning feedings and I don't have to do that everyday on my own. Especially once we start doing research work. Tomorrow, the PI is going to show myself and most of the undergrads how to set up breeding chambers. PI isn't sure if we will actually have a successful breeding, the females may not be back into a biological groove for breeding yet, but it's worth a shot for the learning experience of setting it up and trying to get things started. I'm excited to learn things like this. The breeding tanks are more hands off than when we start working directly with the embryos, but I am looking forward to learning something new now that we have fish.


Zebrafish with a mutation the produces spots instead of stripes

Inported post from wordpress blog: 3/10/16

Yesterday I was taught how to select pairs of fish for breeding, and this morning how to set the setting to get them to breed. Over all 3 pairs of fish laid about 200 eggs. Only 122 of them were viable embryos, though.

I got to set up 7 pairs on my own today and tomorrow I will set up their breeding and embryo collection. I'm very excited with what I'm learning to do.


One set of the fertilized zebrafish eggs


One of seven breeding pairs (aren't they so cute ^^)

Inported post from wordpress blog: 3/12/16

One of the undergrads showed me how take pictures of our embryos through the microscope. It is very tricky with the iPhone because the auto-focus wants to focus on the microscope's eye-piece instead of the view through the lens. It also picks up the light awkwardly, but it does the jo

I should have taken another photo when I looked at them today. They were about 48 hours today. Their eyes are more define and they have a lot of pigment cells. I'll try to take a photo to share with the next batch of breeders I do.

Something that I can't share through photos is the beating heart. I can't recall when they start beating, but it is very visible. I really enjoy seeing the fish develop.

These eggs are about 24 hours old.