ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities
In the past few decades, aquatic animals have become popular model organisms in biology, spurring a growing need for establishing aquatic facilities. Zebrafish are widely studied and relatively easy to culture using commercial systems. However, a challenging aspect of maintaining aquatic facilities...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2021-12-01
|
| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/74234 |
| _version_ | 1797998626896609280 |
|---|---|
| author | Merlin Lange AhmetCan Solak Shruthi Vijay Kumar Hirofumi Kobayashi Bin Yang Loïc Alain Royer |
| author_facet | Merlin Lange AhmetCan Solak Shruthi Vijay Kumar Hirofumi Kobayashi Bin Yang Loïc Alain Royer |
| author_sort | Merlin Lange |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the past few decades, aquatic animals have become popular model organisms in biology, spurring a growing need for establishing aquatic facilities. Zebrafish are widely studied and relatively easy to culture using commercial systems. However, a challenging aspect of maintaining aquatic facilities is animal feeding, which is both time- and resource-consuming. We have developed an open-source fully automatic daily feeding system, Zebrafish Automatic Feeder (ZAF). ZAF is reliable, provides a standardized amount of food to every tank, is cost-efficient and easy to build. The advanced version, ZAF+, allows for the precise control of food distribution as a function of fish density per tank, and has a user-friendly interface. Both ZAF and ZAF+ are adaptable to any laboratory environment and facilitate the implementation of aquatic colonies. Here, we provide all blueprints and instructions for building the mechanics, electronics, fluidics, as well as to setup the control software and its user-friendly graphical interface. Importantly, the design is modular and can be scaled to meet different user needs. Furthermore, our results show that ZAF and ZAF+ do not adversely affect zebrafish culture, enabling fully automatic feeding for any aquatic facility. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T10:51:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-16cc32e7f95843ceac4b2f535780145e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T10:51:41Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-16cc32e7f95843ceac4b2f535780145e2022-12-22T04:28:53ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2021-12-011010.7554/eLife.74234ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilitiesMerlin Lange0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0534-4374AhmetCan Solak1Shruthi Vijay Kumar2Hirofumi Kobayashi3Bin Yang4Loïc Alain Royer5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9991-9724Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, United StatesChan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, United StatesChan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, United StatesChan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, United StatesChan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, United StatesChan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, United StatesIn the past few decades, aquatic animals have become popular model organisms in biology, spurring a growing need for establishing aquatic facilities. Zebrafish are widely studied and relatively easy to culture using commercial systems. However, a challenging aspect of maintaining aquatic facilities is animal feeding, which is both time- and resource-consuming. We have developed an open-source fully automatic daily feeding system, Zebrafish Automatic Feeder (ZAF). ZAF is reliable, provides a standardized amount of food to every tank, is cost-efficient and easy to build. The advanced version, ZAF+, allows for the precise control of food distribution as a function of fish density per tank, and has a user-friendly interface. Both ZAF and ZAF+ are adaptable to any laboratory environment and facilitate the implementation of aquatic colonies. Here, we provide all blueprints and instructions for building the mechanics, electronics, fluidics, as well as to setup the control software and its user-friendly graphical interface. Importantly, the design is modular and can be scaled to meet different user needs. Furthermore, our results show that ZAF and ZAF+ do not adversely affect zebrafish culture, enabling fully automatic feeding for any aquatic facility.https://elifesciences.org/articles/74234zebrafishopen-sourcefeederautomaticzafaquatic |
| spellingShingle | Merlin Lange AhmetCan Solak Shruthi Vijay Kumar Hirofumi Kobayashi Bin Yang Loïc Alain Royer ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities eLife zebrafish open-source feeder automatic zaf aquatic |
| title | ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities |
| title_full | ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities |
| title_fullStr | ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities |
| title_full_unstemmed | ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities |
| title_short | ZAF, the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities |
| title_sort | zaf the first open source fully automated feeder for aquatic facilities |
| topic | zebrafish open-source feeder automatic zaf aquatic |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/74234 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT merlinlange zafthefirstopensourcefullyautomatedfeederforaquaticfacilities AT ahmetcansolak zafthefirstopensourcefullyautomatedfeederforaquaticfacilities AT shruthivijaykumar zafthefirstopensourcefullyautomatedfeederforaquaticfacilities AT hirofumikobayashi zafthefirstopensourcefullyautomatedfeederforaquaticfacilities AT binyang zafthefirstopensourcefullyautomatedfeederforaquaticfacilities AT loicalainroyer zafthefirstopensourcefullyautomatedfeederforaquaticfacilities |