Facility Services

At the AZF, we are committed to providing a first class service with quick turnaround times to suit the busiest schedules.  Whether you are a student accessing fish for the first time or an "industry pro," Adelaide Zebrafish Facility has the service to match your requirements.

Animal Husbandry

The principle service the AZF offers to its users is that of the animal husbandry and keeping.  Together with the Facility Manager, the staff at the AZF ensure that the water quality is maintained at a stable level, optimized to promote healthy stress free fish.  

The controlled, centralized maintenance of the Zebrafish husbandry means that AZF users do not need to bother themselves with the day to day tasks necessary to keeping a healthy and productive Zebrafish culture.  Instead they simply request access to their desired fish and utilize the services in the Facility associated with their booking, leaving each user more time to analyse their results and concentrate on their research.

Fertilized Embryos

The most popular of the services the AZF provides is the access to its photoperiod brood stock, for the harvesting of fertilized embryos.

By simply booking access to one of the 13 photoperiods in the Facility, a user can come in and collect hundreds of fertilized embryos for use in their studies.  Wild type fertilized embryos are available year-round.  Specific mutant lines can also be made available at various collection times throughout the year. 

Investigators wishing to obtain embryos are required to have animal ethics approved protocols and have undertaken the Facility induction prior to placing their first booking.   All photoperiods within the Facility operate on a 14hr "light", 10hr "dark" cycle.  The various photoperiods within the Facility are as follows:

Tank Leasing

Many of the Zf Users are drawn to the Adelaide Zebrafish Facility to take advantage of its nursery, grow-out and storage capacities.

Investigators wishing to house their fish in the AZF may rent any of three different size tanks - 1 litre, 2.75 litre, or 9 litre - which are available on a first-come first-served basis.  The systems are kept at a constant temperature of 28°C and water quality is regularly monitored.  All systems are alarmed, and a maintenance person is on-call 24 hrs/day to ensure safe keeping of all fish.

Importing Zebrafish

Transgenic and mutant animals can be imported from the large international stock centres, or from individual research laboratories world wide through the Australian Zebrafish Phenomics Facility in Queensland.  Once released from their quarantine confinements, we can establish the lines from bleach treated embryos introduced into our nursery. 

Importing Scientific Zebrafish to Australia

An import permit is required from the Australian Quaratine and Inspection Service (AQIS) for the importation of all fish.  All fish that have been housed in a research setting are considered to be "scientific fish" regardless of whether they are transgenic, mutant or just wildtype lines. Under current import guidelines, all scientific zebrafish imported to Australia need to remain in quarantine for their entire lives.
After a 7 day quarantine period and inspection by regional AQIS officers, progeny of imported fish can be released to PC2 containment under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) and an institutional ethics committee, after surface sterilization of the embryos by bleaching.

Australian Zebrafish Phenomics Facility Importation Service

The AZPF can act as an import agent for Zebrafish Australian researchers.  The services provided include:

• Applying for AQIS permits for Australian researchers to import transgenic and mutant lines to Australia
• Importing fish to their quarantine system in the Zebrafish Phenomics Facility- we can import both embryos and adult fish
• Arranging local inspections by regional AQIS officers
• Sending bleached embryos to your local research facility

Please note the time period to complete the importation process can be up to 6 months, depending on stock availability from the exporting institution.

Please contact the AZF manager in the first instance of requesting a stock import.