title: Effects of Environmental Enrichment on the Fertility and Fecundity of Zebrafish (Danio rerio).
abstract: Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a popular vertebrate model in biomedical research, but information describing the effects of environmental enrichment on fertility and fecundity of zebrafish is sparse. In the current study, 18 breeding pairs were placed in divided 1.5-L breeding tanks containing 1 of 3 enrichment conditions: plastic grass (n = 6), plastic leaves (n = 6), or no enrichment (n = 6, control). The pairs were allowed to spawn for 3 h the next day, after which eggs were counted and breeding pairs were returned to holding tanks for use in subsequent sessions. Spawning sessions were repeated at 7-d intervals until the completion of 9 trials, with pairs rotating to a different condition at each interval. Total egg count (mean ± SEM) after 3 h was greater for zebrafish spawning in the grass environment (48.0 ± 7.7 eggs) than in the leaf or control environments (29.4 ± 5.3 and 20.4 ± 3.7 eggs, respectively). An interaction emerged between enrichment type and the age of the spawning pair on the number of fry at 6 d postfertilization (dpf). Initially, more fry were obtained from 110- and 160-dpf pairs with the grass enrichment, but from 173- and 180-dpf pairs there were more obtained with leaf enrichment than grass. A separate experiment showed that enrichment type did not have an effect on fry survivability. Overall, our data indicates that, under certain conditions, zebrafish fertility and fecundity are greater in a breeding tank containing environmental enrichment than in a bare tank.
authors.affiliation: Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA. lwaferdvm@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lemnique N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Wafer
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: V Behrana
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Jesse C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Whitney
authors.affiliation: Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.affiliation: Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Rene
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.affiliation: Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Bradford S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Goodwin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006799:Housing, Animal; D008297:Male; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000502:physiology*