ZebraCube - adult fish and other species behavior tracking system
Zebrafish has recently emerged as a promising animal to model aggression, anxiety, sleep and even learning and memory. As new treatments for chronic diseases are contingent upon a good understanding of zebrafish, a precise zebrafish tracking solution is essential to grasp the parameters regulating adult zebrafish behavior. Existing as a compact cabinet ZebraCube allows the monitoring and scoring of adult zebrafish behavior under controlled conditions for large tanks or multiple dishes based on a 50x50 cm infrared floor.
Bundle ZebraCube + ZebraLab
The ZebraCube is a component of ZebraLab and allows the high throughput analysis of adult zebrafish or related species. This bundle ensures repeatability and reproducibility of your data. Check out ZebraLab software and add-ons.
Controlled environment for adult zebrafish tracking
Controlling the environment during a behavioral experiment is the key to success. ViewPoint has developed a new cubicle enclosure to control light, sound and outside noises and artifacts. ZebraCube is an individual apparatus that makes it easy to set your experiments up without requiring a full room. Increasing the throughput of your test can be done by adding up to 4 cubicles to one single computer unit, enabling you to analyze up to 64 adult zebrafish in a single experiment!
Operant conditioning for your adult zebrafish
Many operant protocols may be set with zebrafish tracking software ZebraLab such as locomotion assessment, activity behavior as well as zebrafish shoaling or social contact. It is the ideal system to handle the inside environment as it comes with a white light solution for circadian cycle or photomotor response tests. Different options can be added to the system such as: sound stimulation unit, temperature control unit with thermal shock, food dispenser. Any transparent tank may be used, as well as our range of aquatic mazes such as: T-maze, Light-Dark tank and other upon request.
Zebrafish protocols
Many operant zebrafish protocols may be set from the ZebraLab software: general activity assessment but also locomotion, shoaling, social contact, vibration stimuli, sizing. Design your own protocol to get the expected analysis.
The infrared back light board allows a perfect detection of the different subjects including: danio rerio, fathead minnow, mexican cavefish, killfish, cichlids etc.
Place any water tank size and on the 50Cm² / 2 sq ft Infrared backlight square. It does not matter the shape it is, as long as its bottom is transparent or IR light translucent. The system comes with a high quality ethernet camera and a dedicated lens working with IR light . Several options are available depending on the animal models /organisms you work with and output you want to reach. Sometimes tiniest events require the greatest compromise between resolution and FPS.
These capabilities will help your laboratory achieve outstanding results
- Controlled Environment - ZebraCube is a small and compact cabinet. ViewPoint has developed a new cubicle enclosure to control light, sound, and vibration and avoid noisy environments around the tank. Temperature control is available either to have a controlled environment or to use it as stimulation along the experiment “thermal change”.
- A dedicated tool for adult zebrafish - The more the environment is controllable the more easily replicable is your experiment. ViewPoint ensures the best results along the experiment thanks to this reproducibility.
- Zebrafish Maze to monitor different behaviors - Aquatic T-Maze for spatial cognition and learning and memory tests on adult zebrafish and Aquatic Light/Dark Preference test for pharmacological, drug screening application and stress/preference tests compatible with the ZebraCube.
- 3D tracking - Dedicated addon to perform 3D analysis on adult zebrafish.
- Novel tank diving test - Our ZebraCube allows you to perform anxiety-like behavior tests on adult zebrafish. With a specific setup, you can assess novel tank diving tests by analyzing their vertical behavior through the tank.
- Morphology Addon - Extension of the ZebraLab software for morphology analysis, allowing to measure different parts of the body (eye size, body length...). It can be used at different timepoints to evaluate growth, malformation over the time.
- Sizing Addon - Sizing add-on to get an automatic size of your zebrafish (length > 1cm). Fully automatized, our sizing add-on can help you to evaluate a growth study over a group of animals (or a single). No hassles, no complicated calculations, our software will give you several outputs : length, speed, surface, curving This add-on can be used with a live acquisition (from our equipment) or processed with AVI files. You want to reproduce the larvae experiment on adults? We made it possible with ZebraCube, the equivalent of Zebrabox for adults. Keep going, you can experiment with the same larvae that now became adults with the ZebraCube. You can introduce sound & vibration, stimulate adult zebrafish with different colors and light intensity. Run a really long term observation with our temperature control.
- Shuttle Box - Operant conditioning - Viewpoint has developed experimental devices on demand. You can test active avoidance on adult zebrafish, with visual, sound and electric stimuli. Check out Shuttle.