Breeding and larviculture of zebrafish (Danio rerio)

The number of zebrafish facilities steadily increases across the globe. This chapter focuses on a fundamentally important aspect of zebrafish research: how to breed and raise zebrafish. It discusses practical aspects of these questions but also deals with conceptual issues, including whether in establishing zebrafish breeding and rearing methods we should learn from nature, and whether we should standardize our methods. The chapter discusses what we regard as optimal maintenance conditions, e.g., how to prepare adult parental fish for spawning, set up spawning/breeding tanks, handle the eggs, and rear the young juveniles of zebrafish. The description of methods and maintenance factors includes water chemistry, temperature, filtration, food, and feeding methods, among other aspects of breeding and larviculture of zebrafish. The chapter ends with a short discussion on reproducibility and replicability in research and a note on how zebrafish breeding and larviculture may influence both.