Test Re-test Reliability of Zebrafish (\u3cem\u3eDanio Rerio\u3c/em\u3e) Behavior in the Novel Tank Paradigm

Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) have become an important model organism in biomedical and neuroscience research. Zebrafish have been used extensively to study teratological and pharmacological influences on anxiety-related behaviors. Anxiety-related behaviors include thigmotaxis (edge-preference) in juvenile fish and bottom preference in adult fish when these fish are introduced to novel environments. The Novel Tank Paradigm is a standard assessment of anxiety-related behaviors in Zebrafish. Pharmacological manipulations with anxiogenics and anxiolytics produce reliable alterations in Zebrafish behaviors in the Novel Tank Paradigm. The current project sought to develop an automated, inexpensive, general-purpose tracking system that would allow for high-throughput, reliable, and comprehensive assessment of Zebrafish behaviors in the Novel Tank paradigm. In addition, we used the system we developed to examine the stability of these behaviors over time. Adult Zebrafish were tested in the Novel Tank paradigm twice a say for three days. Behaviors were recorded by camera and coded both by trained human coders and by the software we developed for the project