News

Inspired by feedback from the famous Poss Lab at Duke University, we are now offering a new quick release lid for our 5 L and 10 L swim tunnels for fast and effortless addition/removal of animals. This is especially relevant for users that are force-exercising large groups of zebrafish and want to get the fatigued specimens out in no time and without disturbing the rest of the fish or having to stop the experiment.

The lid opening is placed right next to the downstream grid where fatigued fish tend to end up during swimming performance tests. This means that if one or multiple animals get stuck on the grid during swimming, the animals can be quickly removed without having to unscrew the entire lid.

We have created the complete video tutorial for our new DPTV 2 software. The video shows how easy it is to perform an automated water velocity calibration in one of our mini swim tunnels using a uEye camera and a DAQ-BT device, and how you can perform a manual calibration as well as record your own videos.

We hope you like it. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or want to know more about the DPTV 2 software.

We have created a quick video tutorial for our new DPTV 2 software. The short video shows how easy it is to perform an automated water velocity calibration in one of our mini swim tunnels using a uEye camera and a DAQ-BT device. 

We hope you like it. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or want to know more about the DPTV 2 software.

We have introduced a new product to our portfolio.

This Open flume tank is for force-swimming individual or groups of fry-juvenile zebrafish; or anything aquatic and similar sized, for that matter. This system is ideal for zebrafish phenotyping, swimming performance, exercise physiology, behavior etc. in freshwater or seawater species. The water velocity (= swimming speed) can be adjusted using the included diaphragm valve and paddlewheel flow sensor, and can be adjusted from 2-28 cm/s. The tank has an open test section meaning that introducing, accessing, and removing the animal is a breeze. The section provides a clear view (e.g., for filming) from four angles (left, right, above and below). It is also possible to adjust the water depth by switching between the included weirs.

The open flume tank was developed with versatility and high-throughput in mind.

A new updated LoliTrack version 5.1.0 is now available and free to download and install for all LoliTrack 5.x.x users: https://loligosystems.com/downloads

New features include:

• The distance from animal(s) to center of zone(s) can be logged and exported.
• % of time spend in zone(s) can be logged an exported.
• Masks can be individually saved and loaded.
• Zones have the same look-and-feel as masks and can now be rotated.
• Arrow keys can be used to scroll on the timeline.
• Duration of selected timeline intervals are now shown.

Minor bug fixes:

• Timeline fixed to behave correctly with respect to frame rate.
• Microplate object tracking ‘escapes' from the wells have been fixed.
• When changing frame rates of uEye cameras, the pixel clock is set to the highest possible.
• 3D Excel exported frames without data are now exported with empty fields.
• Fixed an issue where pop-up windows would slow down or crash the software.
• Improved speed of object auto-selection of multiple objects.
• Improved camera communication.

One of the products we offer is a swim tunnel for aquatic animals. It is “like a treadmill for fish”, we usually answer, when asked what a swim tunnel is for. But what is a swim tunnel actually used for?

A good example is found in a recent press release featuring UNT professor, Ed Mager. The press release describes why Ed and his team’s research on four species of Guadalupe River fish is important. Ed explains that:

“Once we understand the swimming performance of the river’s occupants, we can make recommendations of maximum water flow rates that can be incorporated into the planning of waterway crossings.”

In other words, the research team use one of our swim tunnels to examine the maximum sustained velocity and burst speed of the Guadalupe Bass (the state fish of Texas), Guadalupe Roundnose Minnow, Guadalupe Darter and Plateau Shiner that all inhabit the river at various life stages. The Loligo swim tunnel (see picture above) enables the team to swim the fish at different water velocities in a fully controlled environment while they are able to automatically measure their oxygen consumption rate, at the same time. The setup further allows accurate control of temperature, and the option to film the swimming fish from different angles, if needed.

Overall, you may find a swim tunnel used in physiology studies and in research on energetics, behavior, biomechanics and kinematics – not only in fish, but essentially in any aquatic animals that meet the physical requirements of the swim tunnel.

Daniel Montgomery and Rod Wilson from University of Exeter and their collaborators used our BOBS™ instrumentation to measure haemoglobin-O₂ affinity (P₅₀) on European sea bass in hypoxic conditions.

Their findings suggest that it is worthwhile considering the Hb-O₂ affinity in hypoxia studies because of the effects of the naturally raised CO₂ levels that follows a hypoxic event.

Full article:

Rising CO₂ enhances hypoxia tolerance in a marine fish
Montgomery, Daniel W; Simpson, Stephen D; Engelhard, Georg H; Birchenough, Silvana NR; Wilson, Rod W; (2019)
Scientific reports

Link to article

The latest version of LoliTrack is out! This major upgraded version features many improvements and additions as well as a much faster performance on regular PCs.

IMPORTANT: We offer a 50 % discount to all LoliTrack 1-4 and DanioTrack license holders. This offer is valid in 2020 only. For more information, click here.

MICROPLATE TRACKING
LoliTrack 5 includes several tracking tools that will save a lot of time. An example is tracking organisms in 24-, 48-, and 96-well microtiter plates for fast screening of activity levels or locomotion:

BODY POINTS
Another example is that LoliTrack 5 can identify specific body points (tail, head, midline center, center of gravity) as well as the object midline which is especially useful for studying kinematics (tail beat frequency, body oscillations etc.) or specific behavior (direction of orientation or movement, turning rate etc.). A new parameter, “BEND”, can be calculated as well giving body angles, i.e., for automated tracking of tailbeat frequency or other body oscillations:

Nearest Neighbor Distance / Inter-Individual Distance
You can export a visual representation as well as the position data for nearest neighbor distance and inter-individual distance for multiple objects:

HEAT MAP
Heat mapping is now an option as well for specific parameters like position, speed, acceleration etc.:

ERROR CORRECTION TOOLS
Other important updates include the possibility to correct tracking errors like object identity switching or even if the object leaves and re-enters the arena.

3D TRACKING
LoliTrack 5 supports 3D tracking and analysis. With two cameras (or video files), users can track and analysis the behavior of a single object in 3D. The 3D tracking feature further allows exporting the trajectories as a 3D model or as video for data presentation:

PERFORMANCE
LoliTrack 5 has been optimized with performance in mind. On regular Windows 10 PCs, users of LoliTrack 5 will find that calibrating, creating filters and indeed tracking runs more smoothly and faster compared to the previous version, LoliTrack 4. The follow diagram shows six examples of how many seconds it took to track the same video in LoliTrack 5 compared to LoliTrack 4:

VIDEO FILE COMPATIBILITY
LoliTrack 5 now supports most video file formats unlike previous version that only handled .AVI files.

VIDEO CAMERA
Another new feature in LoliTrack 5 is the built-in video recorder. The video recorder allows the user to capture and edit videos from within LoliTrack 5 using most cameras connected to the PC.

USER-INTERFACE
The entire LoliTrack 5 interface has been redesigned to meet today’s clean and streamlined user demands. Tracking a video follows an intuitive step-by-step procedure: Load video file > Calibration > Masking > Filtering > Tracking > Analysis. Several time-saving features have been added; including the option to track a user-defined interval of the entire video or to quickly define the filter by subtracting the background.

We are happy to be sponsoring the NoWPaS 2020 meeting at Laugarvatn, Iceland, on March 2^nd – 7^th. NoWPas focuses on all anadromous salmonid species and will be celebrating its 15^th anniversary this year.

NoWPaS has succeeded in organizing annual workshops since its inception in Norway in 2005. Over the next fourteen years, a total of 380 early-stage researchers and 59 invited speakers have had the opportunity to give oral presentations regarding their research on salmonids.

The workshop is free for all delegates and is first come, first serve among eligible applicants.

We hope for a great meeting in Iceland!