The Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters (FFPW) consists of the Research Institute of Fish Culture and Hydrobiology in Vodnany (RIFCH), the Institute of Aquaculture and Protection of Waters (IAPW) in Ceske Budejovice, the Institute of Complex Systems (ICS) in Nove Hrady and the International Environmental Educational, Advisory and Information Centre of Protection Vodnany (IEEAIC).
The RIFCH is focused on scientific and especially applied research, education and activities in the fields of fisheries and protection of waters. The RIFCH utilizes a small fishpond farm, river fishing preserve, specialized laboratories, aquarium rooms, two experimental facilities for research into reproduction, genetics and the breeding of fish, and the intensive breeding of fish and crayfish, including recirculation systems with water filtration. The IAPW provides research, educational and consulting services focusing on pond aquaculture, nutrition and feeding of fish in ponds and intensive culture of fish. The ICS deals with the study of complex systems in natural and social sciences, with technical and other applications of research results.
Name of the infrastructure: Intensive Freshwater Aquaculture Units
Location: Vodňany, Czech Republic
Website address: http://www.frov.jcu.cz/en
Contact: Vojtěch Kašpar
Facilities
The Intensive Freshwater Aquaculture Units (IFA) includes three rooms for controlled environmental stimulation (temperature, light regime) of out-of-season or normal season reproduction. Each system has experimental RAS with total water volume 5 m3 and eight experimental tanks (each 350 litres). RAS for fish breeding - two separated RAS, each system with total water volume 20 m3 and controlled temperature, light and oxygen conditions. Each RAS system has 10 experimental tanks with average volume 1.2 m3 and can be used for different experiments related to intensive fish culture, feeding, optimization of cultured conditions etc., flow- through system supplied by river water – rectangular tanks (24 x 6 m3 , 20 x 1,4 m3 ) and circular tanks (3,6 m3), 6 experimental ponds with average area 0.17 ha which can be used as control conditions for RAS or trough water system or for independent experiment related to juvenile and ongrowing culture under pond conditions. Laboratory equipped with complete facilities for the analytical analyses of chemical, biochemical haematological parameters (ultracentrifuge, double-beam spectrophotometer SPECORD 210, plate-reader with fluorescent and luminescent module Infinite M200PRO (TECAN), VETTEST 8008 analyzer, analyzer of blood gases Radiometer ABL90 Flex, real-time PCR, PCR thermocycler, NanoDrop). Histological equipment (tissue processor Histomaster 2052/1.5, modular tissue embedding center - Leica EG1150, semi-automatic rotary Microtome, automatic slide staining system - TISSUE-TEK® DRS™ 2000, SEKURA, contrast and fluorescence microscopy.
Services currently offered by the infrastructure
Fish culture under RAS, through water system or ponds conditions, technical support and routine biological examinations for exact and precise experiments related to environmental stimulation of reproduction in fish broodstock, fish nutrition and feeding, optimization of fish husbandry, optimization of cultured conditions during juvenile and ongrowing phase. Laboratories enable to perform assessment of effects of xenobiotic and drugs on biochemical, chemical, hematological indices and histopathology in fish and crustaceans. Service/support of this infrastructure will observe changes in the tissues of fish and crayfish exposed to tested substances on the level of gene expression and thus help us assess possible negative effects of these substances on the exposed organisms with high sensitivity.
Modality of access
The access will comprise the use of the facilities with regard to experiments and access to the laboratory equipment. Usually, trained and experienced engineer- and technical staff will carry out the standard procedures and the general maintenance. The external user will be strongly integrated in all processes, sampling, data recording, due analyses and assessment, and preparation and dissemination of results. Facility will provide suitable supervision and guidance for potential unexperienced users to properly carry out the work. Scientific support will include advice on experimental design and methodology, documentation of results for all experiments conducted in the project and appropriate sampling and storage of samples. The technical and management staff will be helpful with the overall project´s implementation.
Unit of Access
One unit of access is defined as 1 week. Typical duration of the project is 2 weeks for 1 researcher.
On average each user or user group is expected to stay 14 days at the IFA (specific training related to intensive farming of high valuable fish or biological aspects of reproduction and culture of fish, preparatory work related experiment and set-up of experimental design, preparatory work in laboratory – treatment of samples, equipment calibration and measurement on analytic instrument).