Research Aquaria

Roslin's state-of-the-art aquarium, equipped with hatchery and disease challenge facilities, is integral to our groundbreaking research.

The Aquaculture Genetics Research Facility (AGRF) is a freshwater aquarium facility on Easter Bush Campus, designed for research into early-life stages of farmed fish species.

The AGRF is set up with a hatchery room and a grow out room, which is equipped for disease challenge experiments. There are three separate recirculating freshwater systems to provide suitable water quality conditions for the fish. The Facility has been built to support the ongoing research into disease resistance and genome editing of farmed fish, in particular salmonids. The rooms and systems are set up to allow for research into both cold and warm water fish.

The AGRF is available for use by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, and also to external users, interested in performing experiments in aquaculture species in freshwater. The facility manager is Dr Carl Tucker. Further details on the AGRF, including the procedure for accessing and using the facility, will be provided soon.

The AGRF was funded by Agri-Epi, Innovate UK and BBSRC.

The  Aquaculture team at the Roslin Institute has worked with shrimp across numerous projects, and in 2021 we developed a new shrimp facility in order to help carry out more important research.

Our facility is designed to hold shrimp across each stage of their life cycle, with numerous submerged pots to house juveniles and sixteen separate aquariums for housing adolescents and adults.

The facility also enables our researchers to utilise CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology, which is of vital important to ongoing study. 

Due to the success of this Facility, and thanks to investment from BBSRC, our aquaria will be expanded.  In spring 2022 we will be opening an aquatic invertebrate disease challenge facility. This will be a biosecure, adaptable aquarium system that is suitable for working on a range of species including oysters (Ostrea edulis and Crassotrea gigas), blue mussels (Mytilus spp.), crustaceans (e.g. Litopenaeus vannamei and juvenile Homarus gammarus), scallops (Pecten maximus and Aequipecten opercularis) and others for work at multiple life-stages.  More details will follow on this facility and how to access it in the coming months.