AquaResp

Latest version is dated March 5.th 2019 and can be downloaded from http://AquaResp.com

AquaResp® is free open-source software for measuring metabolic rate of Aquatic animals by Respirometry easy and inexpensively - used by colleagues in many countries.

No dongles, no buggy Bluetooth, no nonsense - if you have a Firesting or Presens oxygen meter you only need to purchase a digital relay/switch for about 70 € and you are in business. So you don't have to pay thousands of € for an AUTOmatic RESPirometry program!

AquaResp® is the result of collaboration between Ph.D. Eng. Morten Bo Søndergaard Svendsen, DTU Aqua, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, and Professor John Fleng Steffensen, Marine Biological Section (MBS), Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The software is based on Python and works in combination with the following items:

A: An oxygen meter with digital communication – we prefer 1-, 2-, or 4-channel oxygen meters from FireSting (but you can also use 1- or 4–channel Presens oxygen meters).

B: A device allowing AquaResp to control flushing of the respirometer according to a schedule.

The easiest and least expensive is to purchase a Cleware USB-SwitchC IEC 16A Product no.: 24-1 Relay type: closing. Cost about 70 €. This is a device turning the flushing pump on or off depending on the command from AquaResp®

(Alternatively you can use a USB 1208LS – an inexpensive Measurement Computing USB-Based DAQ Module with Eight 12-Bit Analog Inputs – and connect one of the Dig Out to an inexpensive solid state relay).

C: A static respirometer (Soon you will also be able to use it for swimming respirometers)

D: One submersible aquarium pump. We recommend Eheim pumps like 1005, 11046, 1048 (not the hundred series - they are crap).

E: A computer with at least one USB-port – can be Windows 7 or Win 10 and 32- or 64-bit.

G: The AquaResp® software (Currently Version 3) that can be downloaded from AquaResp.com

AquaResp® is complety free – and will always be – but we hope you will acknowledge AquaResp® in your future publications if you used the software. And if you have skills to program Python you can make it work for any other oxygen instruments like WTW, OceanOptics etc

Print you own inexpensive endcaps for Lollipop respirometers - if you have a 3D-printer - all you need in addition is a glass, plexiglass or polycarbonate tube and a bit of foam-rubber thread for the O-ring.

Link to YouTube showing the Lollipop respirometer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYuPu4tEGl4

PhD-student Heidrikur Bergsson made the Lollipop end-caps in Fusion 360 and we print them on a Zortrax 200 3D printer.

File of the Lollipop end-caps may be available here shortly.

Svendsen, M. B. S., Bushnell, , P. G., Christensen, E. A. F. and Steffensen, J. F. (2016). Sources of variation in oxygen consumption of aquatic animals demonstrated by simulated constant oxygen consumption and respirometers of different sizes J. Fish Biology (Special Issue); 88, 51–64. doi:10.1111/jfb.12851

Snyder, S., Nadler, L. E., Domenici, D., Bayley, J. S., Johansen, J., Svendsen, M. B. S. and Steffensen, J. F. (2016). Effect of closed versus intermittent-flow respirometry on hypoxia tolerance in the shiner perch Cymatogaster aggregata. J. Fish Biol. (Special Issue) 88; 252-264. doi:10.1111/jfb.12837

Svendsen, M. B. S., Bushnell, P. G. and Steffensen, J. F. (2016). Design and setup of intermittent-flow respirometry system for aquatic organisms. J. Fish Biology (Special Issue) 88; 26-50. doi:10.1111/jfb.12797

Steffensen, J.F. (1989). Some errors in respirometry of aquatic breathers: how to avoid and correct for them. Fish. Physiol. Biochem. 6; 49-59.

Steffensen, J. F., Johansen, K. and Bushnell, P. G. (l984). An automated swimming respirometer. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 79A; 473-476.

Fiber optic oxygen analyzers are supported via USB-port or serial port. At present AquaResp can parse the data from any of the 1-, 2- and 4- channel FireSting versions, and the Presens 1 and 4 channel Microx/Fibox

(Presens Fibox and Microx may not be supported in the future due to serious temperature compensation and data parsing issues as well as very high price = low value for your bucks => purchase another instrument like the FireSting which cost a fraction of a Presens). In the future WTW 34xx oxygen meters may also be supported.

AquaResp® - Free open-source software for Respirometry of Aquatic animals.