A Biological Monitoring System Employing Rheotaxis of Fish

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Abstract
An automatic toxicity monitoring and alarm device using rheotaxis is described. This device can also be used for static laboratory tests. When loss of rheotaxis along with surfacing are used as criteria for acute poisoning instead of death, the time for toxicity tests required would be considerably shortened. Visual observation of some other parameters of behavior, such as schooling, would yield additional valuable information about the specific effects of a certain poison or a particular concentration of it. Methods are proposed which allow even unskilled personnel to make these observations. Loss of rheotaxis and surfacing can be recorded automatically. Testing of the automatic monitoring device in the laboratory led to the development of a multichannel, automatically recording test apparatus.