Special Considerations for Keeping Cephalopods in Laboratory Facilities

Cephalopods have been used for a wide variety of biomedical and basic science research projects and their use has been growing. Advances in culture techniques pioneered at the National Resource Center for Cephalopods (NRCC) have enabled the NRCC to culture cephalopods year-round, rather than relying seasonally on wild-caught cephalopods. These cultured cephalopods are then provided to visiting investigators or shipped to investigators in remote areas. This article describes how an investigator in a remote area can contravene shipping stress and, in turn, maintain small colonies of healthy cephalopods for long periods of time. The NRCC has established protocols for health monitoring involving behavior and water chemistry analyses. Disease prevention is accomplished through rigorous environmental control, water treatment and adequate feeding. Treatment is usually a less-effective option, involving dips and injections of antibiotics. The list of effective antibiotics is short (i.e., chloramphenicol, gentamicin, and nitrofurazone). The NRCC also air-freights cephalopods routinely via overnight delivery service to remote or inland institutions for inunediate use on arrival. As a result, these cephalopods often become stressed during shipment. The NRCC's goals are for investigators in remote areas to avoid potential problems in their research results due to stress and to extend the time frame during which cephalopods can be maintained at these remote institutions.