Aquatic animal research in space station and its issues — focus on support technology on nitrate toxicity —

Nitrate Toxicity on Visceral Organs of Medaka Fish, Oryzias latipes: Aiming to Raise Fish from Egg to Egg in Space

“…These observations are in agreement with previous studies investigating the toxic effects of nitrate on different stages of the life cycle of the Medaka fish (Shimura et al, 2000;Shimura et al, 2002). …”

“…However, after exposure to nitrate at different life stages of Medaka fish, it was found that, even at relatively low concentrations, nitrate can affect embryonic development, growth, and egg-laying capacity. For Medaka fish, the median lethal concentrations for nitrate on three different stages, just hatching, one and two months after hatching, determined from a 96-h exposure experiment were found to be 156, 116 and 166 mg NO 3 -N l -1 , respectively and the concentration considered to be safe for long-term exposure was found to be less than 25 mg NO 3 -N l -1 (Shimura et al, 2000;Shimura et al, 2002). To assess the toxicity of nitrate to Medaka fish in greater detail, we studied histology of the gills, intestinal ampulla, liver and kidney, after acute and chronic exposure to nitrate.…”

Silkworms culture as a source of protein for humans in space

“…Besides, researches all over the world investigating fish and amphibian have achieved much progress. The selected fish species included Xiphophorus helleri (Blü m et al, 1995a;Gitelson et al, 1995), rainbow trout (Uchida et al, 2002), Tilapia (Blü m et al, 1995b), Xiphophorus helleri (Bluem and Paris, 2003), Oryzias latipes (Shimura et al, 2002), Crenopharyngodon Idellus (Gitelson et al, 1995), etc. In addition, some European countries and Japan have studied the urchin larvae (Brinckmann and Schiller, 2002), snail Iomphalaria Glabrata Bluem and Paris, 2003 and Cynops pyrrhogaster (Mogami et al, 1996;Shimura et al, 2002).…”

“…However, fish and amphibians are sensitive to the water conditions. For example, the effects of accumulated nitrate in water may cause a delay in spawning, hatching and development of these animals (Shimura et al, 2002). Besides, researches on poultry feeding have been popular.…”

Aquaculture in bio-regenerative life support systems (BLSS): Considerations

“…This link has been fundamental in the ancient aquaculture practice of integrating fish culture with food production and waste-management systems (Khalil and Hussein, 1997;Liang et al, 1999;Pillay and Kutty, 2005). Modern integrated-aquaculture production systems have intensified overall productivity in Earth-based operations (Rakocy, 1997;McMurty et al, 1997;Rafiee and Saad, 2005) and have been evaluated for its application in space environments (Shimura et al, 1999(Shimura et al, , 2002Blum et al, 2000;Uchida et al, 2002;Blum, 2003;Lu and Takeuchi, 2004).…”