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Coral to donate for high school project?

Matt_Wandell

Matt_Wandell

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Hi guys, a local high school sophomore is interested in doing a study to test the effect of MS-222 (a fish anesthetic) on coral tissue. I promised I'd help him out with advice, info, etc.

If anybody has a coral you're no longer interested in that you'd be willing to donate to this project, he'd appreciate it. To contact me please reply here or try my email:
mwandell@calacademy.org

Just about any coral would work, as long as there's a lot of it so that he could make many frags for replicated treatments. Monti cap, Xenia, etc.

Thanks guys!
 
Tricaine mesylate (Tricaine methanesulfonate, TMS, MS-222), is white powder used for anesthesia, sedation, or euthanasia of fishes. TMS is the only anesthetic licensed in the United States for fin fish that is intended for human consumption. The drug can have selective toxicity for poikilotherms due to their lower rate of metabolism in the liver[1].

TMS is a muscle relaxant that operates by preventing action potentials. By blocking action potentials, no signals can be exchanged between the brain and the extremities. There will be no sensory input or muscle contractions which would have been caused by action potential, which includes most muscles.

The optimum concentration used is 50-75 ppm (parts per million). However, the optimum may vary with the size and species of the fish, and other variables.

It is easily soluble in water (both fresh and salt) but it drastically decreases the pH of water, increasing the acidity, which may be toxic for fish. Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is used to buffer the solution to a pH range of 6.5-7.5. Usually an equal amount of buffer is added to attain a neutral pH [2]. In salt/marine/sea water, the buffer use may not be necessary because sea water itself has buffering capacity.

The solution of TMS needs to be prepared freshly each time because TMS is light-sensitive and might form toxic by-products upon exposure to light.


Yummy stuff :D
 
Thanks for the responses everyone. Yes, it is for sure an interesting project especially for a HS sophomore to undertake!

When he treats with MS-222 he'll be pulling the frags out and adding them to a dish, so the MS-222 will only be "active" for a few minutes. I'll of course report back here with his findings.
 
Please be sure that proper handling precautions including storage procedure, security, and gloves are considered. Sounds like there are several safety concerns. H)
 
Matt, any chance he'll be able to look at the coral under a microscope before and after dosing to see how it affects their cilia?
 
Gomer said:
Matt, any chance he'll be able to look at the coral under a microscope before and after dosing to see how it affects their cilia?
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Not likely. He'll probably be doing "dead" or "not dead" observations every day for several weeks.

But it would be simple enough to do this ourselves if we wanted to. What coral do you think would be worth looking at? We have MS-222 I could give you if you wanted to try it yourself, too.
 
You'd have to ship it to Tony :( He left us for New Mexico for "what ever" reason :p

Stoked your doing this Matt, very little has been done with regards to MS-222.

Per chance do you know who the MS-222 came from? Argeant (Cyclop-eeze makers)?
 
if only I could have BAR, livermore wineries, Santa fe food and the job, house, and outdoors stuff, then I'd be all over it :-D

I think I saw a video microscope here :-D
 
robert4025 said:
Gomer said:
JAR said:
Does MS-222 work on Jeremy and Robert?
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Click to expand...

I know for certain that it will work on Tony. Can the club donate him instead? He's so much cheaper than corals.... :p

Matt...I have tons of Kenya Trees...if you want those, I can give it by the bucket!
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I'm not cheap! I'm just one hell of a good deal.




....ok. I'm cheap.
 
Hah man Tony I just drove through there. Could've dropped by and doped you up with the stuff :p

If you guys are really interested in seeing a project done on it, I might be able to convince my advisor to give me more (unneeded) credits for an independent project @ SJSU. Microscope work, mult controls, water tests, anything else you can think of? I'll create a new post if I can swing it w/ the department.
 
Hi everyone, thanks for all the generous offers. John (JAR) donated a really great looking Seriatopora today that will fill the bill. I'll post here after we get some data!
 
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