Novel use of an ultrasonic cleaning device for fish reproductive studies

A major challenge commonly faced in reproductive studies of teleosts is to cost effectively and safely separate oocytes from one another and from surrounding ovarian tissue. This challenge is exacerbated when ovarian tissue has been chemically preserved. Using Platycephalus caeruleopunctatus, a platycephalid species found within oceanic waters along the east coast of Australia, as an example species, within this study we describe and assess the utility of an ultrasonic cleaning device to separate oocytes from preserved ovarian tissue. The ultrasonic cleaning device was observed to separate oocytes from the surrounding ovarian tissue within less than 80 min of treatment and had no deleterious effects on the number of oocytes present. Treatment within the ultrasonic cleaning device reduced oocyte diameters at a constant rate of 3.9 μm per hour among the samples tested. As the ultrasonic cleaning device was able to separate oocytes from connective tissue within 80 min, this observed rate of reduction in oocyte diameters is unlikely to be detected at the resolution at which oocytes are traditionally measured and is less than that reported to occur using alternate chemically derived methods to separate oocytes from preserved connective tissue. Following the assessment of using an ultrasonic cleaning device to separate oocytes from ovarian tissue for P. caeruleopunctatus, this technique has been successfully employed to separate oocytes from preserved ovarian tissue for a variety of other teleost species including Macquaria colonorum, Platycephalus longispinis and Ratabulus diversidens. The use of an ultrasonic cleaning device to separate oocytes from preserved ovarian tissue will increase the efficiency of future investigations into teleost reproductive biology and potentially in other fields of research where particle separation and analysis are required.