GEOMAR fish culture facility
In 2026, GEOMAR inaugurated a new fish culture facility for experimental work on aquatic vertebrates. The entire system is housed within a climate culture room that enables accurate control of temperature and lighting conditions to simulate seasonal variations in the environment. The holding system is comprised of two 1000 L tanks to keep large species (such as Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua) and 15 glass aquaria for smaller species (such as stickleback). These systems can be operated both as a flow-through setup, to prevent pseudo replication of experimental treatments, or as a recirculating aquaculture system, with biological, mechanical and UV filtration systems. Flow-through sea water is supplied by the GEOMAR seawater pipeline from the Kiel Fjord (Baltic sea water ~15 ppt), a North sea water storage facility (35 ppt), or an artificial seawater storage facility (any ppt). A central gas mixing facility supplies custom gas mixtures into the environmental chamber for long term exposure experiments. These are carried out in nine 210 L tanks that can be individually controlled to simulate ocean warming, low oxygen saturation (hypoxia), and ocean acidification; thus, covering the major climate changes stressors affecting fish in the wild. Therefore, this state-of-the-art facility enables cutting edge research on the effects of climate change on marine fishes through acclimation, respirometry, exercise (swim tunnel) and behavioral studies at GEOMAR.
Large 1000 L tanks hold large fish species, such as Atlantic cod, and can be operated both as a flow-through or recirculating aquaculture system
Experimental tanks can be controlled individually to simulate ocean warming, low oxygen saturation (hypoxia) or ocean acidification, to study the effects of climate change on fishes