Tragedy at the lab!
Yesterday, I donned my first white labcoat. Sadly, it served its purpose in an unexpected way. The night before, the pH meter, which was supposed to maintain the zebrafish tank-water at a constant pH of around 7, went bonkers and released enough acid to bring the actual pH to around 3. Unsurprisingly, within 3 hours, 80% of the zebrafish were dead. When I got to the lab today I witnessed the eerie sight of rows and rows of empty fish tanks; we spent around 2 and a half hours washing the empty tanks with bleach to prep them for the new fish, which will be arriving next Tuesday. It was a sad sight, since Lindsey had been raising her fish for months to reproductive maturity, and all of that hard work was flushed down the toilet in just a few hours (even the survivors may be useless, since huge fluctuations in pH can cause them to become sterile).
Luckily, the killifish (who, ironically, had the primitive tank system) survived the night just fine. Hopefully the lab will be safe and sound on Monday!
