Measuring Behavioral Individuality in the Acoustic Startle Behavior in Zebrafish

The objective of this protocol is to provide a detailed description for the construction and use of a behavioral apparatus, the zBox, for high-throughput behavioral measurements in larval zebrafish (Danio rerio). The zBox is used to measure behavior in multiple individuals simultaneously. Individual fish are housed in wells of multi-well plates and receive acoustic/vibration stimuli with simultaneous recording of behavior. Automated analysis of behavioral movies is performed with MATLAB scripts. This protocol was adapted from two of our previously published papers (Levitz et al., 2013; Pantoja et al., 2016). The zBox provides an easy to setup flexible platform for behavioral experiments in zebrafish larvae.