DIY Fish Decompression Chamber

[JaredWaites]

Hi Jared;

I've worked in a couple of public aquariums and have been on a number of collecting trips with various aquarium personnel and professional fish collectors. My last aquarium had a specimen (only one of its kind in captivity) that had been brought up from ~300 feet and needled. I think your idea is a great one that has potential to alleviate the stresses of capture on the fish brought from depth and may enable even deeper species to be brought up, for better or worse. I never did trust the needling method, even if the fish appeared fine afterwards. I think the PVC should maintain the ambient pressure at depth negating the need for a bicycle pump or compressor. Simply take your octo and put a little air in the chamber at depth. I might swap the pump out for a pressure gauge and slow release valve like they have on the pressure pots at SCUBA equipment repair shops. The idea is simple enough, I might just borrow it and try it on my own, if you don't mind! I see DIY fish recompression tables in the future...

So you think carrying the vessel down to depth and placing the specimen inside, rather than surfacing after needling and then placing the specimen inside the pressure vessel?

If your interested in working on this as a project, please contact me as I'd like to work together so we can work any differences in experiences out quickly as there is no need to work alone on such a project.

PM me and we can talk.

- Jared

 

[coflynn]

Hey,

If you can fit the fish in the opening - an old soda keg might work too. They are like $40 used, I had a thread where I showed making a chamber to test flashlights etc.

The plus here is you already have a proven design, with pressure relief valve. They are good to around 100 psi (~230 feet).