Design and development of innovative incubators for optimizing fish egg incubation temperature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30972/vet.3719286Keywords:
Carassius auratus, closed-loop system, microcontroller, incubation systems, Peltier, remote monitoringAbstract
Precise temperature control during artificial incubation is a critical factor for optimizing embryonic development and minimizing morphological deformities in aquaculture. This study aimed to design, develop, and technically evaluate two artificial incubation systems capable of managing distinct thermal profiles, followed by an in vivo biological validation. The first prototype used thermoelectric Peltier technology to create a portable microenvironment. Although promising, it required high energy consumption to achieve a minimum temperature of 7.3 °C in a 5-liter volume, indicating operational limitations for strict biological standards at larger scales. Consequently, a second device was developed: a closed-loop, double-layer incubator integrated with an IoT-based telemetry system (ESP8266 microcontroller and Telegram bot). This system successfully maintained highly stable thermal environments across four experimental setpoints (6.2 °C, 11.6 °C, 17.6 °C, and 23.5 °C) with temperature fluctuations below 1 °C. To validate the practical utility of this system, an in vivo proof-of-concept trial was conducted using Carassius auratus eggs under seven thermal treatments. The biological results confirmed that the system's thermal precision translates into reliable experimental data, demonstrating highly significant differences in hatching time, hatching rate, and observable morphological abnormalities (p<0.001), particularly under cold stress conditions. In conclusion, although the Peltier-based prototype requires further optimization, the double-layer incubator proved to be a highly accurate, scalable, and versatile tool that effectively reduces stochastic thermal variability in applied aquaculture research.
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