Aquaculture at the American University of Beirut is not a standalone program. The program is housed in the biology department and collaborates with the departments of agriculture, nutrition and food technology. Our aquaculture research program has three main goals. One is to study the environmental physiology of aquatic organisms in order to develop optimal protocols for farming them. Second, we determine environmental tolerances in order to model organismal distribution in natural environments depending on season and location. This also helps forecast invasiveness of species such as lion fish and rabbitfish, and how they interact and compete with native species. Third, we use aquaculture as a tool to decrease consumptive water use and increase freshwater productivity in semi-arid and arid regions of the world. In the past few years students working in the aquaculture lab have studied topics ranging from 1- effects of temperature, salinity, and various salinity mixes on fish, 2- energy use relative to water movement, 3- nutritive requirements of herbivorous marine fish, 4- intraspecific competition among schooling fish, 5- compartmentalization of heavy metals and aromatics within sea urchins, 6- variation in omega-3 fatty acids with season and diet, 7- effects of water toxins such as ammonia and nitrite on fish, to 8- developing a hematological test for fish health evaluation 9- Aquaculture / Agriculture integration, 10- recycling food waste into fish feed, 11- effects of allochtonous probiotics on fish and interactions with bacterial pathogens, and determination of digestive enzymes in herbivorous marine fishes . We hope to continue to be one of the more innovative labs in the field. We are today one of the most productive (if not the most productive) labs in the Arab world and are always open to collaboration with faculty members and students from around the world .