NEW in ZIMS: Requested by members, (7) new features reflect the changing needs of Husbandry and Aquatics teams

January 31, 2022
Nannette Driver-Ruiz
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See what’s new in ZIMS for Husbandry and Aquatics, Care and Welfare, Medical, and Studbooks

Nannette Driver-Ruiz, A-CSPO, is Product Owner, ZIMS for Husbandry and Aquatics, Species360.

The Species360 team is kicking off 2022 with a series of new features and enhancements to ZIMS for Husbandry and Aquatics.

We want to thank all of our members that participated in these upgrades by recommending ways to support changes in your day-to-day work in animal care, welfare tracking, water quality measures, and other processes.

These new features reflect your input, and are focused on making it easier to record care, welfare, and enclosure data, and improving search and access to information across teams.

1. View and compare animals or enclosures and life support.

Search improvements have been implemented on the Animal Graphing tool and Environmental Quality graph, making it easier to view data when comparing animals or enclosures and their connected life support. Searches were also enhanced in the enclosure module to include all levels of sub-enclosures below the selected enclosure, such as related pools or incubators.

**New search improvements make it easier to view data when comparing animals or enclosures and their connected life support.**

**To help aquarists looking for data regarding related pools or incubators, searches in the enclosure module can now include all levels of sub-enclosures below the selected enclosure.**

2. New custom columns help fine tune search results.

Increased column customization options also enhance the search experience. Users can now include all identifiers, the most commonly used length measurements and Nest ID. By enabling more column options, users can customize what they want to see when viewing enclosure occupants or a selected set of animals, such as an animal list.

**By using a range of identifiers such as Nest ID or length of measurement, you can customize and narrow results such as a list of animals.**

3. Easier ways to record enrichment data and goals! (Available February 7)

Launching February 7 as part of the Enrichment feature of ZIMS for Husbandry, users will be able to assign a goal to an enrichment session. These goals can be added in whichever way is easiest for the user — either through an animal’s record, through a batch action, or through a husbandry log template.

A new very comprehensive export is also now available through the Reports menu for insight to enrichment sessions. Users can analyze the data to determine enrichment successes across taxonomy or a set of animals, over a date range and by collection. They can view the goals, session ratings and see if changes were recommended.

In addition, multiple enrichment items can be assigned to animals with one click to ‘Select All‘.

In one of several new features focused on recording and sharing information related to enrichment, users can now assign a goal to an enrichment session. The goals can be added through an animal’s record, or as a batch action, or through a Husbandry Log Template.

4. Easily export Environmental Quality graphs to Excel.

Thanks to requests from our aquarium members, the Environmental Quality graph in ZIMS for Husbandry now has an option to export to Microsoft Excel in a new format, easily accessible from the graphing screen. With the use of ‘Favorite Filters’, exporting water quality data is just a click away.

Easily accessible in ZIMS for Husbandry, the Environmental Quality graph now has an option to export to Excel in a new format. Combined with the ‘Favorite Filters’ feature, exporting water quality data is just a click away.

5. Daily Husbandry report includes animal care and welfare records.

Animal care and welfare records are an increasingly more important and more demanding aspect of records management. Species360 has introduced several key features to track key welfare indicators, and now key Animal Care and Welfare data is included in its own section of the ZIMS for Husbandry Daily Report.

There is also an option under Notes & Observations to exclude notes recorded in other grids. This change makes reading through the notes easier to see the information that is most important.

Animal Care and Welfare data is included in its own section of the widely-used ZIMS for Husbandry Daily Report. Notes & Observations can be excluded, making it easier to see the information that is most important.

6. Set up Husbandry Log Templates faster with Save & Repeat. (Available February 7)

Husbandry Log Templates also have a couple of new updates. First is a time-saver for setting up templates. When setting up new templates, or adding columns to an existing template, there is a Save & Repeat option to keep the entities selected and allow users to flow through the set-up process with fewer clicks to add record types to the template. This will launch on February 7.

7. It just got easier to view key information in Husbandry Log Templates. (Available February 7)

Also in Husbandry Log Templates, the saved records section automatically sets the data range to view the last 30 days, eliminating a few more keystrokes and making it easier to view measurements, checklist items and other data. Easily change the 30-day range to view data for a different date range. This will launch on February 7.