A novel organ culture system has been developed to study the regulation of statoconia production in the gravity sensing organ in Aplysia californica. Statocysts were cultured in Leibovitz (L15) medium supplemented with salts and Aplysia haemolymph for four days at 17 degrees C. The viability of the system was evaluated by examining four parameters: statocyst morphology, the activity of the mechanosensory cilia in the statocyst, production of new statoconia during culture and change in statoconia volume after culture. There were no morphological differences in statocysts before and after culture when ciliary beating was maintained. There was a 29% increase in the number of statoconia after four days in culture. Mean statocyst, statolith and statoconia volumes were not affected by culture conditions. The presence of carbonic anhydrase in the statocysts was shown using immunohistochemistry. When statocysts were cultured in the presence of 4.0 x 10(-4) M acetazolamide to inhibit the enzyme activity, there was a decrease in statoconia production and statoconia volume, indicating a role for this enzyme in statoconia homeostasis, potentially via pH regulation. These studies are the first to report a novel system for the culture of statocysts and show that carbonic anhydrase is involved in the regulation of statoconia volume and production.