The use of clove oil as an anaesthetic for the longfinned eel, Anguilla reinhardtii (Steindachner)

By C. Walsh, B. Pease. 2002

111 citations recorded by the source corpus.

To handle large river eels during procedures such as measuring and tagging for field and aquaculture studies, they must be anaesthetized. During our initial biological studies of Anguilla reinhardtii (Steindachner) it was found that the anaesthetic benzocaine was relatively expensive and elicited a variable response, even when used at relatively high concentrations. Human health risks are also a concern when using benzocaine, as some of the eels may later be sold for human consumption. Therefore, experiments were done to evaluate the use of clove oil (a safe, naturally occurring product) for anaesthesia of this species at a range of temperatures (17 and 25 degrees C) and salinities (0-32 g L(-1)). It was found that clove oil provided a suitable anaesthetic response through this wide range of temperatures and salinities. Response times were found to be relatively variable for both benzocaine and clove oil. This variability may be related to stress, environmental factors, or the condition of the fish. Clove oil is recommended for anaesthesia of anguillid eels because it is effective, relatively inexpensive, and poses little risk to human health.

Subfields: Aquatic Science, Ecology, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3ac32553c5687f6b866626ef2ad406b85c302ce0

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Aquatic Science

1. S. Cooke
2. C. Suski
3. C. Mylonas
4. D. Wahl
5. Robert Arlinghaus
6. Y. Zohar
7. J. Asturiano

In Ecology

1. C. Suski
2. S. Cooke
3. D. Wahl
4. Robert Arlinghaus
5. Frederic Bartumeus

In Physiology

1. S. Cooke
2. C. Mylonas
3. C. Suski
4. D. Wahl
5. J. Asturiano
6. Y. Zohar

Citations in the corpus

• Comparative efficacy of clove oil and 2-phenoxyethanol as anesthetics in the aquaculture of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) at different temperatures (2005, background): “, 1996), longfinned eel (Walsh and Pease, 2002), brown trout (Salmo trutta) and Atlantic salmon (Hoskonen and Pirhonen, 2004) there was no correlation between size and induction time to anesthesia.”
• Behavioral and physiological assessment of low concentrations of clove oil anaesthetic for handling and transporting largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) (2004, background): “Although there are a number of factors including water temperature (Hamáčková et al., 2001; Walsh and Pease, 2002), fish size (Woody et al., 2002), and gender (Woody et al., 2002) that may affect induction time, our experience with using clove oil to anaesthetize largemouth bass for a number of…”