The Anesthetic Effects of Clove Oil and MS-222 on Far Eastern Catfish, Silurus asotus

The objective of this study is to evaluate the anesthetic effects of clove oil and tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222) on the Far Eastern catfish, Silurus asotus, by measuring the times to anesthesia and recovery. Each anesthetic effect of clove oil and MS-222 was tested in two groups of fish with different body sizes: a group of small fish (mean body length: 15.5±1.58 cm, mean body weight: 50.1±5.91 g, n=20) and a group of large fish (mean body length: 31.5±4.19 cm, mean body weight: 302.1±15.22 g, n=20). The anesthetics were used at concentrations of 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 ppm. The results showed significant relationships between the concentration of the anesthetic and the body size of the fish. Each of these variables showed statistical significance (p<0.05). The time to anesthesia decreased linearly with increasing concentration in the large fish for both clove oil and MS-222 (p<0.05). Based on an optimal anesthetic time of approximately 1 min, the preferred concentrations of the anesthetics were 500 ppm for clove oil and 600 ppm for MS-222. Both the anesthetic time and the recovery time were shorter for the small fish than for the large fish (p<0.05). Our study showed that the smaller-sized Far Eastern catfish was more easily anesthetized and recovered more rapidly from anesthesia than the larger-sized fish.