Anaesthetic efficacy and physiological responses to clove oil-anaesthetized kelp grouper Epinephelus bruneus

Abstract

The efficacy of clove oil as an anaesthetic and at producing a physiological response (plasma cortisol and glucose) was evaluated in the kelp grouper, Epinephelus bruneus. To acquire complete anaesthesia in less than 3 min and recovery in <10 min, three doses of clove oil were tested at 18, 22 and 26 °C. Although higher anaesthetic doses resulted in shorter induction times and longer recovery times, and a lower temperature resulted in longer anaesthesia induction and slower recovery, we found the optimal dose and administering temperature of clove oil to be 250–300 mg L−1 at water temperature of 18 °C, 150–200 mg L−1 at water temperature of 22 °C and 50–100 mg L−1 at water temperature of 26 °C respectively. Following the administration of 150 mg L−1 of clove oil at 22 °C, the plasma cortisol level was highest (4.24 ± 1.571 μg dL−1) after 12 h and the plasma glucose was highest (92.7 ± 9.61 mg dL−1) after 2 h. These results should be useful to the aquaculture industry, where anaesthesia is necessary for a range of activities.