Effectiveness of clove oil as anaesthetic for Tilapia jipe

Anaesthetics are widely used in routine aquaculture activities to reduce incidence of stress by sedating and immobilizing fish before performing any task in aquaculture.

Some tasks in aquaculture practices produce some level of disturbances, causing stress response which leads to decreased fish performance, thus increasing its susceptibility to disease and in extreme cases results in mortality. The aim of this study therefore, is to determine the efficacy and optimum concentration dose as anaesthesia of clove oil that can be subjected to tilapia jipe to reduce stress for easier handling of this fish.

The effectiveness of clove oil as anaesthetic for tilapia jipe of different sizes (2, 5, 70 and 100grams) was investigated. The fish were subjected to different concentrations of clove oil, 0 (control), 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 grams’ /liter solution. Five fish from each weight were immersed in each of the different clove oil concentrations. The results obtained indicated a size related response, to Clove oil. The induction time for different weights of fish were found to decrease significantly (P < 0.05) as the concentrations of the clove oil increased with the shortest induction time .61(min) observed in 2grams fish on 25ml/l concentration, while the longest 2.65 (min) was recorded in 100gram fish at 5ml/l concentration. However, the recovery time increased significantly with increasing concentration of the clove oil, with the highest recovery time of 10.36 (min) observed in 100 grams’ fish, at 25.0mglL concentration and the lowest 0.00(min) in 2 grams at 15.0mg/L concentration and 5grams at 20 ml/l concentration of the clove oil, Generally, the results indicated that induction time decreased, while recovery time increased with increase in clove oil concentration. Mortality occurred for fish weights 2g and 5g at concentrations of 10g/l and 15g/l respectively.

The findings of this experiment also, indicated that clove oil was effective, producing minimum stress and therefore can be recommended as an effective anaesthetic for tilapia jipe when used in the right concentrations.