Clove oil used as a fish sedative?

[ESOX]

The other night I was watching the "Snakehead Invasion" show on National Geographic.
During the program it showed a DNR Officer/Biologist putting a Snakehead into a tub of clove oil before cutting it open and inserting a radio tracking device into the fish. He stated that it "Puts fish to sleep."
Surely the tub was a mix of clove oil and water but I'm not sure of the ratio.
Has any one out there heard of this or know of other ways to sedate fish? (not completely knock it out)

 

[pwmin]

We commonly use MS-222 ([SIZE=-1]Tricaine methanesulfonate) to sedate fish, but we used clove oil on brook trout and it actually worked a lot better. Its obviously much more natural. The fish also seemed to go under faster and recover better under less dosage than you would use for triple 2. I am unsure of the proper levels to use (it was a while ago and i didnt mix it up), but you should use food-grade essential oil like Young Living. If youve ever smoked a clove cigarette or chewed clove gum, you would feel its numbing effects.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CLOVE-Young-Liv...tcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
there are other brands you can use, but YL is the best (or so ive heard).
[/SIZE]

 

[Mystix212]

Euthanasia can be done by the use of clove oil. Simply place the fish in a bucket with water and drop a generous amount of oil in. The fish should 'slip' into a sleep pretty quickyl. After that, breathing stops. The fish then dies. In small concentrations, it can be used to temporarily knock out fish for transportation. Such instances of this is when johnptc used a mixture of water and clove oil to sedate his 5ft Arapaima Gigas for transportation.

 

[ESOX]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Do either of you know where I may be able to find the correct mixture for sedation?
I will be eventually moving my fish to another house or larger tank and I think this would help. I have ATFs and they're pretty skittish even at 9". I would hate to see them blast into the side of the tank and kill themselves because I tried to net them.

 

[pwmin]

I'll see what I can do

 

[ESOX]

I appreciate it! I tried looking it up in a few places and got no where. How long did the fish stay sedated for when you were using the clove oil?

 

[johnptc]

How to use clove oil:
1) prepare a solution of clove oil with ethanol (94%): 9 parts ethanol + 1 part clove oli. Keep this solution in a dark bottle, preferably also in the dark. Clove oil must be mixed with alcohol before use because it is insoluble in cold (<15°C) water.
2) use this solution to anaesthize your fish. If you do not have earlier experience with clove oil with the specific species, I would advise to start with the concentration of 40 mg/l. In practice this means that you add 2 ml of the solution into 5 l of water. You should be able to immobilize the fish within about 3 minutes.


from http://users.jyu.fi/~jpirhon/clove oil.htm

 

[pwmin]

well, there ya go. from what i can remember, that seems about right. i now remember about mixing w/ alcohol first.

they will stay under as long as theyre in the solution. it took less time for them to come out of it then on commonly used sedatives and they seemed to be better off, also.

 

[ESOX]

How to use clove oil:
1) prepare a solution of clove oil with ethanol (94%): 9 parts ethanol + 1 part clove oli. Keep this solution in a dark bottle, preferably also in the dark. Clove oil must be mixed with alcohol before use because it is insoluble in cold (<15°C) water.
2) use this solution to anaesthize your fish. If you do not have earlier experience with clove oil with the specific species, I would advise to start with the concentration of 40 mg/l. In practice this means that you add 2 ml of the solution into 5 l of water. You should be able to immobilize the fish within about 3 minutes.


from http://users.jyu.fi/~jpirhon/clove oil.htm

Excellent! Thanks much for adding this. I had no idea there was ethanol involved. I also had no idea that it takes so little...2 ml to 5l of water. Considering that the 2ml hardly has any clove oil in it makes it even more wild.

From the sound of your post, this a solution I can make and store for a while?
Or do I do mix this up and set it aside because it needs time to cure ?(for lack of a better word)

How long will it keep a fish sedated for? Is this something that you need to keep the fish in the solution or it will start wearing off immediately?

How long can I safely keep my fish sedated for? I understand that you used this for the sedation/transport of your Arapaima? How long was your move and how did your fish fare?

Thanks to all of you who replied to this.

 

[ESOX]

they will stay under as long as theyre in the solution.

Ooops. You had already answered my question before I wrote it in my prior post.

Do you know how long I can have a fish sedated for before the solution breaks down and is no longer effective? Or becomes dangerous for the fish because it's been "under" so long?