Evaluation of Two Types of Anesthesia for Performing Surgery on Striped Bass

Abstract

Tricaine (MS‐222) is the most widely used anesthetic for fishes, but induction and recovery times are rather long. Studies on salmonids have shown that electroanesthesia is a good alternative to MS‐222 for short term (<1 min) immobilization. However, data on longer‐duration (3–5‐min) immobilization needed for surgical procedures are lacking. We analyzed induction and recovery times for 20 adult (52–81‐cm) striped bass Morone saxatilis immobilized with electroanesthesia and MS‐222. We defined induction time as the interval from the onset of each treatment until the fish was immobilized (i.e., did not respond to tactile stimuli) and recovery time as the interval from the fish's return to the water to its resumption of normal swimming. Surgical procedures similar to those necessary to implant a radio transmitter were performed on each fish. Induction time for fish immobilized with electroanesthesia (geometric mean, 8 s; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3–21 s) was much shorter than that for fish immobilized with MS‐222 (geometric mean, 47 s; 95% CI, 38–58 s) (P = 0.0006). Additionally, fish immobilized with electroanesthesia recovered much faster (geometric mean, 9 s; 95% CI, 4–19 s) than fish immobilized with MS‐222 (geometric mean, 206 s; 95% CI, 156–272 s) (P ⩽ 0.0001). Faster induction and recovery times of fish immobilized with electroanesthesia and the ability to process more fish per unit time are major benefits of this technique.

Comparative spatial ecology of sympatric adult muskellunge and northern pike during a one-year period in an urban reach of the Rideau River, Canada

“…15 g, repetition rate 3.0 s; estimated battery life of~1 yr) with unique frequencies (148.317-149.788 MHZ) and passive integrated transponder tags (PIT; HDX PIT tag, Oregon RFID, Portland, OR, USA) were surgically implanted into 15 Muskellunge (mean 840 ± SD 141 mm, size ranges 695-1200 mm TL) and 18 Northern Pike (mean 623 ± 95 mm, size ranges 510-890 mm TL), following methods described in Cooke et al (2003). Prior to surgery the fish captured via electrofishing were under electroanesthesia, which is a common state of anesthesia used for fish surgery as discussed by Jennings and Looney (1998). The single fish captured via specialized angling was anaesthetized in an induction bath of clove oil (60 ppm emulsified in ethanol; Anderson et al 1997).…”

Tricaine methane-sulfonate (MS-222) application in fish anaesthesia

“…MS‐222 is used for diverse routine operations such as the selection of fish, sorting, grading, weight/length measurements, sampling, labelling, transportation, broodstock anaesthesia, gamete collection, physiological data collection, blood sampling, health monitoring, vaccination, radio transmitter implanting and invasive surgery such as implantation of serial sampling devices (e.g. cannulas, catheters) for the collection of bile, blood and urine (Spaeth and Schweickert, 1977; Jennings and Looney, 1998; Redman et al., 1998; McKim et al., 1999; Tapper et al., 2000; Bowser, 2001; Wagner et al., 2003; Lewbart et al., 2005; Cotter and Rodnick, 2006; Kiessling et al., 2009; Weber et al., 2009; Brown et al., 2011). Intra‐arterial or tissue implantation of microdialysis probes also requires the use of MS‐222.…”

Striped bass survival in Lake Blackshear, Georgia during drought conditions: implications for restoration efforts in Gulf of Mexico drainages

“…We transported adult striped bass to the release site in a closed tank with cool (17°C), oxygenated water with a salinity of 5&. We anesthetized each fish with electroanesthesia during transmitter attachment (Orsi & Short 1987, Jennings & Looney 1998. After each fish was immobilized, we anchored the transmitter externally below the anterior dorsal fin or implanted it into the body cavity (Winter 1996, Baker 2000.…”