Anaesthesia and surgery in african catfish, clarias gariepinus

African catfish. Clarias gariepinus is an air-breathing catfish with good markets which is widely considered to be one of the most important tropical catfish species for aquaculture. In captivity, the African catfish does not spawn spontaneously since the environmental factors such as the rise in water level and inundation of shallow areas do not occur on the fish farm. Therefore artificial propagation under controlled conditions such as stripping of eggs, collection of the sperm, followed by fertilization of eggs proved to be a reliable method for mass production needed for larger fish farms or distribution centres of catfish fingerlings. Sperm of the male's catfish can only be obtained by sacrificing where the testis is rapidly cut into small pieces so that the milt is easily pressed out. The purpose of this work was to avoid sacrificing the male broodstock by doing anaesthesia and surgery in African catfish, Clarias gariepinus. Anaesthetic agent is exposed to the catfish in order to achieve the desired stage for surgery. General anaesthesia procedures usually act by widespread depression of the nervous system where produce sedation, surgical anaesthesia or death, depending on the dosage level of the agent. Clove oil concentration about 50 mg/L was enough to anaesthetize the fish in approximately one minute and the recovery time was independent in regard to anaesthetic concentration. The fish was able to regain conscious within 2 mins after the surgery and no deaths or other adverse effects within 48 h following recovery from anaesthesia.