Effects of anaesthetics on the behaviour of mullet fingerlings and the scope of using these in different fishery procedures

THE use of anaesthetics in fishery work, mainly in the transport of live-fish and also in handling fish for tagging, fin-clipping, weighing and stripping has been recognised by fishery workers everywhere. In live-fish transport, anaesthetics are useful in lowering the metabolic activity of fish, which facilitates the transport of more fish in a given quantity of water for a longer time. It has also been proved that anaesthetics make the otherwise time consuming work of tagging and fin-clipping much easier and also lower the mortality of the fish due to handling. Considerable effort has gone into a search for a proper anaesthetic and its different concentrations to give varying degrees of anaesthesia useful for works from tagging to transport of live-fish