There is a growing commercial interest in the ¢sh,
Puntius ¢lamentosus, in the ornamental ¢sh trade in
India and elsewhere.The trade is, however, hampered
by severe mortalities during transport of the ¢sh owing
to insu⁄cient data available on the use of anaesthetics.
To resolve this problem, we evaluated the
e⁄cacy of two anaesthetics, MS-222 and benzocaine,
in sedating P. ¢lamentosus in simulated transportation
experiments and used stress response parameters
such as cortisol and blood glucose levels to
perform assessments. We observed that MS-222 at
40 mg L 1 and benzocaine at 20mg L 1 were su⁄-
cient to induce sedation for 48 h. Above these concentrations,
both the anaesthetics adversely a¡ected
the ¢sh and resulted inmortalities. Both anaesthetics
signi¢cantly lowered the blood cortisol and glucose
levels compared with the unsedated controls. Importantly,
the anaesthetics treatment signi¢cantly lowered
the post-transport mortality in the ¢sh.
The results of the study show that MS-222 and benzocaine
could be used as sedatives to alleviate transport-
related stress in P. ¢lamentosus to improve
their post-transport survival and hence reduce
economic loss.