Sodium Bicarbonate - Safe Anesthetic for Red Tilapia

The need for transporting and handling live fish in\r\naquaculture operations has led to the development of methods of anesthetizing\r\nfish without reducing their health or commercial value.

Untreated fish are under great pressure during fishing,\r\ntransporting, causing stress and pain, affecting physiological and biochemical\r\nreactions in fish, causing hormonal and metabolic disorders. in\r\nfish. Besides, although many types of chemical anesthetics are available,\r\nit is necessary to carefully consider the economic, safety and regulations when\r\nusing chemical anesthetics on food fish. 

One of the safer chemical anesthetics that can be used in\r\nfish anesthesia is sodium bicarbonate (sodium bicarbonate). It\r\nis also known as baking soda and when dissolved in water, it releases carbon\r\ndioxide, which has an anesthetic effect on the fish (Bowser 2001). This\r\ngas has been shown to be safe for humans; therefore, there are no\r\nrestrictions on its use (Summerfelt and Smith 1990). When used as an\r\nanesthetic, carbon dioxide is bubbled in water directly through an airflow\r\nconnected to the source or indirectly by adding sodium bicarbonate as a source\r\nof carbon dioxide (Altun et al. 2009).

In an earlier study involving tilapia ( Oreochromis\r\nniloticus)) demonstrated the effectiveness of the use of this chemical\r\nanesthetic, and its effectiveness was influenced by the size and size of the\r\nfish (Opiyo et al. 2013). Although there is information from previous\r\nstudies, it shows that the effect of this anesthetic on the same fish at\r\ndifferent salinity levels is different. Because both brackish and salt\r\nwater contain significant amounts of carbonate, it can have an impact on sodium\r\nbicarbonate activity when added to water. Since aquaculture can be done\r\nunder fresh, brackish and saltwater conditions, the potential of sodium\r\nbicarbonate should be assessed when used as anesthetic for fish under these\r\nconditions. Therefore, the study of Arlene L. Avillanosa et al 2019 used\r\nred tilapia to verify the effectiveness of using sodium bicarbonate as Anesthetic\r\nfor the fish in both fresh and brackish water conditions.

Result:

Research has demonstrated that sodium bicarbonate can be\r\nused as an effective anesthetic for red tilapia. In an earlier study,\r\nOpiyo et al. (2013) also showed that young tilapia, O. niloticus reacted\r\npositively to this substance when used as an anesthetic and there were no cases\r\nof dead fish. 

Acceptable anesthetic can be used during the treatment of\r\nrecommended anesthesia in fish within 3 minutes and complete recovery after 5\r\nminutes (Marking and Meyer 1985; King et al. 2005; Ross and Ross 2008). In\r\nthe current study, the use of sodium bicarbonate as an anesthetic in red\r\ntilapia satisfies these requirements, except when this substance is used in brackish\r\nwater at a concentration of 50g / l, in which the anesthetic On average, it\r\ntakes more than 4 minutes. 

Dissolving sodium bicarbonate in water releases carbon\r\ndioxide. This gas is used for anesthetic purposes in fish at different\r\nwater temperatures and is used primarily to soothe fish during transportation\r\nor to allow the handling of large numbers of fish (Bowser 2001). The study\r\nalso did not observe any mortality in young red tilapia during anesthesia and\r\npost-recovery, because of the slow release of carbon dioxide in water after\r\ncomplete dissolution of sodium bicarbonate. 

Sodium bicarbonate can be an effective anesthetic for\r\nyoung red tilapia during short-term treatment and does not lead to fish\r\ndeath. Young red tilapia raised in brackish water take a longer time to be\r\ncompletely anesthetized than those raised in freshwater. In both culture\r\nmedia, the anesthetic concentration affects the duration of anesthesia in the\r\nfish. This study also emphasized that high concentration of sodium\r\nbicarbonate is needed to anesthetize red tilapia hybrids when the water\r\ntemperature is high. The complete recovery time of the fish was not\r\nsignificantly different in both culture media and was not affected by the\r\nanesthetic dose. The application of sodium bicarbonate at high pH levels\r\ncan be a good and inexpensive alternative to other anesthetics for fish.

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Based on the results of this study, the effective dose of\r\nsodium bicarbonate will result in complete anesthesia in red tilapia in\r\nbrackish or fresh water of 50 g / l. At this concentration, the fish has\r\nbeen under anesthesia for a short period of time and can recover quickly\r\nwithout adversely affecting survival after exposure.

Source : tepbac.com