LOBSTER SEDATIVE
From: Jason Goldstein
To: CRUST-L@VIMS.EDU
Sent: March 26, 2000
QUESTION:
We are looking for a mild sedative for larval and/or juvenile lobsters
(spiny and clawed) to perform eye stalk ablations and antennal
removals.
Does anyone have any experience with what might work? Thanks in
advance.
Jason S. Goldstein, Aquaculture Specialist
Lobster Rearing & Research Facility
Harold E. Edgerton Research Laboratory
New England Aquarium
Central Wharf
Boston, MA 02110-3399, USA
e-mail: jsgold@neaq.org
http://www.neaq.org
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COMMENTS 1:
Cold is one alternative. It seems to work as a fairly good
"sedative" or "anesthetic" for adult American
lobsters, and might also work for larvae and young juveniles. It certainly
slows them down enough to carry out procedures. Also, it does not add
chemicals to the blood, if that is a concern.
Jan Factor
jfactor@purvid.ns.purchase.edu
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COMMENTS 2:
I suggest trying Clove oil (eugenol), diluted in 70% ethanol or
isopropyl. I usually use a couple of ml of the unpurified form in 500-700
ml EtOH. For lab work, I make it more concentrated, but use only a few
drops in a dissection dish.
Clove oil has worked well for me with shrimp. I've knocked out shrimp
for several minutes at a time to photograph or "operate" on
them, and have had few problems resuscitating them. I put recovering
shrimp in clean seawater, aerating it heavily, and occasionally fanning
the shrimp themselves with my hand.
If you have specimens to spare, I would give this a try.
G. Curt Fiedler
Zoology Department & Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
2538 The Mall, Edmondson hall
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
Tel. +(808)956-4712
Fax: +(808)956-9812
e-mail: curt@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~zoology/graduate/CurtPage.html
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COMMENTS 3:
I second the endorsement of using clove oil. We have been using it for stomatopods for about 4 years with great success. For some reason, stomatopods are very sensitive to every common anesthetic normally used for crustaceans and for tropical species, cold is not an option. I prefer to use a good grade of eugenol, the active ingredient in clove oil since the common extract solid in drug stores can run from 70 to 95% eugenol and who knows what else is in the stuff. Eugenol can be purchased from most major chemical suppliers.
We still use the formula first published for fish work a few years back.
Five drops of eugenol in 5 ml 95% ETOH then dissolved in 1 liter of sea
water. We keep the stomatopod in this solution until pleopods stop
beating, then immediately rinse it in fresh sea water. This will give you
a few minutes to work on the prep. If you need to keep the animal out
longer, we have found that a dilution of the solution will work, but it
takes a bit of trial and error. For stomatopods, 25 to 50% seems about
right.
Roy L. Caldwell
Department of Integrative Biology
University of California at Berkeley
4roy@socrates.berkeley.edu