The Efficacy of Clove Seed Extracts as an Anaesthetic Agent and Its Effect on Haematological Parameters of African Catfish (Clarias Gariepinus)

Background and Aim: The intensive nature of aquaculture has subjected fish to a number of stressors in the culture medium, anesthetics are widely used to minimize the issue of stress during farming operations and activities. Clove oil is a well known, established and acceptable anesthetics commonly used in aquaculture, this anesthetics is not readily available in developing countries, thus leaving the fish farmers with option of using the locally available plant extracts as anesthetic agent in fish culture. This study therefore assessed the efficacy of aqueous extracts of clove seed and its effect on hematological parameters of the fish.