Dose of anesthetics in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

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IMPORTANT WARNING:Anesthesia is considered a procedure according to European legislation  (Directive 2010/63/EU on protecting animals used for scientific purposes) and can only be applied by personnel with proper training and in centers authorized for it.

Here we review the doses of the main anesthetics recommended for Danio rerio in adult and larva stages.

Adult anesthesia in Danio rerio

• Tricaína (methansulfonate)

  Sedation: 50 mg/l

  Ligth anesthesia: 50-100 mg/l

Surgical anesthesia: 100-200 mg/l

• Benzocaíne

Ligth anesthesia: 25-100 mg/l

• Clove oil o eugenol

Sedation: 2-5 mg/l

Surgical anesthesia: 60-100 mg/l

• Metomidato (hydrochloride)

Sedación: 2-4 mg/l

Ligth anesthesia: 6-10 mg/l

• Lidocaína (hydrochloride)

Ligth anesthesia: 300 mg/l

Surgical anesthesia: 325 mg/l

• Tricaína + isofluorano

Anestesia ligera: 65 ppm+65 ppm

Deep anesthesia: 175 ppm + 175 ppm

Anesthesia in larvae of Danio rerio

The larvae are more resistant than adults to anesthesia, because they do not develop gills until around 12-14 days after fertilization, at which time their breathing is fundamentally cutaneous. Therefore, higher doses of Tricaine or eugenol (Strykowski & Schech, 2015) or hypothermia (Chen et al., 2014) are necessary.

Bibliography

Cartner, The zebrafish in biomedical Research:Biology, Husbandry, Diseases, and Research Applications. Academic Press. 2019

Chen K, Wang C.-Q, Fan Y.-Q, Xie Y.-S, Yin Z.-F, Xu Z.-J, et al. The evaluation of rapid cooling as an anesthetic method for the zebrafish.  Zebrafish . 2014;11:71–

Chereen Collymore, Angela Tolwani, […], and Skye Rasmussen Efficacy and Safety of 5 Anesthetics in Adult Zebrafish (Danio rerio). J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci. 2014 Mar; 53(2): 198–203

Strykowski J.L, Schech J.M. Effectiveness of recommended euthanasia methods in larval zebrafish (Danio rerio).  JAALAS . 2015;54:76–79.

Estudio comparativo de los efectos de los anestésicos metanosulfato de tricaína (MS-222) y Eugenosl para su uso en pez cebra como modelo experimental. Tesis doctoral de Nahúm Ayala Soldado, 2014. 

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