Notice of RetractionThe Efficacy of MS-222 as an Anesthetic for Juvenile Siberian Sturgeon (Acipenser baerii Brandt 1869)

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

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Sturgeon represent an important evolutionary link between primitive elasmobranchs and more advanced teleosts. In the present study, we examined the anesthetic effects of tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222) on juvenile Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii) and the recovery process. Juvenile fish were placed in tanks containing different concentrations of MS-222 (80, 100, 120, 140, and 160 mg/L), and we observed their behavioral responses and changes in respiratory rates during anesthesia and recovery. We found an inverse relationship between the amount of time that is required to enter each stage of anesthesia and MS-222 concentrations. All fish entered Stage 4 of anesthesia within 234-650 s with MS-222 concentrations from 80 to 160 mg/L. During the recovery process, the mean times required for Stages II and III were 161-282 s and 218-441 s, respectively. Furthermore, the mean times after the 120 mg/L treatment were the shortest among the five experimental groups. In addition, the opercular rates of fish were all significantly decreased in Stage 4 of anesthesia, and returned to normal values in Stage III of recovery. Based on the induction and recovery times, we submit that the appropriate anesthetic concentration of MS-222 for juvenile Siberian sturgeon may be ~120 mg/L. At this concentration, MS-222 induced anesthesia in ~6 min, and recovered within ~3 min.