Can Weed Relieve Stress in Fish? By Don Orth

Aquaculture is the fastest growing sector in the world food market.  Like most of you, I love seafood and cannot get enough.  No matter how you raise fish in captivity, the cost of food, space, and time to harvest will all hike up the price.  Therefore, we are always looking at ways to decrease the space, food, and or the time to harvest. 

Tilapia photo Financial Tribune

If we decrease the space for fish they are over-crowded and that stresses the fish and deteriorates water quality.   So, “Dude! What can we do to alleviate stress in poor water quality conditions?”    What chemicals can we use for stress relief?  “Dude! Marijuana works for me!” replied an old pot head.  “Stress reduction is a nearly universal benefit of cannabis use” according to Cheech & Chong[1], many medical marijuana users, and astute readers of Leaf Science.  Any regular exposure to marijuana leads to increased appetite and weight gain.  “Well, duh” say Cheech & Chong.   “Stress reduction, increased appetite, and weight gain – let’s give the cultured fish reefer! That’s some heavy shit, dude.”

Patrick Saoud and associates in the American University of Beirut studied the effect of cannabis oil on growth and metabolism of tilapia.  I’m not making this up!  It was published September 26, 2017 in Aquaculture Research.  I don’t eat farm raised tilapia, I only care about the health and welfare of stoned tilapia fish.   In an eight-week experiment, Saoud and associates confirmed that cannibas extract increased metabolism and feed conversion with no effects on blood parameters.  But the stoned tilapia had reduced growth rate.  So much for that theory.   Saoud and associates concluded that “we do not believe fish should be given reefer.”  

Clearly, Dave’s not here.  But dude, really.  I think Saoud and associates were missing the point.   Raise marijuana with the fishtank water as effluent! 

Saoud, P., J. Babikian, N. Nasser, and S. Monzer. 2017. Effect of cannabis oil on growth performance, haematology and metabolism of Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus.   Aquaculture Research 2017:1-7. DOI: 10.1111/are.13512

   

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[1] For those Millenials reading this, Cheech & Chong were a Grammy Award–winning comedy duo consisting of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong who found a wide audience for their stoner comedy routines in the 1970s.