A team of scientists from the American University of Beirut fed Nile tilapia fish pellets laced with cannabis oil to test whether the drug could make the fish reduce stress and grow faster.
These researchers noted that tilapia is farmed intensively, and in a bid to maximize the amount of product fish farmers can bring to market, some fish pens have become incredibly congested. Living in such close quarters can lead to all kinds of challenges for the fish, including reduced water quality, more incidences of disease, and increasing intraspecific interactions, which leads to stress.
As part of the trial, three diets were made to contain either soy oil, industrial hemp oil or cannabis oil and offered to tilapia for 8 weeks. At termination, survival, growth, feed conversion and blood parameters were assessed.
On the other hand, cannabis had no effect on blood cell counts, total plasma protein, hematocrit or lysozyme activity.
The results thus obtained suggest that cannabis does not improve the immune response of tilapia or body composition but does reduce growth rate by increasing metabolic rate.
Therefore, the Lebanese scientists found that the pot pellets did not quite have the mood-altering effect they had hoped for.
Continue Reading at Fish Info & Services Co.Ltd