To our knowledge, no previous anaesthetic experiments are conducted on shabbout fish. The results from the present study indicated that the induction times decreased significantly as the doses increased in all the anaesthetics (p<0.05). Induction and recovery times were significantly affected by the interaction between concentration and anaesthetic (p<0.05). The effective doses were: 25 and 50 µL L^-1 at 24°C clove oil and for eugenol, 50 mg L^-1 for benzocaine and 500 µL L^-1 for 2-phenoxyethanol. In conclusion, the four anaesthetic agents could be used as sedatives in culture of shabbout fish