HELP! What is the best way to put a fish out of it's misery!

PuffersKick · #1 01/24/2006, 10:37 PM

I got home from work this evening and my dwarf lion has a fatal open sore on his stomach.

I don't know if one of my puffers bit him on accident or what happened to him, but his is dying and suffering as I type this. I cannot stand to watch him suffer. He cannot swim at all and is lying upside down on the sand. He looks like he's gasping for air and then scoots across the sand if another fish gets close. And my trigger is starting to nip at him (to eat him).

What should I do? I know his injury is fatal. Should I freeze him? Flush him?

Please advise me what to do! I don't want to wake up in the morning to see my fish feasting on his corpse.

AllenFord_SC · #2 01/24/2006, 10:39 PM

Put him in a bag and run him over with your car. Quick and painless!
Sorry to hear about the fish thoough.

NewMariner · #3 01/24/2006, 10:42 PM

Ive often heard that putting him in the freezer is the most humane way to euthinize him....

Theres also the idea of putting him in a strong liquor but I wouldnt waste the liquor

jaiden · #4 01/24/2006, 10:46 PM

freeze. do not flush. or you can just cut his head off.

AllenFord_SC · #5 01/24/2006, 10:47 PM

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=629207

read this.

Kahuna Tuna · #6 01/24/2006, 10:57 PM

I've never used this method but I will next time I have to.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-...ize-a-fish.htm

brosher · #7 01/24/2006, 11:47 PM

Garbage disposal if you've got one. Freezing always seemed worse to me. Think about how do you want to go? Instantly or slowly?

lowcountrywing · #8 01/24/2006, 11:50 PM

This may be the wrong way, but I had a big grooper that got bit by my snowflake eel. The grouper was doing awful, its bottom jaw was gone. I pulled him out quickly, and put him in the garbage disposal and ran it. It was obviouslt dead instantly. I think it is the best way. I have worked with animals in research, and the approved and recommended way to kill a mouse or rat is snap its neck or cut the head off. The garbage disposal does just this...+ a bit more. Just my 2 cents and i am sure I will hear a bunch of negative comments from this.

Ryan

dogstar74 · #9 01/25/2006, 12:00 AM

Mix a bunch of ice cubes and water in a large bowl. when the water drops to about 1 degree celcius, then simply plunge the fish into the bowl. It's a shock that the fish cannot survive and it's very humane. Sorry to hear about your loss.

smp · #10 01/25/2006, 12:08 AM

I had to put a demasoni (FW african cichlid) in the freezer just the other day.
What I understand is that since the animal is cold blooded it's metabolism just slows down to the point of uncoinciousness and then death. It doesn't feel 'pain' per se, maybe discomfort but i like to think it just 'goes to sleep'.
Reason I had to do it was because I was tearing down my QT tank and he was in there with eye injuries from his tankmates for over two months. He wasn't recovering his vision (well, duh) and stood no chances of survival in the main tank.
I felt bad because he was otherwise very healthy being that he had no competition in the QT.

ACBlinky · #11 01/25/2006, 12:37 AM

I used clove oil to euthanize a very sick FW angel last year. It's sometimes used as a anesthetic for fish, and in large doses it will put them to sleep painlessly - they go under and never wake up. Afterwards I froze him just to be sure.
I believe the quickest, least painful method is to sever the spinal cord by any method available, but not everyone can stomach it (myself included).

MeuserReef · #12 01/25/2006, 02:26 AM

I had to put down a fairly large Green Severum years ago and I just put it into a garbage bag, and WHACK... on the concrete floor. Call me inhumane... but Im pretty sure he was dead instantly. (and cleanup was easy because he was already in the "trash") G force alone would have broken his spine.