Euthanasia OR How to Mercy Kill Your Pet

[leebca]

So your fish is suffering. You're convinced it will not live. You feel like you want to help it over to 'the other side.' How do you kill it?

Freeze it? Flush it? Recycle it (Food blender for the next food batch; feed it to one of your other pets)? Garbage disposal? Fire up the barbecue?

How would you perform a mercy killing of your pet?

[capt. insano]

I have the fish in a bag filled with tank water and placed them in the freezer. I have been told that this slowly and gently shuts down there systems and they pass on.

My stars and stripes puffer accidently bit a clown triggers mouth completely off (they were going for the same piece of shrimp). You could tell the trigger was in horrible pain, and freezing him would have taken to long......so I netted him, laid him on the concrete floor and cut his head off.

I have one of the weakest stomachs out there, I don't hunt, have never killed anything.....so it was hard to do, but the quickest way I could think of.

[skippy2]

When I had to euthanize my royal gramma, I placed him in a small tupperware bowl of tankwater and put him in the freezer. It was horrible but better than watching him bounce across the sand.

[TrojanScott]

Same here. Actually only had to do it one time, to an Achilles Tang who had ich very bad, was so thin you could see through him. Ziplock bag and the freezer.

I would never blend a sick or dead fish into a batch of food for a feeding, who knows what may still be actively living that could effect the other fish.

[HaKs310]

I've read that the best way is to make a cut at the base of the head, resulting in a quick painless death.

[stellablu]

I would think the nicest way of doing this would be to use drops of clove oil. The amount of drops differ depending on size of fish.

Clove oil is used in *small* amounts for aquatic surgery and dentistry; however, in larger amounts (sometimes just five drops per 8 ounce of water) will put a fish down permanently.

The fish slowly drifts to "sleep" and you can dispose of him any way you like...burial or dare I say toilet.

I have used it five times. Three times for dentistry and twice for putting a sick fish down.

Much nicer than cutting their heads or freezing them to death...

[capt. insano]

stellablu

I had never heard of that. Hopefully I don't have anymore fish that I must put down, but if I do.............

[Reefer521]

dentistry??

[bswedenburg]

cat

[aquaman67]

Since fish aren't warm blooded, they will not struggle to maintain body temperature so the freezer is a good choice...

[FalsePerc]

This is just my honest opinion, but I feel that smashing the cranium is most humane.

Think about it: when you freeze the fish, though it dies quickly, it's blood begins to freeze in jagged, crystal-like formations and bursts capillaries. That can't feel too good.

Now, I breed fish, and culling is a big part of it. I used to freeze my fish, until in bio class we did a lab on this exact subject. Well, close. Not to assess how humane it is to freeze a fish, but what freezing does to the body. After this, I culled by severing the spine.

Sure, this kills the fish in a few seconds, but 9 out of 10 times I did this, the fishes' eye would twitch a bit after the head had been severed. Maybe it is just involuntary, but it made me think differently. Perhaps the brain could survive for a few seconds after decaptitation, as it remains whole. Maybe it takes a few seconds for it (the brain) to suffocate completely.

Now, I have a large rock. I put the fish on the floor, and smash its cranium. It is my beleif that the least bit of pain is through this method, but that's just me.

[EdKruzel]

The clove oil is a nice touch, can you tell us how available it is to the common hobbyist?

Beyond that the most hummane is a sudden blunt trama, whether by striking with an object or hurling onto a hard surface (I know, sounds horrible) it will end its life immediately.

Ed

[just dave]

I've had to do this many times over the years and we us the freezer and let me tell you they are dead long before they freeze.

[beanpole209]

I just rubberband a bottle rocket to there head and kaboom or m80 is better or even better just shoot them the qicker the better

[rtcpenguin]

I just place the fish in this old wooden whiskey barrel I have, and shoot it through the head with my glock. Painless.

[Avian]

clove oil can be found at any health food store.

[Peter Schmiedel]

Originally posted by EdKruzel
hurling onto a hard surface (I know, sounds horrible) it will end its life immediately.

Thats also the way I do it

[csammis]

I'm surprised that the clove oil trick isn't more well known...Googling for fish euthanasia will return clove oil right away. Interesting how many people are willing to do research to keep their fish alive, but no one researches how to properly end their lives

[Wolverine]

I'd also never heard of the clove oil method. I'll have to consider that the next time it comes up.

There's still debate over whether or not freezing causes pain, and if it does, whether that pain is worse that the stress of taking the fish out of the water for pithing, decapitating, or crushing, which are all relatively quick. I think that if you don't have the heart to do the later, you should freeze. If you're tentative about the more aggressive methods, there's a reasonable chance you'll seriously injure the fish the first time, but not kill it.

It's a tough choice to make, and I don't think there's a definite "right" answer.

I'll just say this as a little prophylaxis: Let's try to keep this thread clean and flame free. Not too long ago when this subject came up it turned into a huge flame war. Remember that the people posting in this thread are all trying to decide what is best for their animals.

Dave

[ozadars]

I have heard from a few local fishermen that some of the fish they caught and put into deep freeze were still alive the next morning so I am unsure about freezing being a very good method to kill a fish.

I wait for fish to die in the tank. Not better than freezing I know but I a famous Turkish sentence says that you shouldnt leave your hopes till the soul leaves the body (Well, not the exact transformation but you get it )

[Wolverine]

Originally posted by ozadars
I wait for fish to die in the tank. Not better than freezing I know but I a famous Turkish sentence says that you shouldnt leave your hopes till the soul leaves the body (Well, not the exact transformation but you get it )

I have taken that route before, but there are also times where I expect the fish to be dead any minute, and I don't want to wait until I go to work and have it sit in the tank rotting for 12 hours.

Dave

[ozadars]

Once, I was on holiday for a week and when I turned back the tank wasnt looking so I thought of doing a sudden water change. I mixed the salt with water for a few hours and changed some water. As my tank is very small, the parametres an easily hange and probably due to not mixing the new saltwater long enough all my three fish turned upside down on the sand. They were looking REALLY bad and breathing very rarely. I didnt left them in the nor killed them but I put them in an empty tank which only had liverock in it. 2 clowns immediately turned back to normal but it was quite late for the brasillian gramma. I believe if I were to see them few minutes ago, the gramma could also be alive too. So a quarantine tank may also be a good plae to put an almost dead fish, sure this is all about the situation, sometimes it must be impossible to heal.

[leebca]

There always seems to be something new to learn in this hobby, everyday. I had never heard of the clove oil method.

I used a fish anesthetic overdose in the past. They relax; they sleep; they don't wake up.

There has been a good set of thoughts on this subject. Clove oil seems to be a definitive choice. I will look for some at the next health food store/nutrition store I visit.

[Rothie]

I have always used clove oil for both surgury(goldfish swim bladder/ballast problem) and euthanasia.I could never do a knife or a hammer.I think we would all prefer to die in our sleep.I dispose of the body by burial.

[leebca]

Burial. . .In a coffin? With marker? Is there a funeral? (ala Garden State?