How to humanely euthanize a fish?

[FreddytheFish]

I'd suggest using the aforementioned cut off head/trauma with a blunt object, or putting it in a glass of water then dropping in an alka-sceltzer.

 

[SHK_ATK]

I'd suggest using the aforementioned cut off head/trauma with a blunt object, or putting it in a glass of water then dropping in an alka-sceltzer.

R U SERIOUS!!??? an Alka- sceltzer????? LMAO!!! :joke:

I can just imagine the fish disappearing through the froth.....LOL!!!

 

[MollyFan1]

Thank you all for the suggestions. This is the hardest thing to do and it sure isn't getting any easier. I havent had fish for years and just got 4 mollies after doing research and learning as much as I can about them. I got my silver molly from Petsmart and a few days after I got her she had about 25-35 babies of which I saved 15 and gave to my local fish store. A few days later she became motionless and usually stayed in the same spot of the tank, usually on top or at the bottom. I'm hoping she will get better but I really think it's useless...I'm planning to wait a few more days and if she doesn't get better than I will have to end her suffering. She isn't eating but she tries to swim around but I could tell it's difficult for her.

I tried looking at my local drug stores and I couldn't find any clove oil. I will have to buy some online for the future. I really wish if she doesn't get better that she will eventually pass on...on her own.

I never thought this would be so hard... :sad:

Thanks again...

 

[tanhql]

i euthanise my fishes by putting it in freezing water. quick, easy and cheap. just put a container of water in the freezer, wait till a thin layer of ice forms over the water, break the ice and drop the fish in. they die within seconds. to 'ensure' they are 'really' dead, just continue to freeze the water till it becomes a block of ice.

 

[wataugachicken]

i don't know if taking the fish out of the water is a good way, unless the fish is right on the edge of death. i had a baby bn pleco (1.5 inches, max, maybe) who disappeared out of my tank, was living among the bioballs in my sump for three days with just the tiniest trickle of water. that was over a year ago, still alive and healthy and growing. unless a fish is right about to go, waiting for the gills to dry out enough to stop respiration is probably slow and painful. i would go with clove oil or vodka.

the one time i had to euthanize something it was a snail who had fallen out of the tank and cracked the shell. while i was looking for some nail polish or glue to put the shell back together, the cats got to him and just went crazy. i froze it because i didn't have anything else available.

 

[gagaliya]

There are way too much euthanizing going around on this board, people are so easy(and lazy) to just give up. It seems every time the fish looks funny, or doesnt do this and that, it gets killed. /rant off

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About how to kill a fish - flush it down the toliet or put it in a freezer is the easy/coward way out, you hide the bad part to make yourself less guilty yet the fish suffers the most.

Best way is to use olive oil as mentioned by mixing a small amount first with water so the fish falls asleep gradually once placed in it. Then add more to kill it in its sleep.

If there are no olive oil around, the second best method is to put some water in the freezer until it has some thin ice on top. Then quickly net the fish from the tank and dump it in the water. The extreme temperature difference will cause heart failure almost instantly for smaller fish. Larger fish will take a few sec max. (note: this doesnt work for coldwater fish)

smacking its head with a brick or cut it off with a knife?! (are you guys for real? watched too much dawn of the dead lately? )

 

[gagaliya]

i euthanise my fishes by putting it in freezing water. quick, easy and cheap. just put a container of water in the freezer, wait till a thin layer of ice forms over the water, break the ice and drop the fish in. they die within seconds. to 'ensure' they are 'really' dead, just continue to freeze the water till it becomes a block of ice.

ops didnt see you posted this already. but no need to freeze the water afterwards, tropical fish will be dead within seconds as you said. Not a good method for coldwater fish.

 

[Uncarved Block]

Its kind of scary how much fish-killing ideas are going around on this forum. What's next, giving the fish a bloody eagle?? (a viking rite that's pretty comparable to some of the creativeness around here - the poor Northumbrian King!)

Ironically, the methods of freezing and flushing are probably much worse on the fish than just letting it die. If you have a QT tank, let it live out the rest of its life there and don't fiddle with it.

If you absolutely had to kill it, I'd go with the oil method.

 

[YoFishboy]

Here is a discussion/protocal for euthanizing fish prepared by the science dept. of the University of Washington - it discusses most of the methods listed above...including alka seltzer and the da big whack - which are the 2 methods i use...

http://depts.washington.edu/iacuc/policies/fish_euthanasia.html

 

[cweg71]

i use the whack it over the head with a large blunt object method its quick and pretty painless if done very fast and acurate.

If the fish is small the garbage disposal is instant death.