Humane Death

[Wacky Wafflez]

need ideas on how to humanely end my poor angels life hes sitting on his side only going up when i put food in and cant even get a flake he tries hard though then just goes bakc to the bottom after hes given up. i am ready to restart my aquarium completly like take everyhting out scrub it for a few hours get completly new water and cycle it and i plan on starting a molly.guppie tank

[ChilDawg]

What are you going to scrub it with? One huge rule of fishkeeping: No soap in tank!!!

Okay, there will be a huge debate on euthanasia as fish, so search the forums for it, and then pick the method that makes you feel best about the fate of the angel...that is the only advice that I will give you for fear of starting something extremely nasty here due to its controversiality...

[Napsterhaven]

Well the fastet way is to take the poor thing out, lie it on a cutting board and wack his head off. I dont mean to sound crude but it seems to be the least painfull way I can think of. I havent had a fish near death yet so I really have no experiance with this situation.

[paradigmcubed]

You could put him in a bag of water with air as they do when you buy a fish, then put him in the freezer. He will eventually "fall asleep", at least I know this is a technique to kill mice in a humane way, I order freeze-dried mice for my snake. Hope this helps!

[val]

I've done the same as paradigm3. I could never cut off a fish's head...

Val

[thom336]

Cover it in a tissue, and hit it over the head with a hammer. Its quick, simple and pain-free. (Sorry...just had to mention the pain as we seem to have euthanasia and hybrid threads appearing :D - completes the set!). But seriously, its the best way - you dont even have to see the fish. IMO freezing is a slow death, and I dont agree with it - but each unto their own.

[Slappy*McFish]

I usually just slam the fish onto the floor as hard as I can....kills them instantly...but be warned, it can get messy...I did this to a neon tetra the other day and the **** thing exploded everywhere....pretty gross.

[OrionGirl]

I've frozen and chopped heads. Freezing is painless--the neural centers shut down on a tropical fish long before any damage is done to their bodies. Heck, humans report that freezing is pleasant, it's thawing out that hurts like the begeezus.

Chopping heads--I wouldn't do it again. The fish struggled the entire time it was out of the water, and it is not easy to completely severe the spine in one shot (this was a rather large marine lion fish, so getting a secure grip without impaling myself was also a problem).

A bowl of water with some clove oil and alcohol will work as well.

[ArkyLady]

I had to put down a fish awhile back. After much debate in my head, I chose to use a glass of alcohol. The fish went in and went crazy and it really freaked me out at first, but it only lasted a very quick second before she was gone.

If I'm ever faced with this situation again, I think I'll chose the alcohol again. Was about as quick as anything I could think of.

[dethjam316]

a shot of vodka into a small cup of water and like ArkyLady said...a bit intense for a second and then all silent.

[thom336]

Find a method that works well for you, and stick to it.

[kveeti]

Originally posted by dethjam316
a shot of vodka into a small cup of water and like ArkyLady said...a bit intense for a second and then all silent.

As OrionGirl mentioned... if you just add some clove oil to that mix, you won't even have the "intense". It's an anesthesia, used for toothache pain - remember Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man?

[superjohnny]

Originally posted by kveeti

...if you just add some clove oil to that mix...

Sounds like dinner :D


...remember Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man?

Nobody but you and I have ever seen that movie. To everyone else... awesome film.

The best way I have found is to get a cup of water and put him in the freezer. Just don't forget it and make a fish-popsicle.

[mickey]

Seriously the best thing to do is get someone else to do it for you.
Its the easy way out, you won't have to watch your fish suffer or die .
Just remember not to ask the person what procedure they used to kill the fish.
Cheers.

[betta]

Hi all!
Long time since I was here. I had to re-register. Anyway I read this post & feel bad. I tried freezing a cory once. I don't think it was painless. I thought he was dead after I checked him, he wasn't moving. I went to lift the bowl from the freezer and he thrashed. The water was icy cold & I saw red spots on his side. Blood vessels burst? It wasn't pretty. I have thought of many way to ease their suffering. I couldn't bring myself to smash them of cut their head off.

I haven't lost any of my original fish. Going on 3 years plus. You get attached after a point so I did a search for when the time comes again. I found a site that sells anesthetics & tranquilizers that will put them to "sleep".

http://www.argent-labs.com/argentwebsite/trandrug.htm

[ChilDawg]

That is a good way to do it, if you feel bad about putting down fish enough to pay for commercial product. There are non-commercial methods, espoused in this thread, that work just as well.

[thom336]

I agree that freezing is not the best method - the body will try to compensate for the drop in temperature in order to keep body temperature constant. This will be a long, hard and futile struggle to stay alive, eventually everything will just be denatured. The fish will be dead, but very exhausted.

Anaestetics are by far the best, an overdose calmingly and relaxingly puts the fish into a deep sleep - so deep that it dies.

A good method, and my personal favourite, for those who are not too timid, is a blow to the back of the head - death is instant, and they wont even know it was going to happen.

Thom.