A good way to euthanize a fish?

[JamesBenjamin]

I've had one tiger barb that was pretty bad off, and have been thinking about letting him go to 'the big fish bowl in the sky' for a few days now. Last night when I got home from work, he was so bad off I decided to help him there. I know I've read about the 'best' way to to do this, some people say whack it with a hammer, or cut off its head (ewwww!) some say freeze it (torture! :( ) some say putting the fish in a mix of alchohol & tankwater... I didn't have any alcohol around (just wine, and something tells me that wouldn't work as well :p ) so I decided to try ammonia, the stuff I cycled my tank with. Well, it was a sad time, but he did die quickly. I netted him out of the tank, put him in a tall glass with 2" of tank water in it, then poured about a cup of ammonia in there, basically doubleing the liquid in the glass. He had one final spazz, and was dead a second later. I miss him, but this was really for the best. I just wanted to share what I tried, maybe it will help someone else out...

:(

[slipknottin]

i dont think ammonia is/was a good way. It likely just burned his gills so bad he couldnt breathe.

[carpguy]

Sorry to hear about your barb :( .

Personally I think I'd go with alcohol or freezing, but it sounds like it was quick.

Condolences.

[Slappy*McFish]

clove oil..puts them to sleep

[pinballqueen]

Freezing them isn't as bad as you would think...Put them in a bag of water, and put it in the freezer...their metabolism slows down gradually and they just go to sleep...

[JamisonBWolsh]

Originally posted by pinballqueen
Freezing them isn't as bad as you would think...Put them in a bag of water, and put it in the freezer...their metabolism slows down gradually and they just go to sleep...

I second this method.... I have read this before.

[Anton Wernher]

on larger fish a sharp blow to the base of head works well.

[Archer]

Originally posted by pinballqueen
Freezing them isn't as bad as you would think...Put them in a bag of water, and put it in the freezer...their metabolism slows down gradually and they just go to sleep...

I also add ice cubes/ ice water into the bag
just before I put it in the freezer to make things
even quicker.

[goldfries]

slam them to the floor WWE style.............haha. fastest way of killing a fish.

[clownfish]

I've heard several arguments against freezing ailing fish. Apparently, they thrash about and have a very tough time. If I ever had to euthanize a fish, I'd like to find a method that was the most humane (but I reckon everyone else does too)

How does the alcohol method work?

[keely]

I'm with Slappy... clove oil (eugenol) is what I use (available at any drug store.) It is supposedly what vets use to anaesthetise fish and should be painless. About 1-2 ml of clove oil, mixed with just enough vodka to dissolve it, in a couple litres of water; they just kind of keel over and die.

I used to use freezing but I'm not entirely sure how nice it is. If you use freezing I would say the faster the better... a drop into ice cold water might be kinder than cooling them down. Truth is it's hard for humans to know exactly what other species feel or don't feel, we're just guessing based on physiology and behavior.

[goldfries]

for me, it doesn't really matter how you do it.

the faster the death the better, less sufferring for the fella the better.

even in vodka, oil or freezer it still takes more than 10 seconds to die. try torturing yourself for that time period.

get some way to give instant death, that's the most humane.

[JohnMemorialHS]

Is there a trick to cutting the fish's heads off for quick death? Because I've seen goldfish with their heads chewed off by piranhas and the tail is still swimming and vice versa? So is there a certain spot you'd have to cut?

[goldfries]

slam them to the ground or something. give them cyanide. put in a blender or something............. heck just get them to fish-heaven quick and spare them the agony. :p

i think freezer is a slow death, which i don't like.

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

Clove oil is highly effective on fish both large and small...I use a few drops of clove oil in a glass of water filled about 1/2 way with ice cubes...it is uncommon to even get a twitch out of a small fish if you do it that way...Larger fish, use a mix of vodka, ice, water and clove oil. I euthanised a large Oscar that way. He never knew what hit him.

[goldfries]

why did you do that to the oscar(how big?) ?

sounds like it works faster than cyanide on human.

[ryan]

my grandpa used to use the garbage disposal, he'd net the fish into a mug (or small bucket for larger fish) of tank water, turn on the disposal and dump it in

ryan

[Weasel6]

Dip it out into a glass. Go outside with shotgun. Quickly spill onto ground and shoot it point blank with birdshot. They'll never feel a thing. Instant fade to black.

[Slappy*McFish]

lol!..or you could just tie it to the railroad tracks.

[angyles]

I've used the vodka method. :( I probably should have added more. It resulted on about 1 1/2 minutes of thrashing and gasping before finally calming down and slowly dying. The whole thing took about 3 minutes. I know I didn't care for it at all.

[pinballqueen]

I don't know how well this would favor with an aquarium fish, but as far as food fish go....

My grandfather would take me fishing for catfish, and he would just hit them really hard with the handle of a heavy knife at the base of the skull to kill them before cleaning them....(I never got up the nerve to do this, I have a hard time killing roaches, let alone something like that...)

I don't think I could personally ever do this to a pet, though. It'd be too much like the death scene of "Old Yeller" for me to handle... I've always just let my lfs deal with the euthanization/disposal of my diseased fish if they were too large to go into a cup in the freezer...