Best way to euthanize fish

[BucJason]

I love how we project our human emotions and feelings on to a fish, and decide when they probably have suffered enough and want to be taken out of thier natural environment have thier head chopped off, frozen, stuck in poison, flushed, etc. :joke:

The fact is the best way is to probably die naturally. It's impossible to tell the best way to euthanize because we aren't fish, and to think they comprehend suffering and wanting to die in the same way a human does with thier tiny brain capacity is ignorance. It is probably totally different for a fish.... not to mention all your methods sound pretty primitive and barbaric.

Just my opinion.

 

[TommyR]

I use clove oil to put them to sleep them place the bowl in the fridge until frozen. I'm pretty positive the fish doesn't feel a thing.

I can't bring myself to smash or cut thier head off......

Tom

 

[Toirtis]

I use clove oil to put them to sleep them place the bowl in the fridge until frozen. I'm pretty positive the fish doesn't feel a thing.
Tom

I don't know...clove oil is pretty irritating, and fish gills are pretty sensitive.

 

[PDX-PLT]

The fact is the best way is to probably die naturally.

I guess the most natural, most common, death is that, due to either old age or illness, they fall behing in the school, or otherwise look like an "easy mark", and get crudely ripped to pieces in the jaws of a bigger fish. Is that what you meant by "die naturally"? Or did you mean the slow, drawn-out painful demise (even though this rarely happens in nature, and thus I wouldn't really call it "natural").

But more to the point, why do some always automatically conclude that "natural" is always "better"?. Anthrax, bubonic plague, and dying of a now easily-cured simple bacterial infection are all "natural", but that doesn't mean they are good.

Personally, I think part of the contract that we make with the creatures that we keep for pets is that, in exchange for the pleasure they bring to us, when it is time for them to go into That Good Night, we owe more to them than the long, excruxiatingly painful exit that most creatures get when they experience a "natural" death.

 

[5xevy]

I absolutely agree with above post.

 

[ErrorS]

I think decapitation is the best method. Most aquarium fish can be finished off instantly with scissors. I'm an avid fisherman, catfish, which are very tough and sometimes large fish (froze one once, 3 hours later pulled it out and it was still alive, i'll never freeze a fish again). I've tried everything from freezing to hitting them in the head with a hammer.. trust me, decapitation is the quickest and most humane way of killing a fish.

Though I will say I have never euthanized a fish. More often than not, regardless of how sick they look, they manage to pull through for me. I had a feeder that had been almost ripped in half, somehow within a week he was completely healed.. and then eaten (needlefish can be mean )

when i bought my third Needlefish he was a sickly fish (didn't notice until I got him under 200W of good lighting). Fins were tore apart, his back was crooked, he had fungus growing all over him. I didn't expect it to last overnight let alone pull through. He did.. and ended up becoming the dominant Needlefish in the tank.

I know most people here have quite a bit of experience.. I'm just hoping people are 100% sure before they euthanize a fish that there is no chance it will pull through.