Do you ever euthanize fish?
- Thread starter mcsassy
- Start date
Personally I haven't, but I watched my neighbor do it to a very sick purple tang. It was heartbreaking for me to watch and just as heartbreaking for him to do it.. but he did it very fast so he couldn't get second thoughts. Not sure how to do it on all fish, but he took out the fish and put it on a cutting board and severed its spine right behind its head with a sharp knife. It died instantly.. it had to be done but still very hard for me to even watch and my neighbor was pretty upset about it for a week afterwards.. hard thing to do to a beloved pet.
Subjecting them to cold or exposing them to clove oil are also considered to be humane, since both tend to "numb" them as they pass away. Working in the aquarium retail environment for years, I have had to do it more than my fair share of times. Heartbreaking to say the least.
clove oil, puts them to sleep and you then add a bottle of vodka to the water . I read this the other day
I had to do it. I had a molly with a ruptured swim bladder (I'm pretty sure). I used eugenol (clove oil). Very upsetting, I hope I never have to do it again.
A bottle of vodka? Sounds excessive...but I heard putting them in the freezer works too. How about putting them in freshwater?
I had to do it to a butterfly fish once. I used ice cold water and it was pretty quick. I felt better about it than letting him suffer.
I would think freshwater would take too long and stress them out... for parasites, you can freshwater dip for a few minutes with no harm, so I would think euthanasia would take far too long. Ice water, on the contrary, shuts their systems down pretty quickly.
An overdose of relatively pure clove oil is enough by itself--the added ethanol isn't necessary.
Simply using freshwater would be inhumane, especially since some species are resistant to salinity swings and can survive in the freshwater long enough to suffer.
I put my first royal gramma in the freezer. OMG!!! I hope to God I never have to do that again. The most horrible feeling ever.