What a lousy heading to hit everyone with. My Mom has a Tiger Barb that seems to have somehow been injured. I happened a couple of weeks ago. He seems to have lost his upper jaw, and now his lower jaw is involved. Mom doesn't think he is eating anymore. I just looked at him, and he is the picture of misery. She thought she might put him in a "bowl" just to observe. I dunno......
I'm sorry to hear that. It's hard to see any living thing suffering. But I'm not sure what your question is. If you look up "euthanasia" and "clove oil", you'll find a lot of results. There's a lot of debate about which is the best way to euthanize a fish. Clove oil seems to be a good way since it numbs them and they won't be able to feel any pain.
Thanks. I did pull some info off the net about clove oil euthanasia. I was looking for Melody's method, but couldn't find it. Thank you Deely and Melody.
I got my information from a very helpful article written by our own AC member CT-death.
The link deely used with my directions began the discussion really, but didn't give all the info you need since the thread my quoted post came from was discussing putting a fish to sleep for a few minutes to do a procedure.
I hope you have found what you needed to know how to administer the lethal dose, but here is the article by CT-death:
Hi Melody, and tank-you. (typo there, but I think I'll let it stand). We went and got some clove oil....but the poor fish died in the night. I hope he didn't suffer too much. Mom took some pictures of him. As soon as I figure out how to post them, I will. It's quite extraordinary.
Ask the pharmacist for eugenol (you geen ahl). They keep it behind the counter, usually. It is pure clove oil. Health food stores usually have it as well.
If you ask one of the pharmacy workers there, they may mistakenly take you to the toothache section and point out the Anbesol, which has clove oil in it, but you want the pure clove oil.
A tiny bottle at the CVS here is about $3.99.
Read the article at the link I posted to get the lethal dosing information. I keep about four of the little bottles, and a turkey baster. One bottle, though small, really does have enough drops in it to be sufficient for anything other than big fish, like Oscars and such.
To render the fish unconscious I suck up a the turkey baster full of tank water, then put 1 drop with the eyedroppe into the end of the baster. I put my finger over the opening and shake like crazy so the oil is emulsified. Then drop a little at a time into the smallish container that I have the fish in, in some of his tank water. If you're doing it right it takes a few minutes to start working. At first you'll think there's not enough because he's still swimming around.
Last time I had to euthanise a betta I rescued from the lfs (he was dying of dropsy and I wanted to end his sufferiing) it took about 10 minutes for him to become unconscious; peacefully asleep on the botom of the cup. Then I used the appropriate lethal dosing by shaking up the number of drops in a 24oz bottle and then administered it slowly using the turkey baster. Once breathing stopped completely, I waited an additional 30 minutes and then put him in the freezer.
The artlcle I've included, in my post above, gives excellent detailed instructions. I strongly advise all fishkeepers to keep a supply of clove oil on hand, just in case. I can't stand to see anything suffer, and if there's no hope for providing quick relief otherwise then I will do this for the fish's sake.
