To euthanize or not...

T

TankGirls

AC Members
Mar 5, 2012
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I have a very sick peppered cory. I'm not sure exactly what has happened. He has been without other cory buddies for two months now but seemed to be doing find in my human mind. He maybe wasn't getting enough food. He could be very stressed from the battle of ich we dealt with in January.

The deal is this: going on 4 days now, he has not had anything to eat but a few nibbles from the wafers I've set right in front of him, he's very emaciated so has probably been sick or starved for awhile :( (I can't believe I didn't notice how skinny he was before he got so bad) He has not been able to swim whatsoever for 4 days. He might move one inch after several hours. He rolls onto his side several times day but always rights himself. This is killing me but more importantly him.

My water levels are way off from over cleaning the filter after the ich (I'm obviously a newbie), but all the other fish are doing fine at this point.

I purchased the clove oil, but I'm conflicted. Any thoughts? Is he beyond rehabilitation? Do emaciated fish that can't swim anymore every recover from that trauma? Is the best thing to put him out of his misery?

Please help! I can't believe the little guy is still hanging in there. He's like a cat with nine lives. He's already been close to death once before but melafix cured him.

Help us please!
 
I would euthanize. It is a hard decision....but seems the kidest thing to do. He won't suffer with the clove oil.
 
I have to agree, he probably won't recover. You did the right thing by getting the clove oil. It's such a peaceful way to end their suffering that you need not feel guilty about it.
 
I agree with the others. Clove oil just puts them in the deepest of sleeps and is a very humane way to do it. I don't think your Cory will recover and euthanizing him sounds like the kindest course of action.


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Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your feedback. I can't believe how hard this is. I'm proceeding with it this morning.
 
I'm really sorry and I know exactly how you feel. It's hard and some people don't help with the "it's just a fish" line. We get really attached to our little finned friends. I'm sorry about the loss.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your fish. I had to euthanize two fish early on in my adventures with keeping an aquarium. After consulting people here and doing other research I went with the clove oil method. It does the job very quickly and peacefully.

I hope everything went ok.
 
I also had to euthanize a little serpae tetra recently that was being picked on constantly by the larger ones. I read a tip about adding a teaspoon of vodka to make the oil more water soluble, and it worked wonderfully.
 
I thought about that, but perhaps because it was only a teaspoon in a quart of water the fish didn't seem distressed, or didn't have time to be. It lost consciousness and rolled over within about 5 seconds, which was quicker than I'd observed previously. Whether that's due to the oil being evenly dispersed in the water column I don't know, but perhaps you're right and it's best not to take the chance.
 
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