One of our mollies had some fry back in mid-January and about fifteen survived. A few of these are still very small and one in particular is very sick. We noticed white spots on him last week and medicated the tank for whitespot - this cleared him up for a few days but now he's covered in white spots again. (Every other fish in the tank is fine). On top of that he's having trouble swimming and appears to have a bent back.

Basically he's clearly having a lot of difficulty, has been this way for some time, and we're both coming round to the opinion that it may be kinder to put him out of his misery - reluctant though we are to take this obvious step.

How do we go about this? Obviously we don't want him to suffer in any way, but he's far too small to decapitate or hold down in any way. He's only about a centimetre or two long even now. Most of the methods mentioned seem to rely on the fish being big enough to wrap up/hold down/restrain in some way and I just don't know how this is supposed to work with a fish that's barely out of the fry stage.

Any suggestions?

Get him out of there fast, with not growing and a bent spine could be tb, clove oil and vodka, remove him with a net try not to touch him.

Sorry to sound stupid - could you explain a bit more clearly what we need to do? I'd hate to get this wrong and cause any unnecessary suffering.

Do you have any clove oil.

http://www.fishforums.net/content/Tropical-Fish-Emergencies/8031/Euthanasia-of-fish/

We don't have any clove oil but we could get some tomorrow if necessary (it's 10:00PM where we are now). We saw the link you gave but it didn't mention clove oil or vodka. Every site we look at on the net gives different advice!

You could just use the vodka it won't take long, or a sleeping tablet crushed up if you have one, and finally an overdose of anti internal bacteria med.

Just drop it in vodka? Are you sure about that?

Not saying you're wrong, but that sounds like it could be pretty painful for the fish. Or do you mean a vodka solution, and if so, how strong?

A cup of tank water and add some vodka, he will spin for a few seconds then go down to the bottom, sorry there is no nice way of putting a fish down, i find the sleeping tablet best as it slowly puts them to sleep and they die, sterlise the cup afterwards, sorry you have to do this..

This post has been edited by Wilder: May 30 2005, 09:09 PM

I heard of someone that used Vodka and the fish started swimming frantically and blood started coming out of it's gills...

The quickest way to do it, I know it sounds cruel but it's a hell of lot less painful. Wrap him up in a towel or napkin then smash him with a hammer. Dead in less than a second. I know some people don't like to do it this way. Depends if you can do it or not.

Just make sure from the water to the smash do it as quick as possible.

Just wait until you can get some clove oil. If you do the hitting thing wrong it can mean a lot of pain for your fish, and a lot of confusion and pain can be caused wrapped in the towel.

Take the fish out and put it in a suitable container with some tank water. Try and make it as comfortable as possible, and go get clove oil tomorrow. the alcohol in vodka can burn the heck out of your fish and cause it pain.

my mom put down a friends loach once! she filled a baggy with ice and placed him in there then put him in the freezer! then after 7 minutes flushed his stiff body

i heard cutting off the head is good but you have to have a VERY sharp knife and you have to make sure the brain is not working and it then chop it off ..i think there is a sticky/pinned thread on euthanesa. do not freeze the fish it causes major pain, dont flush the fish live or dead it will cause alot of problems.

This post has been edited by 50,000_tears: May 31 2005, 02:00 AM

i have always flushed fish never had a problem! and the fish was about to die anyways!

i never flush fish i lways think they may poison something(almost right) . not to mention freezing is bad since the cells freeze slow causing pain .

I euthanased a sick platy once with vodka. The poor thing swam about like it was drunk for a while then went still, but still breathing and ocassionally moving. I eventually took it out even after adding a LOT of vodka. I then used my trusty method of putting the fish in a paper towel and smashing its head with something.

I agree with the smooshing, I just wrapped one of my guppies up in a square of toilet paper (which is pretty much see through when wet, as in you will be able ot tell where the fish is, and then 'bam' with a hammer. Instant, painless death (as if anyone actually know what a painless death feels like)...

i had to cut the head off one of my sick rasboras the other day and i felt sick all day, have now bought clove oil just in case

what do you do with the clove oil?

Do not freeze the fish, that causes alot of pain, vodka will burn, and flushing is inhumane if the fish is still alive.

Smashing sounds the best idea, get a piece of kitchen roll, fold it in half and put him inside, then hit it with a heavy object a couple of times and then dispose of the fish.

I hope i never have to kill any of my fishies