How To Dispose Of A Fish Humainly?

[Chaz]

I have a rosy barb which is sufferig alot I don't know how to dispose of him.......

 

[dwarfgourami]

Can you get hold of clove oil? You out some tank water+a little clove oil in a container, put the fish in, it just goes to sleep.

 

[Chaz]

'sleep' sorry to be insensitive.... does that mean dead?

 

[ccg]

Yes.

 

[dcj38]

yeah i think he meant it will be a painless death

 

[Chaz]

o.k thanks guys

 

[PlecMama]

I'm sorry about your fish, it's a hard thing for any of us to have to do but it's our last gift of love to any of our animals.

 

[Ami]

It's hard to decide when to euthanaise. I used to be the exact same with my fish. Before my current FW set up I had danios and tetras that basically started to die of old age. At first I tried to keep them in a hospital tank to make things easier on them, but then I had more fish in there than the community tank.


Also, cos they were old they were easily stressed and I moved house a lot at that time so they would get ill easily - dropsy being the favourite. I did everything to keep them alive, getting more and more upset, then finally just gave up and would flush them down the loo when they got beyond saving.

Not exactly the most humane method, more a case of out of sight out of mind I guess. You do get hardened towards their deaths when you're losing them at every turn! Poor babies.

 

[Wanda hornsey]

I have heard that popping them in a poly-box of tank water then adding a few icecubes then placing it in the freezer is also quite humane....


So sorry about your fishy

 

[fishing4exotics]

I agree with Wanda. I euthanaise my fish in the freezer. They just go to sleep. The last fish that I had to euthanaise was my 10" red terror ( festae ) She was a beautiful wild caught fish with a bright red color.

 

[tttnjfttt]

I've always heard to never put the fish in the freezer or to add ice cubes to their water. Basically because of how fish are, they don't painlessly fall asleep like a human would, they feel their bodies freezing and feel their cells bursting as they go to sleep. Go with the clove oil, its my favorite way.

 

[thefishykid]

i would go with the clove oil that is the way that i do it and have done it SORRY FOR YOUR WEE FISH R.I.P

 

[Ami]

Just came across this pinned article which might be of use:

Euthanasia of Fish

Down the loo is clearly a definite 'no-no' for sick fish ) , although I'm not sure I could go with the decapitation method.

 

[cornishgiant]

Rihghtly, or wrongly, I get cold water from the tap, add a couple of teaspoons of salt and then add several (like 4, 1/3 of the volume) of ice cubes.

Mix well, let the water cool down to really cold and then dump the poorly fisshy into it.

In my experiecne they "breathe" for about 2 seconds. Leave then for 1/2 an hour and hour, then to the toilet.

This businesss of the cells freeezing and ice crystals puncuring blood vessels is rubbish, things aren't cold enoug for that to happen that quickly.

 

[sylvia]

So you're suggesting slowly freezing is ok because ice crystals can't form? I'm missing your point...

Freezing or cold-shocking are very, very inhumane methods of killing fish - certainly not 'euthanasia'. Both are very slow and, because fish are cold-blooded, they don't die immediately (though they may 'appear' to stop moving their gills) but ice crystals etc CAN form while they are still alive. Keep in mind that a fish' body is not the same as a warm-blooded human's - no crystals could possibly form in a human while he/she was still alive - but fish don't generate any heat.
Also, flushing fish is a bad idea because you risk introducing disease to local waters (or, if your fish were to survive, even introducing a non-indiginous species). Consider that aquarium fish have developed, relatively speaking, some resistence to the common aquarium diseases - wild fish won't have.

Only clove oil and destroying the brain are humane methods for killing fish.