I Euthanized My Suffering, Sick Molly A Few Days Ago--

[wendyngd]

Hi-

I have been having trouble keeping these mollies alive in the past 3-4 months. We seem to be mysteriously losing one a month. Now we're down to 3 and a silly, fat orange catfish! These mollies were born in this tank and raised here.

One died a week or so ago and there was one that seemed to really be suffering--laying on the bottom-breathing so heavily and then if I moved the net near him when I thought he was already dead, he would pop up and spin and end up swimming upside down until he shortly collapsed on the gravel again gasping for breath.

I am gratefully on vacation down in sunny Florida for the week with my husband--and well-operating automatic fish feeders feeding my guys up in NY. (I tested them for several weeks to get them used to them and make sure they worked all right). I JUST COULDN'T LEAVE THAT POOR FISH IN ITS MISERY! So I decided to read up on euthanasia on line, went to the drugstore for clove oil (which they didn't have) and ended up buying a package of Alka Seltzer--which worked very well and quickly...but was so hard to do. I feel so bad. He just reallly seemed to be suffering and didn't seem like he was going to recover--also kind of swollen--I couldn't get a close enough view of him (he would swim away) to see if he pineconed.

So I said a prayer and asked the fish to forgive me. I knew I had my fish forum family with me. I still felt awfullly sad--my husband told me he was proud of me because I care so much about my fish.... rip.gif little fish

Thanks for listening.

Love,
Wendy

 

[lilfishie]

sorry for your loss, its always hard, never had to do it myself yet, dread that day coming

 

[Jozlyn]

Sorry for your loss, I am in a similar situatio myself, I have Neon's with Neon Tetra Disease, and at the moment I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm very proud of you, it must've been so hard. *hugs*

 

[kewskills]

sorry you had to do that, hope you dont have to again, it does not get easier

 

[zarebskifish]

its very bad feel sorry for your loss just make sure you change your carbon filter
and syphon weekly 10-20%

 

[amanda8beechwood]

So sorry for your loss. I had to do this a couple of days ago and I was in floods of tears x

 

[Neo8223]

OK, this might sound really harsh and opinionated, however, if a fish is really looking bad and its obviously in a lot of pain, then if there's no chance of curing the fish, i believe its your duty to euthanize your fish when the pain starts showing. I wouldn't go as far as crying or anything tho. The way i see it is that sometimes you need to be cruel to be kind. If your fish are obviously terminally ill and are actively suffering, then put them out of their misery. Remember, us humans ave pain killers we can use, these fish probably don't so it must hurt em a lot! When i have to kill a fish, i do it with respect and very quickly. I dont particularly enjoy it, but if its got to be done for the greater good then its got to be done!

I heard that dunking the fish in ice cold water kills them instantly too btw.

So i am sorry for the loss of your fish, but as the saying goes, There are plenty more fish in the sea. So keep your head up

 

[stang1]

I'm so sorry Wendy, not an easy thing to do.
I can understand why people get so upset losing a fish, not always so simple as just popping out to get another one.

 

[scorphonic]

Sorry to hear about your fish!!

I dont get the whole idea of buying chemicals or oils to kill a fish though, just put the fish in a bag of fish water, put it on the ground and drop a big brick on the fish, that is by far the quickest method anyone can carry out.

I'll put it this way to you, There was a study carried out on mice to elucidate the best and most humane way to put the mice down for research purposes. One popular method is to use carbon dioxide and to slowly increase the level to cause the mice to go unconscious, once unconscious the level of CO2 is increased for a fixed period and this kills the mice. You may think that this is the most humane method but in fact the study demonstrated that the mice experienced a great deal of distress. So when you put a fish in a container with clove oil the poor thing is getting distressed when a swift brick can end things in a matter of milliseconds. That is one reason why alot of mice are now put down using cervical dislocation.

 

[amanda8beechwood]

I think everyone deals with things differently. I personally can't even bear to see a spider being trodden on so to euthanise my first fish after nursing it and hoping it would get better over the course of several weeks was unbearable for me. I did use the crushed ice and water and it died in less than 4 seconds x

 

[kpintheshed]

sorrry for your loss young mollys fall with the diease called swim bladder disease. one of mine was up side down breathering i lost 3 babie mollys in 2 weeks but now its been 3 weeks later and there fine.

 

[wendyngd]

Thank you all, my friends! I'm in Florida on vacation now (oh, maybe that's why I'm depressed!)--hoping my automatic feeders are keeping my guys alive and well. I appreciate all the feedback and support about this awful decision and action I had to take. You all might have seen that I thoroughly researched all methods--but no way could I use a brick or some other object to kill them and I wasn't sure about the ice water thing.

Yes, I do think it was probably swim bladder--I guess all we can do is our best to take care of them and then it's up to God, Higher Power, the Universe, whatever you believe or not.

I have to say I miss my silly fishes--especially the betta!

Hope to see lots of beautiful birds and alligators and other wildlife while I'm here as I'm near the Florida Everglades.

Love and hugs to you all,
Wendy 8) 8) 8)