How Do You Euthanize Fish?
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I was just curious what other fish-keepers use to “put down” their fish. It’s sad when it happens, but I’m always curious what others use when a fish its too far gone to save.
I hit upon a mixture of cod liver oil and vodka a few years ago that has worked really, really well. The local fish importer suggested it as a (apparently) painless way of euthanasia for fish.
I have a customer that has a “smashing rock”. I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for that, especially since she keeps large South American cichlids. Ugh.
What do you use?
Most vets suggest decapitation but I freeze mine. Bag em up and put into freezer, remove and discard on trash day.
HTHs,
-jimWhen I worked at the pet shop in the fish room I cut off or smushed their heads. Freezer is alright if it’s just yours. But a nasty shock to open the freezer to get something and it’s full of bags of dead fish. :evil:
People say they dont feel themselves getting cold and dying, but I think it must still suck for the fish. Even if it’s just the being stuck in a small bag of water for so long before death.
I cut off the head and destroy the brain. The fish’s head still seems alive for quite a while after, and it’s really un-nerving.
AC
freezer is a very bad method I my opinion. Water expands when it freezes slowly and so your fish will die slowly and from a quite nasty death as all the cells freeze and expand!
The best method that I use and the quickest is just to flick the head of a small fish like a danio or tetra. Anything larger I place in a suitable bag and hit it as hard as I can on a hard surface, never had this fail, kills the fish outright.
@Tom2006 wrote:
freezer is a very bad method I my opinion. Water expands when it freezes slowly and so your fish will die slowly and from a quite nasty death as all the cells freeze and expand!
Didn’t think of that! I guess it’s kind of hard to tell what exactly happens. Fish do go dormant when it gets cold, but maybe freezer gets cold too fast, I don’t know.
Either way, freezing seems like a “cope out” of sorts to me. Hard to explain, but I feel if your going to kill a fish you should be aware of the fact that they are living creatures, and you are taking their life. Nothing nice or clean about death.
AC
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