Deformed mouth, should I cull?

[MoeBetta]

I have kind of a general scenario.

I have a female CPD I bought roughly three weeks ago, out of a set of three, that isn’t healthy.

The batch I got this from was honestly in fairly poor shape when I got it, two of three fish were fairly emaciated, and I got the better looking females they received. Turns out one seems to have a deformed mouth, perhaps from mouth rot as a baby or perhaps a genuine deformity, either way, the fish has trouble eating and gaining weight. It TRIES to eat, but the food doesn’t seem to fit, and the little thing just isn’t gaining weight and looking healthy. The other two look perfect.

At this point I’m thinking it’s time to euthanize, does that seem out of line?

Also, I assume this falls under buyer beware, as I picked this fish.

[AquaGirl]

That’s a shame for the fish and I hate when I pick the fish and it is damaged.

I am a pacifist and try to save everything so I would try to save it.

With that said it is not always an option for a keeper to give specialized care and even with specialized care it might not make it. :cry:

I would try feeding it something real small like Micro/Walter or banana worms or some First Bites. If that is not an option for you euthanizing the fish is kinder that letting it starve.

[Danio Angyl]

If you want to keep her but are worried about having deformed babes then give her a few virgin females from you’re fry pool to hang with in a community tank.

I’ve never performed euthanasia, much less on a fish, but something called Oil Of Cloves is used as a fast acting topical numbing agent for toothaches so maybe it can be used for euthanasia. A drop on the fish to numb it’s whole body, then kill the brain with a needle or tip of a razor knife something along those lines sounds as close to humane as I can think of. Stick some on your gums to see how fast it works first. Might need to stick the fish back in a cup of water to wait for it to fully kick in and being cold blooded it might take slightly longer.

For now stick her in a hatchery box or something so she can’t breed.

Just noticed how old the topic is and added this to the post. What happened to the fish?

[Author]

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