kerryve

Either way I think its horrible but if you had to how would you do it? Before I knew what I was doing I put guppies in a tank with my betta and he nipped at the male guppies fins till he had none left, he couldnt swim at all and was really suffering so I asked around and was advised to put him in the freezer, cos they said he would just go into hibernation and die peacefully when the water got cold. I dont know how true it was but after 15 minutes he was dead, I then flushed him down the toilet.

Do you know of any kinder ways to euthenase your fish? or do you resort to letting them suffer and die by ammonia poisoning when flushing them?

P.S let me know of anymore suggestions to add to the poll.

Joe G

would not flush him thats inhumane , i would just put him in freezer.

Boxermom

Freezing is only considered humane if they are rendered unconscious first. The currently recognized humane method of euthanizing fish is to overdose them with clove oil (doesn't take much), then put them in the freezer.

kerryve

Thanks for that boxermom, I was actually beginning to wonder whether there are humane ways to euthenase your fish. Clove oil - how much would one use?

Boxermom

Well it depends on the size of the fish. Most of mine are small and fit into an 8 oz disposable plastic cup. I put them in it with a little tank water, then about a half dozen drops of clove oil and swish it around. In about 30 seconds or so, it stops moving and goes belly up, so to speak. Then I pop it into the freezer until it freezes solid, just to make sure its dead. Then I defrost and flush.

Clove oil is also used as a way to put them to sleep in order to do things like trim puffer's teeth or any other sort of hand's on, close detail work. But in those cases, only a drop or two is used. Its powerful stuff.

atmmachine816

I voted other. I learned that the best way is to get a pitcher of water and stick a ton of ice cubes in it until it's really cold, get a container big enough to hold the fish and put in enough tank water just so he/she can swim around then pour the pitcher of ice cold water over the fish and it will die instantly and not feal a thing.

Boxermom

Sounds more like you're beating it to death with ice cubes.

chickadee

The humane way to euthanize a fish is the administration of an overdose of antistetic. Clove oil as Boxermom suggested will do nicely, but the fish should be left in the solution for 2 hours before being placed in a freezer to make sure it is dead. Fish can live through some experiences that we would believe would kill them and this would make double sure that it is dead before being put in a situation that may be painful for it.

Unacceptable methods of euthanasia are considered, by the books, to be:

flushing them down the toilet

removing them from the water until death occurs

plunging them into boiling water

plunging them into iced water

slowly chilling them (with or without water) - this has been advised by some aquarium groups but is now considered to be cruel as it has been found to cause the fish unnecessary pain

breaking their neck without subsequent destruction of the brain - fish have been shown to live through such injuries unless the brain is destroyed

Some of these may sound like things no one would do but they have been used.

Proper disposal of the fish does not include the flushing of fish down the toilet. They should be wrapped in newspaper and then in a plastic bag and put in the trash or buried in the garden, or burned. Flushing dead fish has been known to cause disease that has affected river life and fish for miles around.

Rose

Boxermom

I doubt my flushing a guppy down the toilet is going to do anything to poison or cause disease that Milwaukee Public Works' dumping of milllions of gallons of RAW sewage into Lake Michigan, repeatedly, isn't already going to take care of. Our sewage normally goes through our wastewater treatment plant. Are you saying that a naturally decomposing fish is worse than the tons of crap/sewage that goes through the treatment plant?

chickadee

I am talking about fish with diseases that could possibly be transmitted to other fish in the water systems. These are not just my words, but found in almost every fish resource book that I own that expresses any opinion at all on the matter. Most places ask that sick fish not be flushed due to disease.

Rose

atmmachine816

Let's not argue about this or discuss it really, I'v seen bad arguments about this on other forums.