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Fish Euthanasia
I’m considering euthanising my goldfish Plain who’s been floating upside down for about a week now. There seems to be a haemorrhage inside his little tummy because that area of his body is bright red. Anyway, I searched for ways to euthanise a fish on the web but this Euthanasia post in some message board was all I could find. It suggests a method of freezing the poor fish to death inside a freezer, but I think the death won’t be instant that way. I want Plain to have an instant and painless death but I don’t know how. Any suggestion?
Update: Found an article on Fish Euthanasia. I learned from it that my fish is suffering from swim-bladder trouble, which is among the signs of a dying fish. Still I can’t get myself to do any of the suggested methods. None of them sounds humane enough to me. What to do, what to do…
Quacks on Fish Euthanasia
fill his tank with de-oxidising tablets?
fill his tank with arsenic?
boil him?
freezing is painless. He just falls into sleep and.. RIP
I’d suggest drowning, but…you know…
he’s been floating upside down for a week? isn’t he already dead?!
Nope. It’s still very much alive and breathing. It’s even still eating. Or rather, trying to eat. Eating is not easy when you’re a fish and you’re floating upside down…
poor fishie. :(
freezing sounds like an ok way. i like the idea of him just falling asleep…then bye bye.
I hate the thaught of having to end the life of any of my pets and yet just an hour ago i had to put my fighting fish down because he suffered from an incurable and rather unpleasent disease.
I looked all over for a humain way, from clove oil and baking soda to freezing. I know it pains you to think of freezing you’r fish but think of it this way. How would you like to go. In your sleep, wacked over the head poisoned to death? Perhaps in pain, naturally over time. I think you would pick in your sleep. Freezing slows down the heart rate, puts him to sleep an he simply doesn’t wake up. He would do the same thing for you.
Just had to let my orandas go,,,fungus had gone too far. Freezing them was hard to do,,,,,but by far the most humane,,,,they slow down and go to sleep, no sporadic swimming or distress that I saw,,I used a bowl with a big block of ice in the bottom, with dechlorinated water being used for the ice. I checked in while it happened, so if they were in any distress that was noticabe, I would no use this method again, but all was fine.
I just had a betta who was suffering from fish lice and tail fungus. I tried a lot of meds and he seemed to recover from both ilnesses.…..then he got the fungus again and I had been reading about ways to euthanize m fish but i didn’t have the nerve to do anything. I then called my father to have him hit it on the head when I was away one weekend, and he said that by the time he got there, he was dead. :( I really regrette not putting him out sooner. One thing I did do though was when I found he was affected with fungus again. I set up a mirror for him to think he was fighting.…at least he went out with some pride. Now I’m doing a speech about this topic in my speech class. i cannot believe how many people disregard a fishes ability to suffer. Well, good luck to all who has a sick fishy. BTW I read an article about how you can take your fish to the vet and they will give it anestisia.….(that’s the easiest way) bye bye
I’d say don’t be quick to euthanize… I have a female betta that came down with a NASTY case of Columnaris (fungus). I treated her tank with several different medications, raised her water temperature, and the fungus just seemed to get worse. I pulled her out of the water and physically wiped the fungus off, but it would grow back within hours. Blood vessels in her back started popping so it looked like she had varicose veins and her eyes started filling up with blood. She hung on like that for three days until I diagnosed it as Columnaris (bacteria, can’t be treated with anti-fungals) and got her the right medication. She’s doing fine now… and at one point if I’d been able to come up with a painless way to euthanize her I would have done it. Just goes to show, these little fishes can astonish you.
Please think twice before putting a fish with swimbladder disease to sleep! There are ways of keeping it healthy and happy - please read this:
http://petplace.netscape.com/Articles/artShow.asp?artID=2551
{This discussion is closed. Thanks to all who participated.}
