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hey guys.some of you mite remember i have a female blue acara who is between 8-10 years old!
im not guna bother explaning the whole story again.
but her quality of life is over.
she spends nearlly all day with her face in the corner of the tank,resting on top of the internal filter,she only really moves when it time to eat.
her ammune system must be shot,she only just got over a dose of dropsy,and yesterday my pleco was picking on her,she must have bumped her eye,cause now she has popeye.
for the last 6 months this fish has been throo hell,but ive managed to keep her chugging along.
however over the last few days i been thinking real hard about her quality of life.
shes not eating propperly anymore,she hardly ever moves from the top of the filter,she has been just about constantly sick over the last 3 months or so,she has suffered bad depression since her partner died,all this has taken its toll on her,this plus her old age.
as much as its guna kill me and break my daughers heart,its time to think of the fish!
so guys im looking for real,practical PAINLEES ways of putting my baby out of her misery!
ive dreaded this day for the last few months.
ive her that putting them into a container of tankwater then placing them into the freezer does cause them pain.
i herd that some of there internal ateries explode once they freeze up,witch is real painfull im told.
theres no way i could bring myself to bash her on the head ether.
so apart from them 2 methods,i like to here some from you guys.
i probly seem like im a big sissy,but ive had this fish since b4 my daughter was born,8 years has gone by,and i love her dearly,as crazy as it sounds this is why i dont want her to suffer anymore,i lover her to much to put her throo more pain,ive been seflish for long enuff,as i said above,its time to think of her...
jeezz i hope 1 of you guys has a PAINLESS method to say farewell to her!

Put her in a Ziploc bag, place under front tire of car, put in gear. I find this works better for people who are a bit too squeamish to bash the fish with a brick.

Sorry about your acara. They're beautiful fish.

Sorry to hear you have to go down this route - its hard having to do this to any fish, but a long lived pet makes it even worse.

Clove oil from the chemist (in the dental care / toothache section) will work as an anaesthetic on fish - relocate her to a smaller container, mix some clove oil with water and add to said container. You can either anaesthetise her and then use a physical method to dispatch the fish or you could try overdosing her with the clove oil effectively putting her to sleep permanently.

I don't know exactly how much of the clove oil to use - I've used a couple of drops on smaller fish reasonably effectively but the acara will have a bit more mass than a tetra.

Good luck

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

I just put my fish in the freezer. Fears that they'll be in horrible pain from "Internal ateries exploding" are ridiculous given that the fish is long dead before it gets that cold. I've done tests and found the fish was dead at about 42°F and likely died earlier than that. That's obviously well above freezing.

Clove oil may be slightly preferable, but I don't have clove oil laying around, I do have bowls and a freezer.

Ah Hokese that's so sad

I've had to bash a fish or two that I knew wouldn't make it, left me with a horrid feeling for days. My guess is that once we spend so much time looking after them, and trying hard to get them over an illness, the last thing we want to do is cause more pain to them.

Good luck, whatever you decide.


^_^

thanx for your concern babel,and yes i think you have a point there about caring for them.
well she is still batteling on,shes actully out and swimming around today.
but i think the clove oil(thanx for that gt) sounds like the best way to say farewell.
this has gotta be the worst thing about keeping fish.

Hi,
It's not just fish. Its any pet. They become members
of our families, sometimes confidants, and friends.
I've had to do it with family dogs and later with our cats.
It never gets any easier

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

yeah your rite frank,just the fact that she has been there for the past 8 years,makes her a part of the family,and she was 1 great wet pet,no so much any more,but when she was younger and more active.

well now im at a cross roadsmy blue acara has perked up again.
her eye is back to normall,no more dropsy,shes eating again,swimming around.
now i dont know what to do,wether to let her battle on and see how she goes,or go throo with the clove oil in water and say goodbye!
im thinking she will be fine untill the next thing,if you know what i mean,or maybe shes having 1 of her better days/weeks.
what do you guys think i should do..

Ahhh it's obvious, she's reading over your shoulder .

For me, if a fish is eating, and swimming I always give it a chance. Don't know if that's right or wrong, but I'd rather give a fish chance than take a life too soon.


I'm very glad she's doing better though


^_^

im glad she is a bit better too.
you know what babel,im with u on this 1.
i think if there eating and swimming,ill let them live and see how things go.
i just wanted to here it from some1 else.
thanx babs..

If you can obtain it, though I stress this is likely to be a VERY difficult substance to obtain, MS-222 is a veterinary anaesthetic that is likely to provide the most humane way of making the transition from life to death as painless as possible. However, you're likely to be VERY lucky if you can find this, because here in the UK, it's heavily restricted and only a licensed veterinarian can order it. Basically, if you don't have the letters MRCVS after your name here in the UK, forget it. I don't know what the situation in Australia is like (and I suspect it's potentially just as strict as here) but if you CAN obtain MS-222, it's fast, humane and works in small doses.

You can learn more about this here.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

ah ok thanx cal,i pretty sure you rocmended this to me in my other post.
ill give it a try,as im good freinds with our vet.
he gave me some metrinadazel(forgot how to spell it)when my mate gave my a oscar with H.I.T.H!
he even gave me dose rates for the tank,and a treatment plan,as well as some extra tips too.(he also is a fish keeper).
even if he cant give me the ms-222,im sure if i brought the fish up to him,he would give it to the fish for me,hes a real down to earth bloke!
however as i said above,she has perked up again,so im going to let her live and she how she goes.
if she does start to get sick/go bad,then i will go ahead with the trying to obtain the ms-222.
also cal,have you ever used clove oil to put a fish out of its misery?
ive been told that this is a painless method too.

I've used clove oil in the past. Fish went to sleep. Then to make sure, I froze the poor thing, in case it woke again. I know someone who used clove oil as an anaesthetic in a fish operation. The fish is now fine, so I knew that waking up was a possibility, so I was hedging my bets that the clove oil will act, in the very least, as an anaesthetic so that the subsequent freezing had no chance to be painful.

But, I think you're not quite at that stage yet. I'm with Babel here. If they are swimming & eating, I wouldn't go down that route.

For popeye, I just had good success with Waterlife Myxazin. I used it at normal strength & it didn't stain my silicone. Someone else told me they have better success at 1.5 x recommended dose & that it will stain silicone at that strength. Luckily, I found I didn't need to increase the dose, so fish & silicone both fine. Apparently, this product has no effect on the good bacteria either, so fish can be treated in situ, although you'll use less product in a small QT.

Cheers
TW

ok thanx robin,yeah me too,ive decided to just let her keep on chugging along,shes still eating and swimming around,she still does rest sometimes.ive got the clove oil ready to go.
any ideas on does rates robin?
what did you put the fish into when you used the clove oil?
thanx for the popeye tip too.

any ideas on does rates robin?
what did you put the fish into when you used the clove oil?

I put the fish in a cup of aquarium water & added the clove oil to that. I can't remember the dose I used as it was quite some time ago I had to do this. It was quite a few drops to the cup, maybe 5 but really I am only guessing.

In case you're interested, here is a sticky from another forum. Firstly the poster is looking for a solution to his fish problem & finally details the procedure he used to perform the "operation". In his case, to use it as an anaesthetic, he used 5 drops per 4ltrs

Anyway, I hope you don't need the clove oil.

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18678

Cheers
TW

ah great ill have a look at that,thanx robyn..
yeah i hope i dont have to use it ether.