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What is the most humane way of putting a fish down?

I always do what I can to make a fish better but sometimes you just cant and then the fish is almost dead and well you get the idea.
So, what is the most humane way to put a fish out of its misery?
My friend says to just flush it but that seems very mean and not so humane.
Thanks

I don't know of any way to euthanize. I haven't been in that situation. But, I do know that flushing doesn't kill the fish. It just sends them to the sewer, to die in a far, far worse way than if you just left them alone in their tank, their home, to die.

Please, do not flush the fish. Until you find a way to properly euthanize, just leave the fish alone. Do the best you can with medications. I find that Pima-fix/Mela-fix calms fish down. So try that in the meantime.

HTH.

Sorry for your loss.

-pamela

This is an often brooched subject, and generally it comes down to there being a possibility of pain being inflicted when severing the nervous cord (often compounded by people sawing the heads off slowly ,possible paralysis and not death etc or missing the mark, it can go easily wrong) or freezing, which according to various theories may leave some fish in a position to actually feel their cells explode as they freeze, obviously not the best death.

Which basically leaves a sudden massive impact for small fish (ie: hit with a brick making the death so instantaneous as for it to be impossible for the fish to recieve a pain signal before it dies). Basically splat. Gory it is, painful it isnt , it doesnt have a chance to be. Chucking fish at hard surfaces is not acceptable though, as it may just cause severe injury ,pain, and a slow death. Suffocation and drugging with alcohol will cause intense burning in the gills, and so arent that great either. Leaving them to die of their ailments is pretty rubbish too, and I know it happens a lot in nature but we have the advantages of pain elimination in captivity, and we should use them.No fish should be left to die slowly when we can finish them off painlessly.

The nicer kinder option is drugging it insensible with clove oil and then finishing it off while its drugged stupid.Which is my preferred option, I dont think there is a kinder way.

Folks will probably argue about this but basically when you eliminate "the fish cant feel pain" crowd,which is a viewpoint I frankly find ridiculous, your left with just the two pain avoidance techniques, which are instant total splat, or clove oil overdose for small fish,or clove oil plus a fatal injury for larger fish where the fish will die guaranteed before it awakes, be that freezing , trauma to the head, or a spinal cut.

Basically just drug them with clove oil, and kill them. It works , its cheap, its available almost anywhere in the world, and there no excuse for not considering it as a viable option.15 drops per gallon is enough to knock almost any fish silly within a minute. It'll cost you about 10p.

Its also handy if you have a toothache

Flushing incidentally for many countries is not only illegal seeing as it qualifies as animal abuse, but the fish will suffer horribly, thermic shock exposure to faeces and cleaning agents, plus you could spread diseases into local watercourses.The suffering could last hours or even days. Dont do it.

The hardest thing about euthanisation is knowing when to end things for the fish, and knowing when the point of no return has been reached. How to kill them humanely is clear.


Hope that helps sort things out for you.

I would just like to thank you for your question, I think many people maybe scared to ask such a question on an open forum. Sacred, that they my offend others or be attacked for differing views. Second, would like to thank Longhair for his reply, as it gave methods and effects of several solutions. I know that I read about the drugging method and but had forgot what solution to use. The one thing that concerns me, is disposal of the body was only touch on by saying do not flush and the reasons why, but what to do with a large fish or even a tiny neon tetra. So, I thought I let you know what I do. For most fish I just bury it deep in the flower garden, but for larger fish or fish I'm not really sure what the cause of death, I burn in the a fire pit. I know this sounds extreme but I also have a fear an animal might dig it up and eat it an then get sick.
Well just thought I give my opinion on this topic.

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

I have always thought to dispose o fa dead fish down the toilet (assuming it's small) but I like dj's idea of the burn pit, in case of some sort of illness. I've never even given the thought of euthenasia one second... I have now... Thanks for the topic!

When at work, I always opt for the smash in the head. I hate having to kill fish, but it's necessary when you run into one that is on its way out. The tricky part is making sure customers don't know what I'm up to.

The head crush method is the easiest and quickest, but still has its problems. In most cases the aquarist does not have an appropriate smashing surface next to the tank, which means that after going through the trauma of being netted, the fish has to be out of water while it is transported to another area. This puts extra stress on the animal and may cause pain as well. Unless a catch bucket/isolation cup is handy, this method is too crude to be ideal.

Using clove oil as Lhg mentioned is the best way to go. Be fairly gentle while netting (dying fish aren't difficult to catch, which makes this easy) and you have a pretty humane means of putting down a fish.

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I have never heard of clove oil. Where do you get it?

In the dental section of a pharmacy. In the UK a little vial of it will retail at about £1.60p. Its probably enough to knock out about 30 fish.