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i have a problem...my julli corys that have been so sick for so long are starting to show other symtoms besides just deteriorating barbels...so far one has died and the other two are showing the same symtoms. they are flipping on their backs like its a swim bladder problem. one of them has stopped moving now, i dont think it will be too long. i dont like to see them suffer, is there a way to euthanasise them painlessly other than severing the spinal cord with a knife or smashing them with a brick? i heard someone say clove oil, all i can find localy is clove bud oil...will this kill them painlessly? i really need the help

The quickest way is the spinal cord. It only takes a second and they should feel no pain. Any other way will only be slower and could still be painful.

Do you know what it is that they have? What have you been doing to treat the fish? Do you have them with other fish or in a QT? How long have they been sick?

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well, they have been sick for months, i have tried a few medications, differant substrates, more frequent water changes, the juliis just dont seem to get any better.

i dont have a quaranteen tank.

the first symtoms were their barbels were mysteriously eroding. then they started having trouble swimming. then they started having swimbladder symtoms like unable to stay upright, swimming upside down. now their gills are red and inflamed and so are their barbels. none of the medications anyone suggested helped. now i think its too late.

one is lying still on its side with gills flaring heavily. the other one is showing the symtoms the other one did the day before it died.

i guess i will just sever the spinal cord and be a man about it. i just hate doing it.

Sorry to hear about your cories

You might want to take a look at this article which talks about various methods of euthanasia.

I have found using alcohol is very fast. Vodka is usually recommended; I've used rum as well.


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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I'm sorry for the troubles you have had. I have some pepper cories and I would be the same way if I had to euthanasise them. They are my favs and would be sad to see them go. Have you tried using salt in the tank, the reason I ask is that cories don't do good with salt and if you did it may have hurt them even more. Do you have carbon in you filter system? If you do try to remove it and then use the meds as carbon will remove them from the water. It's hard to say what will help if you don't know what is the excact problem. Do you have any other fish in the tank and if so are any of them sick? You could also try some medicated food if they will eat. Keep the tank light off also if you can as this will help to lower the stress and mabye help get them better. I had a cory I thought was going to die but just turning off the lights, cooling the temp to what they like and adding some Melafix helped alot. It was doing alot of the same floating sideways and most of it's top fin was gone. The cory is now heathly and one of the most active fish in my tank. Another good med I have heard is called Tri-Sulfa and it is supposed to help with a broad range of things.

I wish you the best of luck whatever route you decide to go.

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no, i dont use salt in my tank...the other cories i had werent affected, i have peppered cories as well and they are just fine. whatever the problem was it only affected the juliis.

i ended up severing the spine. it was the most painless way for them to go, i figured after months of them suffering and me not being able to fix whatever was causing their illnesses i owed it to them for a quick and painless death.

however, i have to say it really messed me up...slicing your pets heads off is not for the weak. i dont know that i would be able to do it again, so lets hope the peppereds and the rest of my fish die from old age

Hello, I'm very sorry to hear that you ended up having to do it. It is something that I myself would have had a hard time doing. I have only had to do this to one fish and it is not something I would like to repeat.

I am glad the rest of your tank is doing good and hope you don't have any more problems like this.

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ok, now for next time, so it isnt quite as pinfull for you

Keep looking for clove oil, and the next time you have a fish that needs to be put nown, make up a diluted solution, and then sever the spine if you are not sure the fish is gone..

When I had to put my oscar down, it was hard for me to do, not only because I had worked so hard to try and afford him in the first place, but that I couldent get the dilution correct for the clove oil, I had his box all ready for him, and after he had stopped mooving, i started drying him off, and wrapping him up to be put away, when right before i put him in the box, he came to to i ended up freaking out, and throwing him back in the solution for...I dont know, it might have been somehting like 5 hours....I burried him up next to my favorite kitty

The second and last one thus far *knock on wood* was a female guppy, and this time, i added her to the solution, then after she stopped breathing, i removed her, and severed the spine..this way, there is no way they can feel any of it and its much easier on you to know that..

I think a little clarification is required about all this spine removal and cutting stuff, cos frankly its starting to get on my nerves, particularly since I recently read some results of tests done monitoring the electrical nerve responses of fish .

I tell you a couple of things for a fact.

1) Cutting the spine is NOT, repeat NOT painless. It is in fact one of THE most painful ways to dispatch a fish.Its not even especially quick, as a severed head can often live for several minutes after removal, recieving intense pain signals until it actually dies.

2) Severing the spinal cord will lead to a massive neurological signal being sent to the brain, often the net effect of this is that the fish feels like every single part of its body has been injured simultaneously. Having had a serious spinal injury myself I can confirm, the experience is nothing short of completely agonising, and in pain terms, far worse than most people would feel if they had both their legs minced in a blender, burned, and rubbed with salt.

3)The spine is a conduit that recieves all of the pain signals from the body. Cutting it triggers a nervous electrical response on a massive scale. Cutting the spine anywhere along its entire length causes , without fail, massive pain signals that will be recieved and interpreted by the brain.

4) The brain is the only part of the fish's body that is capable of interpreting these signals as pain from other areas, including the nerve core in the spine. If you want the fish to feel no pain, than crush the head or destroy the brain. The brain oddly enough is the only organ that has no sensation of pain of its own. To beat pain signals to the brain, the obvious course of action is to destroy the brain itself instantly. That way there is no time for the brain to recieve a pain signal.Cutting a spinal cord even a millimetre or two off the brain still leaves the brain able to recieve incredibly intense pain signals.The eventual numbness associated with paralysis happens in too slow a timeframe to be useful for euthanasia.It is only a thankful relief for creatures that survive way past the initial spinal injury as the nerves atrophy, and as many paraplegics could tell you that can take weeks, even months, and some experience phantom pain for decades.

5) People misinterpret the twitching of a fish's body after it has been smashed in the head as pain. Done properly the brain will be dead, and as such the pain signals cannot be recieved.

6) Cutting the spine, paralyses the fish, meaning the nerve signals to the body are cut, the body doesnt move much, but thats because it literally recieves no instruction from the brain anymore, any remaining movement is shortlived. The brain however still recieves massive pain from the area of the severed spine that it is still connected to, and that would normally be connected to everything in its body. The pain continues until blood loss, lack of oxygen, and shock eventually end all brain function.

Bottom line, if you want a fish to have a painless death. Hit it in the damn head. Hard. Preferably drugged. Ive seen people give numerous excuses as to why you cant hit bigger fish in the head, but frankly its blatently untrue. Im pretty sure a hammer or a brick works just as well on a shark as it would on a neon tetra.

Euthanasia is about doing whats best for the fish, not best for you.Its something we endure to give them a better end.Im really not sure where all this cutting the spinal cord being painless stuff originated from, but I would like to assure you all in a 100% certain way that it is utter, utter, crap. Its usually quick-ish, but a hell of a long way from painless.Only the very lucky few die an instant painless death from the severing of the spinal chord, the odds are not with you or your fish in this.It is surely only ever acceptable to do this to a really very ,very ,heavily drugged fish, and never to a fish in sober condition.

And if you want to mong a fish out completely, clove oil works very well indeed.

WOW, thank you for the info. I always thought that the spinal cut was the quickest way. I will use you the brick method if I need to from now on. I DO NOT like to cause any fish extra pain and now feel bad knowing that I may have.

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Live life to it's fullest
Who knows what tomorrow holds

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that is why I drug them first, they drift off, but the spinal cut ensures death *as in the explanation for the oscar*