How to euthanize my dying fish?
Let me start by saying I’m a college student. I have no money, no knife to chop fish heads off (I don’t think I could find it in me anyway), no freezer to put a dying fish in… None of those commodities.
I went to a school event a little over a week ago, and ended up winning a pair of mollies: a slightly bigger silver female, and a slightly smaller black female. They were fine up until today. When I went to feed them, I saw that the black molly was just laying on the bottom of the tank. Every once in a while, the silver would charge it, and it would suddenly try to swim up towards the top of the tank, but I could see that its body was trying to sink the whole time. It simply couldn’t stay afloat. I’m thinking swim bladder failure, as I’ve been giving them peas, so it probably isn’t constipation. I decided to keep a eye on my fish for a few days to see if it got better, but then, it suddenly went into a sort of fishy seizure, and began flailing erratically around the tank. It abruptly stopped, and sat at the bottom, and immediately, the silver molly began pecking its dorsal fin off, so I rushed to move the sick/dying molly to a new container. Since I’ve moved it, it’s barely moved at all, and it’s fairly unresponsive. I don’t think it’s going to pull through, but I don’t want it to suffer, and I WILL NOT flsh it before I’m certain it’s deader than dead.
So, I’m asking you- what is the best way for me to humanely euthanize my fish, keeping in mind that I am a poor college student? I’ll be taking the remaining molly back to a fish store. I would rather it be with other mollies than alone in my tank.
I watch them when I have peas in the tank, and remove the extra when they lose interest. Also, the water I put the sick fish in is treated, as is the tank water- I was going to do a partial water change today, but I noticed the sick fish first. When I pulled it out, it went in treated water. Then, I went on and changed the tank water with the rest of the treated water. Plus, my silver molly is acting entirely normal. I doubt they’ll both die.
My tank has a filter, and I keep it otherwise clean. I do 25% water changes once a week.
My fish really doesn’t seem to be doing well at all, and I have nowhere to put it where it will survive. If I put it back in the tank, the other molly will probably kill it. My brother and I once had a male and female betta respectively, and the male ate the female’s fins off, and she died. The silver is doing the same thing to the black. Right now, I have the black in a cup of water.
As I said before, I will not flush the fish until I am positive it’s dead. Flushing it alive is inhumane, and something I can’t do.
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with a hammer?
Just take his bowl into the bathroom and talk to him nicly so he won’t see it coming. then, flush the toilet and dump the bowl into the swirling bowl of doom saying “Byw-byw i’ll miss you” until you dont see him anymore. Then, clap your hands as if you were brushing dirt off of them, and strut out of the bathroom
just take it out of water,if its suffering that much, then it wouldnt care if it was dying, it would want to die, or put it in a saltwater tank, or put it in like water filled with chlorine and it would pass in a few hours or days in chlorine, i think you should just keep it until it dies so you dont have to kill it, or put some really poisonus stuff in its water that will kill it right away, but the best thing is to put it in burning hot water, it will go crazy for like 5 seconds then die or freeze it in a freezer or something
I accidentally killed my fish by changing the water and not putting any of the treatment or chemicals or w/e it is supposed to have in the water, so a few hours later, the poor guy was dead. I’m not sure if he suffered really, I wasn’t here to see it. My mom thought it was pretty funny. I am such a bad pet keeper. ;-(
Did these fish go into an uncycled tank? If so, the ammonia is probably through the roof and they are dying from the poisoning.
Do a big water change and see if it gets better. You’ll have to do them daily to keep the ammonia levels down if you put the fish in an uncycled tank . It takes a month to six weeks to cycle the tank.
I don’t condone any of this but… I once took part in a discussion in college regarding if fish have feelings or not and I believe they really don’t. But others might disagree.
Drop it into Boiling water
Add some vodka to the fishes water, If you get enough it should die. Being in college you should have some of that around.
But really I would just wait it out. It could get better. Some times fish twitch to get parasites off of them. Take a good look at it make sure it isn’t sick with something that can be treated. And I once had a fish for years whose swim bladder was shot and would swim upside down and lay on its side on the bottom of the tank when it was sleeping.
The most humane way to euthanaise a fish is to put it in a bag or container in a little water and put it in the freezer. As they cool down they just go to sleep. Not like warm blooded animals that go through hypothermia. So by the time their heart stops they are totally out of it already.
This is the norm process for aquarists, both breeders, suppliers, and enthusiasts.
If you have been feeding peas, I can almost garauntee they have died from polution of their water. They would only need about half a pea a day at most. All the rest would break up and rot in their water and filter in about 2-3hrs.
Moving the fish to a new container would actually have created systematic shock if it went into straight tap water.
I think its probably best to euthanaise both as neither have much chance of recovery. Actually probably no chance as they are both very damaged,and are without their protective slime coat.
just throw some tylonol or asprine in the water with them, should do the trick and they really won’t feel a thing.
Freezing fish is actually a painful way to kill them. They have crystals develop in them when freezing while they are still concious which hurts like hell. Dropping them in boiling water also sounds very painful and stressful as it letting them suffocate out of water. Flushing is also inhumane.
Besides chopping the head of, there is another way to humanely euthanise a fish. Put the fish in a container with water from the tank. Put in a drop of clove oil which will send the fish to sleep (it’s often used as anesthetic when operating on fish!). Once the fish is asleep, THEN add vodka. The vodka will then kill it while it sleeps.
Here’s the full set of instructions, don’t just follow what I said because it was just the basics, follow these: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-most-humane-way-to-euthanize-a-fish.htm
Hope that helps! Remember the fish deserves the least painful way to die, as pet owners it is our responsibility to give them the treatment they deserve and to make sure we can afford to own the fish because of this. Good luck!
oh no….go to craigslist and put it in the “free” section!
http://www.google.com works wonders.
The BEST way is to buy some clove oil. put 14 drops into a gallon of water, pour the mix into a bowl big enough for the fish. when the fish stops breathing for 5 minutes it is most likely dead, but put it in a ziplock (with no water) and then freeze it over nigh to be sure.
Clove oil puts fish to sleep for surgery, 14 drops is a overdose.
Health stores sell small bottles of this.
Google the topic and find exact directions.
All you other people are just plain cruel.
Freezing slowly forms crystals in the system and causes great pain, flushing is the same as letting them die in your shitty tank conditions. Vodka burns. Hammer? you’re just messed up in the head. You’d be better off just laying it on a plate to suffocate than doing those other methods.
Cook it up. If your poor your probably hungry to. You could feed it to a cat. You could boil it. You could light it on fire. I don’t know. Do fish even feel pain. Just end it with a boot.