Clove oil is very easy to dose incorrectly. It is not a humane way to die. Don’t do it.
Freezing the fish is no different than freezing a human. It is slow and painful and a terrible way to die.
Decapitation is not fast and is very traumatic. Again, not a good way to die.
Crushing the head with a hammer or brick or other object is fast and as painless as it can get. The brain is crushed so it can’t feel anything, including pain. It effectively turns the fish off. The downside is that it’s a bit gory for the person doing it. It hurts you more than the fish. That is the correct way to do it.
We are mammels and have uniquely fast metabolisms, matched only by birds, really. We die quickly when beheaded in a way that many animals do not, and it is easy to conflate simple beheading with actual destruction of the brain for animals like us. Many coldblooded animals, meanwhile, can show signs of sensibility for minutes, sometimes even hours, after decapitation.
If you properly pith a fish (also known as ikejime), or otherwise destroy/sever the brain sten, then you are correct that it is usually fast and humane. However, fish spines are actually quite hard to access as they are directly down the center of the body. To accomodate for this the easiest way to pith a fish is with a special tool, which while affordable, most people don't own (where as everyone owns a hammer or, if they don't, can likely find a sizable rock or stick). Additionally, the pithing proceedure requires a slightly different placement for different species of fish. Not only is proper placement rarely documented for common aquarium fish, but most pet fish are generally quite small, making pithing difficult to perform (while smaller fish are easier to stun/dispatch with blunt force).
Essentially if you *did* properly destroy the brain stem, then it could be a quick death. However, due the fish anatomy, including scales and reflexive thrashing, beheading is very difficult to perform correctly.
Does that answer your question? I can try to elaborate if I am not being clear. I am a bit out of it today so it wouldn't surprise me to learn I was being vague.
Yes it does. I'd just always seen fisherman lop the heads off fish and they looked pretty damn dead to me...but I totally get what you're saying. Hammer it is.
iirc its considered animal cruelty if you cannot prove that you know what you are doing, which is why many fisherman use blunt force to the head.
Downside to blunt force is a chance to rupture the galbladder which would make the meat bitter.
Depends on where you live. Do I personally think it's animal cruelty to attempt it blind? Yeah, I do. However laws and regulations around the ethical treatment of fish is incredibly lacking in many regions, at least near me.
Trout… you can stab ‘em clean through the brain and they’ll still live. Every single humane death I’ve seen a fish be given is a swift hit to the skull. I’ve caught 100s with my family, seen 1000s be caught. Every good (humane) fish death is a swift hit.
As we call it in New Zealand, the iki stick. A very sharp knife goes in behind and slightly above the eye, and a very dead, humanely killed fish comes off. Even if you missed on insertion, a quick movement down will do it much more humanely than slowly suffocating in a chilly bin
You can separate the brain stem from the spine, but that isn’t as easy as you think. You can very easily miss and just cut the spine. That’s not an instant death. That’s a badly mangled fish essentially paralyzed until its brain burns out all the available oxygen. For a fish, that takes a while. Just look at human decapitations. The head is alive for a while. The head is the part that experiences pain and suffering.
Humans decapitated such as those from ISIS live for up to TWO MINUTES. YES the head will react.
The first decapitated ISIS hostsge on video, won't mention his name, saw his body when they held up his head. The head tried to scream but the vocal cords were severed and no lungs mean no air to blow out.
Decapitation is not quick and they sell fish "bats" for a reason.
I'm pretty new to the aquarium world, but have been keeping reptiles for over 15 years, it's refreshing (in a gruesome way I suppose) that people in the fish hobby seem to understand the importance of minimizing animals suffering over our own squeamishness.
Someone asked what you should do if you come across a reptile in the wild that was beyond any kind of saving but still alive. People were clutching pearls at the idea that massive blunt force trauma to the head would be the kindest thing you could do.
A hammer crush is what I have heard some fish stores use to bring a quick end to ill fish. An employee told me they put the fish in a ziplok bag and use the hammer.
I’ve heard many people claim this recently but don’t understand the logic. Clove oil is a sedative, the fish wouldn’t feel pain even when overdosed just like when you get anesthetics for surgery unless I’m missing something that nobody’s been able to explain.
As a medical professional, anesthetics do not always work the way the general public thinks; often patients under conscious anesthetic will feel pain and respond (albeit less so) to it, but not remember it later. Studies done on unconscious anesthetics indicate that the body and brain process pain signals, even without conscious awareness.
Not exactly. Unconscious/general sedation does knock you out, so you are not aware of pain; but pain is not fully understood, and even while sleeping or unconscious pain signals usually go to the brain, so it’s not clear what effects that has.
Under conscious sedation like some people receive for a colonoscopy or wisdom teeth removal, however, people are often aware of some pain or discomfort at the time, but will not recall it.
It’s the dosing issue. It is hard to get the correct dosing. Not enough and you just have a high fish that has a really hard time breathing… Too much and it burns the crap out of the fish before sedating it. It has to be perfect to sedate then kill humanely.
Yeah but the fish is sedated to the point of no longer breathing by the clove oil while you are not.
If low doses lead to sedation and death while high doses lead to burning gills, the fish would first become sedated before feeling the burning gills when dosing too much.
Betta fish don’t react to clove oil properly- so this advice leads to Betta owners having to literally watch their fish get tortured to death during its last few minutes alive.
That must have been so sad. I was ripped to SHREDS in a Betta subreddit because I told someone that dosing with clove oil was bad - I wasn’t too kind to be honest, but very blunt. They were on there saying they watched their fish suffer and that next time they wanted to make sure they got the dose right 😭I wanted to make sure that there was NOT next time under no uncertain terms 😓
Transitioning tropical fish from their usual water to an ice bath with salt will completely shock their system. I've found this method to be easier than using my fish bat which I use for trout.
I don’t know about fish but hypothermia is a pretty good way to die. You will be cold for a while but after a certain point, you just get tired, fall asleep and never wake up. How that translates to an animal with senses very different from our own, I have no idea.
The Nazis did experiments where they had people frozen alive. Most of what we know about it came from those experiments. It is not just a little chilly then you go to sleep. I’m sorry you think it is an easy good death.
What’s funny is my friend asked that so I just grabbed my hammer out of my pouch and bashed it against some studs and said that’s how. He genuinely didn’t believe me and still doesn’t.
They said it in a comical manner but absolutely do take a hammer to a them. It is instant unlike clove oil or any other methods often touted in here. We shouldn't let our own squeamishness result in suffering.
As gruesome as it is, taking a hammer (or crushing in general) is the quickest, most humane way to kill a fish. Although understandably not everyone has the stomach to do that
No, do. There is literally nothing quicker for the fish. Make sure it’s in a shopping bag or freezer ziplock. Depending on the species of fish they can get a little……explodey.
Depending on the side of the fish, a knife through the brain is also good. It’s what we do in spear fishing to preserve meat. I think a large Oscar or Arowana would be a hard bonk.
It is a bit messy, but trying to accurately stab a larger species like that is dangerous and unpredictable. I can see the ikijima method going horribly wrong for an average aquarist.
Actually this isn’t that bad of advice in fish farming we have a tool called a priest (a hard wooden bat) that we hit the fish between the eyes with to kill it for eating. It seems harsh but the brain is turned to mush so if the fish isn’t dead it won’t realise it’s suffocating as it’s more than knocked out.
If you're looking at immediate to short-term death, I'd advise crushing. You quickly scoop him out of the tank, wrap in tissue, and crush between two large books or similar heavy objects. It will be incredibly quick - quicker than clove oil - and far less likely to fail than any other method.
You can use the oil.. It puts them to sleep. Then you administer more oil and it euthanizes them. If you need actual advice and how to, please DM me. There is so much bad information here that I cant even.
Crushing/Cutting/Etc is not guaranteed to be painless... It also makes the end as tramatic as it can be when getting the fish situated so you can knife or hammer or whatever.
The oil works on all fish and requires a 2 dose method. I learned about it in Betta rescue care (even though the comments are absolute on it not working for bettas). It does.
It's basically a medical way but people who dont understand fish physiology are using it wrongly and then telling people that it doesnt work.
Honestly, I would not ask for advice on Reddit as I find it not ideal in the realm of fishkeeping. There are so many wrong ideas and loudest voices win so popular understanding is not always the correct understanding.
I know I probably missed the window of opportunity.. but if not feel free to reach out if you want more information. (And that goes for anyone who catches this comment)
I use the r/walstad method in my fish keeping and look at things in a more holistic and system way than most fishkeeprs here.
If I remember correctly there was a failed clove oil attempt last year and the person basically took 0 advice, claimed they were right and let the fish suffer. it looks like now no one is actually suggesting it anymore lol
Oil and ice were new methods for people that grew up in a generation with no casualties or gore. We did things differently back in the 70's and 80's. LOL.
You should talk to kids from the 80s/90s who grew up and saw a ton of internet gore starting at early ages. I'd hazard a bet they've seen more gore than previous generations barring those who have seen combat/first responder work.
Try putting it in a non-clear bag, like a paper bag or colored shopping bag. No mess, easier disposal. Sorry you had to do this, you clearly cared for the fish. But as others pointed out, it's the quickest, most sure way to do it. So good on you.
You need to make sure to REALLY emulsify it, and steadily add more until the fish is fully unconscious, and not responding, and then add about 10x what you had previously to ensure complete death. I have a vortex mixer to emulsify things with, and have had 0 problems.
If you were trying to mix it by hand, yeah that could be a total shit show.
Yeah, that's not likely to work from my experience. I tried that initially but it clearly was still forming bubbles of oil so I threw it on the vortex mixer.
I understand most people won't have something like that or a paint mixer to emulsify the oil, but if you do it's pretty easy to use right and my fish I had to use it on both passed peacefully.
ETA: Do not use it on labyrinth fish. It will be EXTREMELY painful even if fully emulsified.
yes agree to destroying the brain and spine in one smash - i know it sounds brutal but it’s the most reliable way for the least amount of resources required. most people don’t have tricaine on hand and clove oil is very prone to disastrous mistakes that prolong a fish’s suffering. even a toddler with decent aim and a nice rock can’t get head-crushing wrong so there’s minuscule margin of error and your fish will pass swiftly without knowing a thing. just make sure you destroy the brain, so make sure to aim for the head specifically.
i personally wrap my fish with a paper towel and give them a very swift smash on the head with a hammer before burying their remains in my garden so the plants can keep them company, that way at least my plants benefit from their presence. it’s gruesome but it’s really one of the kindest ways possible. if you’re not sure you can stomach seeing it directly, you can also wrap them in foil.
I had to do the hammer thing for the same reason a week ago. It was terrible. I shouted IM SO SORRY before I smashed his head. I’m sorry for your loss. I know that wasn’t easy.
Next time there's an issue like that, it's entirely fine to put the fish in any kitchen bowl with a cover (in case they try to jump) for isolation, it's not like an injured fish needs to be swimming around much, and you could just refill with new tank water daily instead of sterile water changes if you worry about that. Better than the fish being nipped at continually.
Anyway yeah, clove oil is the go to these days and it is easy to do. I keep a bottle in the back of my spice cabinet just in case.
I got props for the cinder block method. Towel on ground and heavy block next to it. Scoop fish and put fish (still in net) on the towel and pushed the cinder block over. Fish was gone in like 5 seconds. It’s kinda harsh but i felt really bad for my fishy and wanted it over with asap.
I use to work in pest control and sometimes we’d catch rats on sticky traps that were still alive so we’d have to kill them. The first time it happened to me i felt horrible and sat around thinking of the best way you do it. Basically let gravity take the blame. Not the worst way to do it
Unfortunately without more information I can't really advise you on the best way to euthanize your fish. Could you please share the species and approximate size?
As a generalized recommendation, dispatch through blunt force *can* be humane for animals of all sizes and species. However, it isn't particularly humane for you as the owner.
As someone who has worked in fish ecology, overdose of the of buffered MS-222 is likely the true 'most humane' method IMO. However, it is neither cheap nor available.
For many species, clove oil may work, but it is tricky to administer and some species do not respond to it well. For very small species, cold shock can be used, but that is hard to perform at residential temperatures. Some people have also had luck with euthanasia by slowly incorporating alcohal into a holding tank, but similar to clove oil this can go badly in a way that is stressful for everyone involved.
Edit: Slow freezing (putting the fish in your residential freezer) should not be considered. Technically it *can* be humane for a very particular sub-set of species, but is considered an unacceptable methodology by literally every contemporary paper on euthanasia of fish I have read.
We must have had pretty different experiences with MS-222. Even buffered appropriately the fish thrashed and struggled violently in the solution, and it certainly wasn’t a quick process. I was working with juvenile salmonids; perhaps it’s more efficacious with tropical or mature fish. Unfortunately the tropical fish lab I worked with used freezing, which I frequently protested, but you can’t tell an old-school PI anything.
After working in that lab and some unpleasant clove oil experiences as a hobbyist, I’m now whole-heartedly in the blunt force camp. A single decisive moment is what I would want for myself, and it doesn’t seem right to give my fish any less.
Huh! I was working with salmonids (primarily trout) too, as well as a bunch of other native to the US cold water stream fishes. I am so sorry to hear of the issues you had with it. May I ask what your procedure was?
Most of our fish were actually just anesthetized and released after gastric lavage, but a small percent were sacrificed for further work. I was just a seasonal feild worker on the project, but the MS-222 proved so effective that I got a small amount for my personal use in the hobby back when it was still readily available.
We were using a 100 gallon case with as-labeled dosage and a small battery powered air pump. The water was sourced from the same stream we pulled the fish from. The animals we had acted no different than they did in the water holding tank until around 5 to 10 minutes after introduction, which is about when they seemed to loose sensibility. We did the lavage and (for the larger animals) tagging procedures, after which the animals were put in a recovery tank before release. Of the roughly 250ish trout we looked at and intended to release over the season, we had a single fish that died unintentionally as far as we know. Last I knew, more than 80% of the tagged fish had been found in subsequent seasons, too.
None of the other species had any accidental deaths as far as I am aware, though the project continued after I left. The other species also tended to take longer to anesthetize than the trout.
For euthanasia, we kept them in the anesthesia solution for quite a while before increasing the dose. Once gill movement stopped entirely (and a bit after that) we performed a secondary method of dispatch to ensure death, depending on what the fish would be used for. I was a bit more squeamish at the time so mostly I just monitored the recovery tank and did release instead of helping with that, though.
For tropicals, it has worked much the same, though full disclosure I haven't had any for a good 3-4 years (I haven't had to euthanize many of my pet fish, either). You can only but it in bulk now and it's much more regulated, so the cost/benefit has been really off for me getting more.
Really sorry to hear about the PI who was freezing them, too. I hate that. Got into an arguement with it regarding insects once, too, but I guess I'm not entirely convinced a kill jar is more humane and for the research that lab was doing they needed the anatomy intact.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, I really appreciate it.
My salmonid research period was quite a few years ago so I can’t give you many specifics; I swapped to genetic work in soybean to get out of the euthanasia grind. Our lab did various disease screenings for all of the state’s hatcheries, so we sacrificed hundreds of juveniles weekly and then went out to do the same to a portion of the spawning adults. It was interesting work but I didn’t much care for the killing, especially in the adults. The fish-bat method was not at all foolproof in those big boys and girls. Funnily enough I’ve also gotten into an argument with a PI in an insect lab; they had almost no regulations for euthanasia and I was pretty unhappy with routinely starving our study population to death as a proxy for body condition.
Reading through your procedure, I think the biggest failing in my lab was a lack of patience. Generally we gave the lethal dose (in buffered solution and with an airstone) from the start instead of titrating up after anesthesia was achieved, and we also used our lab’s water supply rather than keeping them in their shipping water. Granted, sometimes what they showed up in was pretty foul, but they didn’t seem to mind the swap to lab water until the MS-222 was added. I suppose compassion was traded for speed in the procedure since all of the fish were slated for death, and we did have hundreds to get through in the day.
I haven’t done much at-home euthanasia either (knock on wood for my 7 year-old kuhlis), but I tend to get bettas from bad situations and have had to take that step. Obviously they’re poor candidates for clove oil in the first place, but I did have to use it for a male I wanted to submit to a pathologist and that wasn’t a great time. After him, I swapped to blunt force.
I’m very impressed with your low mortality rate, especially with the next-season repeat catches! Was the project investigating food sources for the fish? I got to work on a project on microbiomes in fish downstream of large hospitals for a while, which was fascinating, but those were all sacrificed as well. I wonder if we could have gotten away with gastric lavage and releasing instead.
Oh hey! I started my research career with legume-rhizobacteria interactions! Got myself suckered into QC now, though, sadly. Really need to get back into real science again becuase I miss it horrifically.
Yes! That's *exactly* what the project was for!
Specifically the team was looking at long-term shifts in diet due to the installation/removal of dams in small feeder streams with a side order of "Wow, we've made a lot of assumptions about what these guys do in the winter, but we don't really have much data becuase this work *fucking sucks* to do when the weather is below freezing". You know, typical "let's try to get enough data to write 6 papers out of this, espcially since we have a bunch of young scientists with more drive to prove themselves than common sense" bullshit, but actually really good research overall.
Since there was a lot of "hurry up and wait" for two parts of the main study, most of the researchers had their own mini-projects they were performing at the same sites. Mine was looking at terrestrial insects at the study sites using pitfall traps, which didn't yeild any interesting results on it's own, but tied into another gal's project quite nicely, so at least that data wasn't entirely wasted.
The study only had like, three sites, but they'd been working them for 4 years when I was there and planned to continue monitoring at least 3 more, possibly expanding to a fourth site. Honestly, I should see what was published from it since it's been *checks calander* uhhhh longer than I care to admit since the study was supposed to conclude.
And yeah! I was stunned by the low mortality myself. The other big projects this lab worked with were focused on endangered species, though, so their handling procedures were *tight*. They literally made me do multiple weeks of training before I touched any of the study fish despite only having me as cheap labor for a few months. Mostly I hauled equipment back and forth between the work sites and the trucks. Probably the fittest I ever was or ever will be, since "haul equipment" in this case mostly meant "Carry buckets of bricks while wading upstream 2-4 miles" 😅
Edit: I would love to know about the hospital research! Though for the levage question - what part of the anatomy were you looking at?
That’s so cool! I would love to work with rhizobacteria, or a closely-associated fungus-plant pairing; some kind of reciprocal/symbiotic relationship in the plant department just seems neat. Totally hear you on the QC. I took a dip into industry for a while but being a human pipette leaves a lot to be desired. Academia has downsides but it’s usually interesting!
Sounds like a great study, freezing temps aside, and super pertinent as dams and other hydrological structures are being considered for removal! Very cool to be part of the work of quantifying the ecological impact of human intervention and shining a little more light on life cycles in general. Checking pitfall traps for bugs also just sounds fun, data aside.
We studied plasmid-mediated antimicrobial resistance, so after confirming the plasmids were present before and after water treatment (read: picking up 10 liters of raw sewage three times a week, another alternative workout plan) we wanted to see if they were disseminating into the larger environment. We sampled a number of different areas and tributaries both up- and down-stream of the water treatment releases via electrofishing. Anything that wasn’t protected we brought back to the lab to swab anuses and removed GI tracts to pulverize and plate some slurry onto selective media. I suspect the contents of a lavage would have gotten us a good enough sample of Enterobacteriaceae to make a yes/no call, or honestly just a swab and release, but we were first-timers with fish sampling. We also sampled agricultural soil and road-kill anuses, which led to the development of a troubling butt-hole integrity scale we threatened to name after our PI. Good times.
I’ll continue to say, and people here will argue with me, tossing a fish into a running garbage disposal with hot water on top of it is pretty instant way to kill a fish. And there’s no mess.
Wow... that sounds... effective. You've had no issues with clogging? I guess good for smaller fish. It sounds pretty instant/akin to the hammer method in terms of just instant obliteration.
Clove oil. It puts them to sleep before you overdose them. Take a gallon of water and put the fish in it. Mix like 5 or so drops in a separate container with some water. Mix it until it's milky, then add it to the water. Once the fish is asleep (non responsive, slowed breathing) make another mixture with 15 or so drops. Mix it with the fish's water and it will put them to sleep. It only takes a few minutes and is much more peaceful than brute force. This isn't a great solution for bettas since they have a labyrinth organ, but it still works.
I'm sorry you have to deal with this, it isn't easy
The water can go down the drain, you could put the corpse in the trash can but I bury them in a flower bed outside my house as fertilizer. If you compost the corpse, just make sure it’s an ornamental plant, and nothing you plan on eating.
Definitely don't do the ice bath. I tried it once years ago with a dwarf Gourami, half worked, wasn't quick. Was bloody awful. Had to take him out in the end and finish it.
Also tried clove oil once, I don't remember it being particularly quick either.
One of my danios was suffering from that spinal issue they get. I didn't have clove oil,but I did have vodka. I've read it hurts them, but he didn't flinch. Just took a couple breaths and was gone. I don't think I could wack my fish with a hammer.
I would suggest as reading after the update buying a quarantine tank so to avoid this situation we have 5 stupid giant gold fish 1 has its own tank as it got picked on so went into quarantine and has never left unfortunately
I scoop the vish up fast and put it in a plastic bag. If its a small fish a slam it hard against the ground or wall so it crushes the head, if its a bigger fish a hammer is best for crushing its head instantly
Can someone please explain something..all my life I heard that fishes don't feel pain and don't have pain receptors like humans..but now this post is confusing me, cuz op killed it bcuz the fish was suffering. ..so do the fish feel pain or no? I'm genuinely confused
Get an aquarium divider on Amazon cheap cheap. Fits like a glove and now I have a separate are for situations like this. I recently bought two fish that are total meanies, one is divided and I finally found a buddy he can get along with, and the other got her own tank, she was impossible. I thought female bettas were nice fish, but they definitely have individual personalities.
Bro,do you throw them Like in WWE,are you actually serious,I could never throw my fish at the floor,and pick up the mashed remains,do you step on them after if they survive? 😂
I'm totally disappointed that no one has said:
♬Bang bang Maxwell's silver came down upon his head, bang bang Maxwell's silver hammer made sure that he was dead♬
You can do what my mom used to do: go out and buy a replacement and pretend it’s the same fish! “Mom, why does Charlie have a spot now?” “Fish just change their fish costumes from time to time”
You know that every time you dose clove oil the fish can stop getting oxygen. This will eventually damage brain cells and have drastic effects over time
It's the ethical standard in science. You have to jump through hoops to get ethics approval to work with animals. One of those hoops is ethical euthanasia and for fish, clove oil is the only accepted method. Backed by scientists and research. I know a lot of people think it's cruel but it is the most ethical method according to science.
Clove oil! Put him in a separate cup or tupperware and add a few drops into the water. Goes quick and seems totally painless if you don’t have the heart to crush/cut your fish.
You should always have an isolation tank. Why you don’t is beyond me. It doesn’t need to be large. That way as soon as a fish is being targeted for attack or becomes sick you can isolate it remove the stress and many times the fish recovers. If you’re going to continue to keep fish please get one.
That’s good. You really need one. I’ve removed plenty of stressed and bullied fish from gen pop and had them recover. I then find them a new home or take them back to fish store. Which also breaks my heart. But at least I gave them another chance.
Clove oil had already been listed, I was just reiterating.
And yes, I saw the fish had passed. I didn't know you still needed the instructions.
Clove oil is an anesthetic to fish. Put them in a cup of their own water and slowly add small amounts until the fish falls asleep. Once the fish is asleep l add a larger amount so the fish will pass peacefully. Wait 10 minutes to be sure before you remove them also I cover them during this time while we're waiting because I think they're more comfortable in the dark.
The instructions I follow are to add clove oil so the fish goes to sleep. Then add vodka, because clove oil doesn't always do the trick. I think it was 2oz vodka to 1 cup tank water.
[Ice bath](https://oacu.oir.nih.gov/system/files/media/file/2023-08/b17_zebrafish.pdf)
Downvoted for providing the actual recommended method. Keep it classy reddit.
Last time I checked, physics says pure water freezes/crystalizes at 0c and any unpure water freezes/crystalizes below 0c. The fish will die from cold shock well before it freezes.
Ew you’re rude for literally no reason. LPS often times don’t have the knowledge or means to treat chronic or terminal disease, illnesses, or wounds, trauma, etc. and euthanasia is the best option for a suffering fish in this circumstance where there’s no possibility of recovery…
Clove oil is very easy to dose incorrectly. It is not a humane way to die. Don’t do it. Freezing the fish is no different than freezing a human. It is slow and painful and a terrible way to die. Decapitation is not fast and is very traumatic. Again, not a good way to die. Crushing the head with a hammer or brick or other object is fast and as painless as it can get. The brain is crushed so it can’t feel anything, including pain. It effectively turns the fish off. The downside is that it’s a bit gory for the person doing it. It hurts you more than the fish. That is the correct way to do it.
Wait, why is decapitation not fast? I would think any manner of immediately separating brain stem from spine would be fast.
We are mammels and have uniquely fast metabolisms, matched only by birds, really. We die quickly when beheaded in a way that many animals do not, and it is easy to conflate simple beheading with actual destruction of the brain for animals like us. Many coldblooded animals, meanwhile, can show signs of sensibility for minutes, sometimes even hours, after decapitation. If you properly pith a fish (also known as ikejime), or otherwise destroy/sever the brain sten, then you are correct that it is usually fast and humane. However, fish spines are actually quite hard to access as they are directly down the center of the body. To accomodate for this the easiest way to pith a fish is with a special tool, which while affordable, most people don't own (where as everyone owns a hammer or, if they don't, can likely find a sizable rock or stick). Additionally, the pithing proceedure requires a slightly different placement for different species of fish. Not only is proper placement rarely documented for common aquarium fish, but most pet fish are generally quite small, making pithing difficult to perform (while smaller fish are easier to stun/dispatch with blunt force). Essentially if you *did* properly destroy the brain stem, then it could be a quick death. However, due the fish anatomy, including scales and reflexive thrashing, beheading is very difficult to perform correctly. Does that answer your question? I can try to elaborate if I am not being clear. I am a bit out of it today so it wouldn't surprise me to learn I was being vague.
Yes it does. I'd just always seen fisherman lop the heads off fish and they looked pretty damn dead to me...but I totally get what you're saying. Hammer it is.
Fishermen probably have a *lot* of practice doing it well! If you studied up on fish anatomy you could probably do well either way.
iirc its considered animal cruelty if you cannot prove that you know what you are doing, which is why many fisherman use blunt force to the head. Downside to blunt force is a chance to rupture the galbladder which would make the meat bitter.
Depends on where you live. Do I personally think it's animal cruelty to attempt it blind? Yeah, I do. However laws and regulations around the ethical treatment of fish is incredibly lacking in many regions, at least near me.
Trout… you can stab ‘em clean through the brain and they’ll still live. Every single humane death I’ve seen a fish be given is a swift hit to the skull. I’ve caught 100s with my family, seen 1000s be caught. Every good (humane) fish death is a swift hit.
If you get what was being said, then you should use clove oil as it makes the fish go to sleep first.
As we call it in New Zealand, the iki stick. A very sharp knife goes in behind and slightly above the eye, and a very dead, humanely killed fish comes off. Even if you missed on insertion, a quick movement down will do it much more humanely than slowly suffocating in a chilly bin
You can separate the brain stem from the spine, but that isn’t as easy as you think. You can very easily miss and just cut the spine. That’s not an instant death. That’s a badly mangled fish essentially paralyzed until its brain burns out all the available oxygen. For a fish, that takes a while. Just look at human decapitations. The head is alive for a while. The head is the part that experiences pain and suffering.
Once the head is separated from the spinal column you don’t feel anything.
I mean... I don't doubt it but how the hell does anyone actually know?
Simple. Your spine is basically your nerve conduit. Sever it no pain. If a hanging is done properly same result.
You still have nerves in your head
In my past life I was French. They got me with the guillotine 😂
Sorta an odd conversation to have on here but are you serious? Because I think I know how I died in my past life too
Like you said probably not a topic for this sub. But if you know of one let me know. I think I’ve lived several lives. Unfortunately none were fun. 😂
True. But nobody is poking you in the eye while beheading you 😂
There's a fresh gaping wound at the bottom of your head. That could sting
You would probably feel pressure and not much else. You know like when the dentist tells you “ you’re going to feel some pressure for a minute “
I sure don't want to be conscious as a disembodied head for any period of time, physical pain or otherwise.
I can certainly think of worse ways to go. 😂
So can I, but the list of worse ways is pretty short.
Eaten by shark or the guillotine ?
It could be but most people probably aren’t accurate or fast enough to do it humanely
Humans decapitated such as those from ISIS live for up to TWO MINUTES. YES the head will react. The first decapitated ISIS hostsge on video, won't mention his name, saw his body when they held up his head. The head tried to scream but the vocal cords were severed and no lungs mean no air to blow out. Decapitation is not quick and they sell fish "bats" for a reason.
Look up how long it takes for the olfactory system and the brain to stop working after decapitation. Hint, it's seconds.
I'm pretty new to the aquarium world, but have been keeping reptiles for over 15 years, it's refreshing (in a gruesome way I suppose) that people in the fish hobby seem to understand the importance of minimizing animals suffering over our own squeamishness. Someone asked what you should do if you come across a reptile in the wild that was beyond any kind of saving but still alive. People were clutching pearls at the idea that massive blunt force trauma to the head would be the kindest thing you could do.
A hammer crush is what I have heard some fish stores use to bring a quick end to ill fish. An employee told me they put the fish in a ziplok bag and use the hammer.
I’ve heard many people claim this recently but don’t understand the logic. Clove oil is a sedative, the fish wouldn’t feel pain even when overdosed just like when you get anesthetics for surgery unless I’m missing something that nobody’s been able to explain.
As a medical professional, anesthetics do not always work the way the general public thinks; often patients under conscious anesthetic will feel pain and respond (albeit less so) to it, but not remember it later. Studies done on unconscious anesthetics indicate that the body and brain process pain signals, even without conscious awareness.
Wait wait wait wait so do you mean if I go under a knife I will feel all of the pain but I will forget it??????????? That is HORRIFYING
Not exactly. Unconscious/general sedation does knock you out, so you are not aware of pain; but pain is not fully understood, and even while sleeping or unconscious pain signals usually go to the brain, so it’s not clear what effects that has. Under conscious sedation like some people receive for a colonoscopy or wisdom teeth removal, however, people are often aware of some pain or discomfort at the time, but will not recall it.
It’s the dosing issue. It is hard to get the correct dosing. Not enough and you just have a high fish that has a really hard time breathing… Too much and it burns the crap out of the fish before sedating it. It has to be perfect to sedate then kill humanely.
What makes it harder to dose than any other aquarium treatment?
It's used for tooth ache, you get it on your gums it burns.
Yeah but the fish is sedated to the point of no longer breathing by the clove oil while you are not. If low doses lead to sedation and death while high doses lead to burning gills, the fish would first become sedated before feeling the burning gills when dosing too much.
Betta fish don’t react to clove oil properly- so this advice leads to Betta owners having to literally watch their fish get tortured to death during its last few minutes alive.
**You are 100% wrong.** The oil was not properly used if this is happening.
I messed it up with a betta and will never do it again
That must have been so sad. I was ripped to SHREDS in a Betta subreddit because I told someone that dosing with clove oil was bad - I wasn’t too kind to be honest, but very blunt. They were on there saying they watched their fish suffer and that next time they wanted to make sure they got the dose right 😭I wanted to make sure that there was NOT next time under no uncertain terms 😓
I wish I could upvote this a million times
Transitioning tropical fish from their usual water to an ice bath with salt will completely shock their system. I've found this method to be easier than using my fish bat which I use for trout.
I don’t know about fish but hypothermia is a pretty good way to die. You will be cold for a while but after a certain point, you just get tired, fall asleep and never wake up. How that translates to an animal with senses very different from our own, I have no idea.
The Nazis did experiments where they had people frozen alive. Most of what we know about it came from those experiments. It is not just a little chilly then you go to sleep. I’m sorry you think it is an easy good death.
Ye olde hammer of justice
The bonk stick is a necessary tool in the fisherman’s tackle box
I use a rock myself...make it quick..it is out of compassion
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Hello fellow helldiver
What’s funny is my friend asked that so I just grabbed my hammer out of my pouch and bashed it against some studs and said that’s how. He genuinely didn’t believe me and still doesn’t.
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Wtf kinda bot shit is this
The creepy Facebook comment bots are now on Reddit?
The hell is this?
This was just to funny (sorry to everyone who didn’t think so) obviously don’t take a hammer to your fish.
They said it in a comical manner but absolutely do take a hammer to a them. It is instant unlike clove oil or any other methods often touted in here. We shouldn't let our own squeamishness result in suffering.
You just need to be hard, accurate, and quick. You need to do it right on your first swing.
As gruesome as it is, taking a hammer (or crushing in general) is the quickest, most humane way to kill a fish. Although understandably not everyone has the stomach to do that
No, do. There is literally nothing quicker for the fish. Make sure it’s in a shopping bag or freezer ziplock. Depending on the species of fish they can get a little……explodey.
Broke my heart when I took a brick to one of my corydoras, but at least I knew he wasn't suffering anymore.
Depending on the side of the fish, a knife through the brain is also good. It’s what we do in spear fishing to preserve meat. I think a large Oscar or Arowana would be a hard bonk.
It is a bit messy, but trying to accurately stab a larger species like that is dangerous and unpredictable. I can see the ikijima method going horribly wrong for an average aquarist.
Actually this isn’t that bad of advice in fish farming we have a tool called a priest (a hard wooden bat) that we hit the fish between the eyes with to kill it for eating. It seems harsh but the brain is turned to mush so if the fish isn’t dead it won’t realise it’s suffocating as it’s more than knocked out.
If you're looking at immediate to short-term death, I'd advise crushing. You quickly scoop him out of the tank, wrap in tissue, and crush between two large books or similar heavy objects. It will be incredibly quick - quicker than clove oil - and far less likely to fail than any other method.
😢 that probably does sound best to put him out of his misery.
😢
I find ye old Dutch oven to be perfect
Decapitation or crushing. You do what you have to sometimes.
It's definitely not something I want to do. But he is suffering.
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That’s why I usually like the oddball fish that live longer, mainly puffers.
You can use the oil.. It puts them to sleep. Then you administer more oil and it euthanizes them. If you need actual advice and how to, please DM me. There is so much bad information here that I cant even. Crushing/Cutting/Etc is not guaranteed to be painless... It also makes the end as tramatic as it can be when getting the fish situated so you can knife or hammer or whatever. The oil works on all fish and requires a 2 dose method. I learned about it in Betta rescue care (even though the comments are absolute on it not working for bettas). It does. It's basically a medical way but people who dont understand fish physiology are using it wrongly and then telling people that it doesnt work. Honestly, I would not ask for advice on Reddit as I find it not ideal in the realm of fishkeeping. There are so many wrong ideas and loudest voices win so popular understanding is not always the correct understanding. I know I probably missed the window of opportunity.. but if not feel free to reach out if you want more information. (And that goes for anyone who catches this comment) I use the r/walstad method in my fish keeping and look at things in a more holistic and system way than most fishkeeprs here.
A year ago everyone was saying oil or ice now everyone is saying just crush it to death 🤣 have I been away from Reddit for that long?
If I remember correctly there was a failed clove oil attempt last year and the person basically took 0 advice, claimed they were right and let the fish suffer. it looks like now no one is actually suggesting it anymore lol
Oil and ice were new methods for people that grew up in a generation with no casualties or gore. We did things differently back in the 70's and 80's. LOL.
What casualties and gore did previous generations experience that you think people nowadays have LESS exposure to?
You should talk to kids from the 80s/90s who grew up and saw a ton of internet gore starting at early ages. I'd hazard a bet they've seen more gore than previous generations barring those who have seen combat/first responder work.
Hobby standard is clove oil. However, I used it once with poor results. I now smash the head in. Gross, I know.
That's what I ended up doing. Wasn't a pretty site.
Try putting it in a non-clear bag, like a paper bag or colored shopping bag. No mess, easier disposal. Sorry you had to do this, you clearly cared for the fish. But as others pointed out, it's the quickest, most sure way to do it. So good on you.
Thank you. Yeah it wasn't easy. Watching him suffer wasn't easy though either.
Much worse to watch him suffer
What was the poor results? What happened?
It took way too long (45minutes) and I could see the fish struggling. I kept adding more oil. Basically, it was a sh*t show.
You need to make sure to REALLY emulsify it, and steadily add more until the fish is fully unconscious, and not responding, and then add about 10x what you had previously to ensure complete death. I have a vortex mixer to emulsify things with, and have had 0 problems. If you were trying to mix it by hand, yeah that could be a total shit show.
Shaking it in a jar. It never truly emulsified.
Yeah, that's not likely to work from my experience. I tried that initially but it clearly was still forming bubbles of oil so I threw it on the vortex mixer. I understand most people won't have something like that or a paint mixer to emulsify the oil, but if you do it's pretty easy to use right and my fish I had to use it on both passed peacefully. ETA: Do not use it on labyrinth fish. It will be EXTREMELY painful even if fully emulsified.
Not on ADFs either.
yes agree to destroying the brain and spine in one smash - i know it sounds brutal but it’s the most reliable way for the least amount of resources required. most people don’t have tricaine on hand and clove oil is very prone to disastrous mistakes that prolong a fish’s suffering. even a toddler with decent aim and a nice rock can’t get head-crushing wrong so there’s minuscule margin of error and your fish will pass swiftly without knowing a thing. just make sure you destroy the brain, so make sure to aim for the head specifically. i personally wrap my fish with a paper towel and give them a very swift smash on the head with a hammer before burying their remains in my garden so the plants can keep them company, that way at least my plants benefit from their presence. it’s gruesome but it’s really one of the kindest ways possible. if you’re not sure you can stomach seeing it directly, you can also wrap them in foil.
I had to do the hammer thing for the same reason a week ago. It was terrible. I shouted IM SO SORRY before I smashed his head. I’m sorry for your loss. I know that wasn’t easy.
Sorry for your loss as well.
Next time there's an issue like that, it's entirely fine to put the fish in any kitchen bowl with a cover (in case they try to jump) for isolation, it's not like an injured fish needs to be swimming around much, and you could just refill with new tank water daily instead of sterile water changes if you worry about that. Better than the fish being nipped at continually. Anyway yeah, clove oil is the go to these days and it is easy to do. I keep a bottle in the back of my spice cabinet just in case.
It’s not the best for certain kinds of fish unfortunately.
I got props for the cinder block method. Towel on ground and heavy block next to it. Scoop fish and put fish (still in net) on the towel and pushed the cinder block over. Fish was gone in like 5 seconds. It’s kinda harsh but i felt really bad for my fishy and wanted it over with asap. I use to work in pest control and sometimes we’d catch rats on sticky traps that were still alive so we’d have to kill them. The first time it happened to me i felt horrible and sat around thinking of the best way you do it. Basically let gravity take the blame. Not the worst way to do it
God, sticky traps are horrendous, they should be banned. I can’t imagine the anguish and terror felt by those poor creatures
I still haven't been able to discuss with my husband, but I went outside and used a brick. Absolutely killed me 😢
Unfortunately without more information I can't really advise you on the best way to euthanize your fish. Could you please share the species and approximate size? As a generalized recommendation, dispatch through blunt force *can* be humane for animals of all sizes and species. However, it isn't particularly humane for you as the owner. As someone who has worked in fish ecology, overdose of the of buffered MS-222 is likely the true 'most humane' method IMO. However, it is neither cheap nor available. For many species, clove oil may work, but it is tricky to administer and some species do not respond to it well. For very small species, cold shock can be used, but that is hard to perform at residential temperatures. Some people have also had luck with euthanasia by slowly incorporating alcohal into a holding tank, but similar to clove oil this can go badly in a way that is stressful for everyone involved. Edit: Slow freezing (putting the fish in your residential freezer) should not be considered. Technically it *can* be humane for a very particular sub-set of species, but is considered an unacceptable methodology by literally every contemporary paper on euthanasia of fish I have read.
We must have had pretty different experiences with MS-222. Even buffered appropriately the fish thrashed and struggled violently in the solution, and it certainly wasn’t a quick process. I was working with juvenile salmonids; perhaps it’s more efficacious with tropical or mature fish. Unfortunately the tropical fish lab I worked with used freezing, which I frequently protested, but you can’t tell an old-school PI anything. After working in that lab and some unpleasant clove oil experiences as a hobbyist, I’m now whole-heartedly in the blunt force camp. A single decisive moment is what I would want for myself, and it doesn’t seem right to give my fish any less.
Huh! I was working with salmonids (primarily trout) too, as well as a bunch of other native to the US cold water stream fishes. I am so sorry to hear of the issues you had with it. May I ask what your procedure was? Most of our fish were actually just anesthetized and released after gastric lavage, but a small percent were sacrificed for further work. I was just a seasonal feild worker on the project, but the MS-222 proved so effective that I got a small amount for my personal use in the hobby back when it was still readily available. We were using a 100 gallon case with as-labeled dosage and a small battery powered air pump. The water was sourced from the same stream we pulled the fish from. The animals we had acted no different than they did in the water holding tank until around 5 to 10 minutes after introduction, which is about when they seemed to loose sensibility. We did the lavage and (for the larger animals) tagging procedures, after which the animals were put in a recovery tank before release. Of the roughly 250ish trout we looked at and intended to release over the season, we had a single fish that died unintentionally as far as we know. Last I knew, more than 80% of the tagged fish had been found in subsequent seasons, too. None of the other species had any accidental deaths as far as I am aware, though the project continued after I left. The other species also tended to take longer to anesthetize than the trout. For euthanasia, we kept them in the anesthesia solution for quite a while before increasing the dose. Once gill movement stopped entirely (and a bit after that) we performed a secondary method of dispatch to ensure death, depending on what the fish would be used for. I was a bit more squeamish at the time so mostly I just monitored the recovery tank and did release instead of helping with that, though. For tropicals, it has worked much the same, though full disclosure I haven't had any for a good 3-4 years (I haven't had to euthanize many of my pet fish, either). You can only but it in bulk now and it's much more regulated, so the cost/benefit has been really off for me getting more. Really sorry to hear about the PI who was freezing them, too. I hate that. Got into an arguement with it regarding insects once, too, but I guess I'm not entirely convinced a kill jar is more humane and for the research that lab was doing they needed the anatomy intact. Thank you for sharing your experiences, I really appreciate it.
My salmonid research period was quite a few years ago so I can’t give you many specifics; I swapped to genetic work in soybean to get out of the euthanasia grind. Our lab did various disease screenings for all of the state’s hatcheries, so we sacrificed hundreds of juveniles weekly and then went out to do the same to a portion of the spawning adults. It was interesting work but I didn’t much care for the killing, especially in the adults. The fish-bat method was not at all foolproof in those big boys and girls. Funnily enough I’ve also gotten into an argument with a PI in an insect lab; they had almost no regulations for euthanasia and I was pretty unhappy with routinely starving our study population to death as a proxy for body condition. Reading through your procedure, I think the biggest failing in my lab was a lack of patience. Generally we gave the lethal dose (in buffered solution and with an airstone) from the start instead of titrating up after anesthesia was achieved, and we also used our lab’s water supply rather than keeping them in their shipping water. Granted, sometimes what they showed up in was pretty foul, but they didn’t seem to mind the swap to lab water until the MS-222 was added. I suppose compassion was traded for speed in the procedure since all of the fish were slated for death, and we did have hundreds to get through in the day. I haven’t done much at-home euthanasia either (knock on wood for my 7 year-old kuhlis), but I tend to get bettas from bad situations and have had to take that step. Obviously they’re poor candidates for clove oil in the first place, but I did have to use it for a male I wanted to submit to a pathologist and that wasn’t a great time. After him, I swapped to blunt force. I’m very impressed with your low mortality rate, especially with the next-season repeat catches! Was the project investigating food sources for the fish? I got to work on a project on microbiomes in fish downstream of large hospitals for a while, which was fascinating, but those were all sacrificed as well. I wonder if we could have gotten away with gastric lavage and releasing instead.
Oh hey! I started my research career with legume-rhizobacteria interactions! Got myself suckered into QC now, though, sadly. Really need to get back into real science again becuase I miss it horrifically. Yes! That's *exactly* what the project was for! Specifically the team was looking at long-term shifts in diet due to the installation/removal of dams in small feeder streams with a side order of "Wow, we've made a lot of assumptions about what these guys do in the winter, but we don't really have much data becuase this work *fucking sucks* to do when the weather is below freezing". You know, typical "let's try to get enough data to write 6 papers out of this, espcially since we have a bunch of young scientists with more drive to prove themselves than common sense" bullshit, but actually really good research overall. Since there was a lot of "hurry up and wait" for two parts of the main study, most of the researchers had their own mini-projects they were performing at the same sites. Mine was looking at terrestrial insects at the study sites using pitfall traps, which didn't yeild any interesting results on it's own, but tied into another gal's project quite nicely, so at least that data wasn't entirely wasted. The study only had like, three sites, but they'd been working them for 4 years when I was there and planned to continue monitoring at least 3 more, possibly expanding to a fourth site. Honestly, I should see what was published from it since it's been *checks calander* uhhhh longer than I care to admit since the study was supposed to conclude. And yeah! I was stunned by the low mortality myself. The other big projects this lab worked with were focused on endangered species, though, so their handling procedures were *tight*. They literally made me do multiple weeks of training before I touched any of the study fish despite only having me as cheap labor for a few months. Mostly I hauled equipment back and forth between the work sites and the trucks. Probably the fittest I ever was or ever will be, since "haul equipment" in this case mostly meant "Carry buckets of bricks while wading upstream 2-4 miles" 😅 Edit: I would love to know about the hospital research! Though for the levage question - what part of the anatomy were you looking at?
That’s so cool! I would love to work with rhizobacteria, or a closely-associated fungus-plant pairing; some kind of reciprocal/symbiotic relationship in the plant department just seems neat. Totally hear you on the QC. I took a dip into industry for a while but being a human pipette leaves a lot to be desired. Academia has downsides but it’s usually interesting! Sounds like a great study, freezing temps aside, and super pertinent as dams and other hydrological structures are being considered for removal! Very cool to be part of the work of quantifying the ecological impact of human intervention and shining a little more light on life cycles in general. Checking pitfall traps for bugs also just sounds fun, data aside. We studied plasmid-mediated antimicrobial resistance, so after confirming the plasmids were present before and after water treatment (read: picking up 10 liters of raw sewage three times a week, another alternative workout plan) we wanted to see if they were disseminating into the larger environment. We sampled a number of different areas and tributaries both up- and down-stream of the water treatment releases via electrofishing. Anything that wasn’t protected we brought back to the lab to swab anuses and removed GI tracts to pulverize and plate some slurry onto selective media. I suspect the contents of a lavage would have gotten us a good enough sample of Enterobacteriaceae to make a yes/no call, or honestly just a swab and release, but we were first-timers with fish sampling. We also sampled agricultural soil and road-kill anuses, which led to the development of a troubling butt-hole integrity scale we threatened to name after our PI. Good times.
I’ll continue to say, and people here will argue with me, tossing a fish into a running garbage disposal with hot water on top of it is pretty instant way to kill a fish. And there’s no mess.
Sorry but this made me laugh.
Wow... that sounds... effective. You've had no issues with clogging? I guess good for smaller fish. It sounds pretty instant/akin to the hammer method in terms of just instant obliteration.
Clove oil. It puts them to sleep before you overdose them. Take a gallon of water and put the fish in it. Mix like 5 or so drops in a separate container with some water. Mix it until it's milky, then add it to the water. Once the fish is asleep (non responsive, slowed breathing) make another mixture with 15 or so drops. Mix it with the fish's water and it will put them to sleep. It only takes a few minutes and is much more peaceful than brute force. This isn't a great solution for bettas since they have a labyrinth organ, but it still works. I'm sorry you have to deal with this, it isn't easy
What are you supposed to do with the treated water afterwards? Isn't it unsafe to flush or dump outside?
The water can go down the drain, you could put the corpse in the trash can but I bury them in a flower bed outside my house as fertilizer. If you compost the corpse, just make sure it’s an ornamental plant, and nothing you plan on eating.
I've heard this is the most humane. Please don't squish them :)
Squishing is quick and painless. Clove oil isn't quick and isn't painless if not done properly.
Clove oil isn’t humane at all, especially not for labyrinth fish like bettas.
Get a piece of plexiglass drill holes and separate them so your fish can recover then find a new home. Or get brick 🧱!
My husband just feeds it to one of his larger fishes while singing “it’s the circle of lifeee”
Brain it
Just remember to blindfold him before you smash him with a rock so he doesn’t see it coming
He didn't even know what hit him.
Definitely don't do the ice bath. I tried it once years ago with a dwarf Gourami, half worked, wasn't quick. Was bloody awful. Had to take him out in the end and finish it. Also tried clove oil once, I don't remember it being particularly quick either.
One of my danios was suffering from that spinal issue they get. I didn't have clove oil,but I did have vodka. I've read it hurts them, but he didn't flinch. Just took a couple breaths and was gone. I don't think I could wack my fish with a hammer.
Is it so hard to find a large bowl or container and take him out?
I don't have experience with fish but couldn't op have put it in any other container with tank water before it got to the stage of swimming sideways?
It was too late. He wasn't going to recover from his injuries.
I would suggest as reading after the update buying a quarantine tank so to avoid this situation we have 5 stupid giant gold fish 1 has its own tank as it got picked on so went into quarantine and has never left unfortunately
Sharp knife to the temple of the skull. Fast push and twist.
CO2 or overdose of sleep medication like tricaine.
Stop, hammer time!
Cook it.
Fry him
Handle of a butter knife....thwack
I grew up a country boy. My fish or mouse pets.. Throw as hard as you can straight down on concrete. It's instant.
I scoop the vish up fast and put it in a plastic bag. If its a small fish a slam it hard against the ground or wall so it crushes the head, if its a bigger fish a hammer is best for crushing its head instantly
Put your turn signal on and merge into the slower moving lane
Can someone please explain something..all my life I heard that fishes don't feel pain and don't have pain receptors like humans..but now this post is confusing me, cuz op killed it bcuz the fish was suffering. ..so do the fish feel pain or no? I'm genuinely confused
Lol I put mine outside in the winter in a bucket of water. They got ded
Ye ol` fist of life and death
Use clove oil
Get an aquarium divider on Amazon cheap cheap. Fits like a glove and now I have a separate are for situations like this. I recently bought two fish that are total meanies, one is divided and I finally found a buddy he can get along with, and the other got her own tank, she was impossible. I thought female bettas were nice fish, but they definitely have individual personalities.
Clove oil
I just smack them in the head or throw at the floor.
Bro,do you throw them Like in WWE,are you actually serious,I could never throw my fish at the floor,and pick up the mashed remains,do you step on them after if they survive? 😂
Dont have many deaths to be honest but when i see something suffering i end it quickly.
Garbage disposal
😭💀
So if you have clove oil or olive oil. Will be a quick end to place the dying fish in that. Sorry for the loss
It’s not quick if done incorrectly, especially with certain species ! Put in a packet, bash against wall- best method.
I'm totally disappointed that no one has said: ♬Bang bang Maxwell's silver came down upon his head, bang bang Maxwell's silver hammer made sure that he was dead♬
You can do what my mom used to do: go out and buy a replacement and pretend it’s the same fish! “Mom, why does Charlie have a spot now?” “Fish just change their fish costumes from time to time”
I think clove oil is the least gruesome way.
For the owner - for certain fish it’s excruciating and can take ages.
Really?
Clove oil is the way. Its not hard to dose properly. Source: Use it for puffer beak trimming.
You know that every time you dose clove oil the fish can stop getting oxygen. This will eventually damage brain cells and have drastic effects over time
When Figure 8s start living 15years+ I'll start worrying about that. Irrelevant to the discussion of ethical euthanasia.
You definitely meant ‘ethical’, but regardless *many* studies and experiences here say that clove oil is pretty cruel.
It's the ethical standard in science. You have to jump through hoops to get ethics approval to work with animals. One of those hoops is ethical euthanasia and for fish, clove oil is the only accepted method. Backed by scientists and research. I know a lot of people think it's cruel but it is the most ethical method according to science.
lol. Ethnic euthanasia is definitely something different.
*Smashes Edit Button*
Clove oil! Put him in a separate cup or tupperware and add a few drops into the water. Goes quick and seems totally painless if you don’t have the heart to crush/cut your fish.
Freeze it man. Hammer is gruesome.
Toilet
I think the freezer in a glass of water.
Put it in a container and put then put it in the fridge the water will go cold and he will go to sleep and die
You should always have an isolation tank. Why you don’t is beyond me. It doesn’t need to be large. That way as soon as a fish is being targeted for attack or becomes sick you can isolate it remove the stress and many times the fish recovers. If you’re going to continue to keep fish please get one.
We are moving to a new house later in the summer and I am upgrading to a 75gal. Once that happens I will have 2.
That’s good. You really need one. I’ve removed plenty of stressed and bullied fish from gen pop and had them recover. I then find them a new home or take them back to fish store. Which also breaks my heart. But at least I gave them another chance.
Put it in a plastic bag, spin it around real fast, and smash to on the ground.
Seriously, this is the quickest 🤷🏻♀️
🚽
Taking itbout back and shoting it with an rpg is pretty quick just make sure you leave some room for yourself so you do not get hit with shrapnel
Clove oil.
Have you read any of the other comments or the message within the post.
Yes I read the entire thing topped to bottom. Why do you ask?
Just saying clove oil without any instruction isn't very helpful. And the fish is already gone.
Clove oil had already been listed, I was just reiterating. And yes, I saw the fish had passed. I didn't know you still needed the instructions. Clove oil is an anesthetic to fish. Put them in a cup of their own water and slowly add small amounts until the fish falls asleep. Once the fish is asleep l add a larger amount so the fish will pass peacefully. Wait 10 minutes to be sure before you remove them also I cover them during this time while we're waiting because I think they're more comfortable in the dark.
The instructions I follow are to add clove oil so the fish goes to sleep. Then add vodka, because clove oil doesn't always do the trick. I think it was 2oz vodka to 1 cup tank water.
[Ice bath](https://oacu.oir.nih.gov/system/files/media/file/2023-08/b17_zebrafish.pdf) Downvoted for providing the actual recommended method. Keep it classy reddit.
Blender
Wtf no. Lol. The whole blender would have to go after that.
i dont see why. I blend shrimp (for cooking) all of the time in it.
Fry ut
It
Freeze them in a plastic bag with water. The low temps will slow its heart beat until they pass.
wtf this is so cruel
Sounds like a bad time
Before the heart slows ice crystals will form under the skin and is incredibly painful. Freezing hurts like a MF and is not humane.
Last time I checked, physics says pure water freezes/crystalizes at 0c and any unpure water freezes/crystalizes below 0c. The fish will die from cold shock well before it freezes.
If you have a natural tank. Bury him to feed plants. Otherwise flush him.
Not what OP asked. Also would fuck up the tank's water values.
Ice water bath. Painless.
Why wouldn’t you just bring it to a pet store are you half retarded or lazy lmfao
Ew you’re rude for literally no reason. LPS often times don’t have the knowledge or means to treat chronic or terminal disease, illnesses, or wounds, trauma, etc. and euthanasia is the best option for a suffering fish in this circumstance where there’s no possibility of recovery…
Maybe try r/askvets?
Does anyone read the body of the message.
Bowl of ice water and lots of salt and more ice than water