The Puffer Forum

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Do you have access to anesthetic, or can you get some shipped overnight? I have Finquel and can overnight some to you if you reimburse me the shipping money via PayPal.

I can't make it overnight, he is violently smashing his face and eyes off of rocks.
I need something to do it now and really don't have much stuff around the house.

I really don't want to do the blunt force, but will if i have to
His fins are turning red, eyes are seizuring, skin is getting all scuffed from scraping off rocks.
I gotta do it...

oh no ..

what i would do if i was you is if there is nothing you can do for him at this point then put him in a container and place him in the freezer...he'll succumb to the temp and go peacefully

I've seen so many things that one says something is humane and one says its not.
The freezer seems a little ruff, but watching him bash his face off rocks every few minutes and puffing up is not going to work well for him either.

No matter what i do he will suffer

Freezing is extremely painful and not at all peaceful.

Might have to default to blunt force/decap

Every few minutes he violently flops into rocks and puffs up

You could also just remove the rocks in the tank.

He still runs into the sides of the tank at full force.
His body is getting more red, now he is hardly moving, still breathing heavy and puffing up every little bit.

My dad said go get clove oil or something tomorrow, i am not letting it go till tomorrow

Well, you can remove the rocks and he won't be smashing into as many things or such rough things, which would probably be a good thing while you figure out what to do.

If you don't want to wait, then you will probably have to go with decapitation/pithing/blunt object. Since he is a large fish, it might be easiest to catch him and put him in a small container and hold him underwater while you decapitate. It would probably be easier on both of you than taking him out of the water and holding him down while you do your thing, and if you're working underwater, decapitation is probably easiest and would let you be more accurate and speedy.

He is gone, in fishy heaven.
Thank you guys for helping me give him a good 2.5 years.
I don't know what happened or why but i think the tanks coming down.
As I don't know what happened all I can blame is myself.

I was really looking forward to the possible 18 years with him

im so sorry for your lose....

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Freezing is extremely painful and not at all peaceful.

and decapitating it while its still alive or perhaps stabbing it in the head with a needle is better...Mmmm i dont think so... i'd rather let him go PEACEFULLY in the freezer.

Sorry he didn't make it

This is so heartbreaking, what did you decide on doing? Whatever it was I probably could not make myself do it.

Or did he finally go on his own?

I'm so sorry for your loss. It's probably best to have things on hand to euthanize your fish, you never know what might happen.

I can't imagine freezing an 8" puffer, that would take forever.

Sorry for the loss... you didn't by chance forget to turn the skimmer back on after one of the water changes did you (before the strange behavior or early into the not feeding part)?

I'm sorry about your puffer.

PufferBabe wrote:and decapitating it while its still alive or perhaps stabbing it in the head with a needle is better...Mmmm i dont think so... i'd rather let him go PEACEFULLY in the freezer.

The AMVA strongly recommends against freezing, since the fish remains alive and conscious while its flesh freezes and crystallizes. This process can take many many hours. One can shock the fish first, but the AMVA still recommends against it. Decapitation (when followed by destruction of the brain), pithing through the front of the brain, and blunt force tank only seconds. Whenever we need to euthanize a fish, we need to put aside our own preconceptions about pain and fear (because these are based on our experiences as extremely intelligent, emotional, *warm-blooded* animals) and think about what is best for our pets - it's not about us, it's about them. It might seem violent to us, but for them, it's less only seconds of pain; in a freezer, it's nice and tidy for us, but hours of agony for them.