Euthanasia techniques article

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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Re: Euthanasia techniques article

Post by RTR »

Folks who have pressurized CO2 systems for plants can sedate or sedate to death with CO2 fairly simply. Back when I was keeping SAPs I would lightly sedate them with CO2 for dental plate trims before I went to mostly snail diets for them. If not flushed out of their water, keeping them in the OD'd with CO2 water will kill them.

It might be too difficult with DIY CO2, I've never tried.
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Re: Euthanasia techniques article

Post by PChucky »

What about boiling water to remove all O2 then allowing it to cool and putting the fish in it? I imagine it would suffocate nearly as fast as boiling but w/o the burning.
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Re: Euthanasia techniques article

Post by GBobNorth »

I don't know about aquarium fish, but I've thought about ways to kill wild caught fish. Nothing seems to work faster than stabbing through the brain with a knife. It's not pretty, but all signs of life stop instantly without suffocation, freezing or sickening poisons. Some people club them or try to break their necks but their eyes keep looking around. That seems cruel. The quickest ways don't leave a pretty picture, but all I've ever worried about preserving was fillets anyway.
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Re: Euthanasia techniques article

Post by Pufferpunk »

I have a 17 year old large fahaka puffer. I could never kill him in such a violent way. I hope he would just die in his sleep but if he's suffering, you can bet he'll be dosed with clove oil, gently falling asleep & dying peacefully.
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Re: Euthanasia techniques article

Post by pufferjw »

+1 to Pufferpunk

I could never kill any animal so violently(except for mosquitos). I don't even kill my own lobsters, I buy them dead.
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Re: Euthanasia techniques article

Post by Jelly2 »

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Re: Euthanasia techniques article

Post by hanna »

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Re: Euthanasia techniques article

Post by Glokta »

I think people are very divorced from death, when I took my beautiful old dog down to the vet, he wanted me to just leave him! I was feeling guilty enough without just abandoning him. I come from a farming/subsistence hunting background, and if you keep livestock, you will always have deadstock now and again. It’s hard, but it is your responsibility to provide as humane a death as you can in the circumstances, I’m the go-to person in my area for injured pigeons, squirrels, and other wild animals.And when I got my Puffers I also got a bottle of clove oil. I hope I never have to use it, but if I do, I will do so without hesitation and then ensure death has occurred.
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