Refrigerator won’t kill a fish particularly fast, freezer will but is inhumane. Clove oil (properly used) or pithing is the way to go.
(and yes I know this comment is over a year old.)
Is the tank un-cycled? That, fish incompatible with the water chemistry (wrong pH), and incompatible fish are three big fish killers. Sneaky disease brought in by lack of quarantine is another one.
Legit answer: inhaled anesthetic in the water, usually.
However, most veterinarians don’t treat fish. If a person finds that they have a fish which is injured or ill enough that it would be cruel not to euthanize it, clove essential oil is a good home method. It’s an anesthetic that you slowly add to the water, which causes the fish to fall asleep and eventually stop breathing.
Either clove oil or pithing, yeah. Pithing is a term for, basically, sticking something into/through the brain. It’s humane if you do it quickly (can’t suffer if you’ve got no working brain to suffer with), but a bit gruesome, and difficult with very small animals.
Clove oil is a much better option for at-home purposes, usually, since it’s easy with all sizes of fish and is emotionally easier to do. I’ve used it a couple of times with aquarium fish that were too sick to recover. They fall asleep and eventually die without any additional stress.
(Hopefully this isn’t too morbid for the comment section. Then again, there’s a fish getting impaled in the comic above, so.)
Refrigerator, or certain essential oils
Refrigerator won’t kill a fish particularly fast, freezer will but is inhumane. Clove oil (properly used) or pithing is the way to go.
(and yes I know this comment is over a year old.)
I’ve never heard of someone euthanizing a fish. Mine die when I look at them wrong.
Maybe you should get a “fish eutanaser” job at your local veterinary clinic?
Is the tank un-cycled? That, fish incompatible with the water chemistry (wrong pH), and incompatible fish are three big fish killers. Sneaky disease brought in by lack of quarantine is another one.
Legit answer: inhaled anesthetic in the water, usually.
However, most veterinarians don’t treat fish. If a person finds that they have a fish which is injured or ill enough that it would be cruel not to euthanize it, clove essential oil is a good home method. It’s an anesthetic that you slowly add to the water, which causes the fish to fall asleep and eventually stop breathing.
TIL
Yup. It’s what they use in most scientific studies that require fish-death, I think. I think that’s where I learned about clove oil first.
Either clove oil or pithing, yeah. Pithing is a term for, basically, sticking something into/through the brain. It’s humane if you do it quickly (can’t suffer if you’ve got no working brain to suffer with), but a bit gruesome, and difficult with very small animals.
Clove oil is a much better option for at-home purposes, usually, since it’s easy with all sizes of fish and is emotionally easier to do. I’ve used it a couple of times with aquarium fish that were too sick to recover. They fall asleep and eventually die without any additional stress.
(Hopefully this isn’t too morbid for the comment section. Then again, there’s a fish getting impaled in the comic above, so.)