Botched Euthanizing

[MonkeyMonk86]

I just bought 4 false julii. 1 died last night. 1 died sometime this afternoon. And, 1 was on it's side lifeless and dying.

I put clove oil in a container and added the fish. The clove oil did not mix well. I thought the fish dead and started pouring out the water. The fish wiggled. I had little water in the container and swished it real good to get the clove oil to anesthetize him.

I got a real sharp knife and then tried to cut his head off only to find his upper body was boney. The knife slipped and I cut the poor fish in half.

Ok. So, how do I do this correctly??? I'm convinced I cannot cut the heads of false julii's off ( they are hard like a chicken bone) and I can't get the clove oil to mix with the water.

What did I miss when I read the Euthanizing thread???

Edited: they were drip acclimated. Seasoned QT. 0,0,0, 8.2pH last night. 0,0,~1.5, 8.2pH today

(Friend of Bill W., One day at a time)

 

[keegster803]

Take ice water, like barely above freezing, stick them in there, they will go into shock and dye painlessly


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[mikem691]

First mix the clove oil in a small container with a lid. Shake it like crazy. Use tank water. Then put fish in. Wait atleast 30 min. Mix more clove oil and add to container wait another 30 min. The fish should have passed by this time. Smaller fish are hard to hold and decapitate but its a shure way to make sure they are gone. Hope this helps. Its the method I also use.

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[MonkeyMonk86]

Thank you, mikem and keegster, for helping me! I felt so horrible about botching it.


(Friend of Bill W., One day at a time)

 

[ScaryFatKidGT]

Yeah idk I'm more likely to do the messy and fast rout like smashing them with a hammer or something vs the crazy complicated methods, you could get a big rock or throw them under ur car tire like its fast and there dead so idk.

But the cold water method seems the easiest.

 

[keegster803]

The cold water method is for fish that are either hard to kill, or for fish that your really attached to


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[RightTurnClyde]

+1 for the super cold water shock method. Worked great for me in the past. They pass in 1 second. Tropical fish do not take the ALS ice bucket challenge.


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[Gibberwatt]

the cold water method causes ice to form in their blood, which cannot be a very pleasant feeling In their last 30 milliseconds of life. try boiling the water, really boiling it, and putting the fish in that. no ice crystals.

 

[keegster803]

The boiling is more painful, cause their flesh is siring off


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[RightTurnClyde]

Yeah, suddenly boiling sounds a lot worse to me. It's an unpleasant topic, but either way, we are trying to kill a fish. There's bound to be a brief moment of pain unless you use the clove oil to put it to sleep first.

 

[absolutangel04]

the cold water method causes ice to form in their blood, which cannot be a very pleasant feeling In their last 30 milliseconds of life. try boiling the water, really boiling it, and putting the fish in that. no ice crystals.

Actually, that only applies to putting a fish in the freezer from room temperature, NOT the quick submerge into ice water which causes shock.

Here is a thread about humane euthanasia:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f17/an-overview-of-euthanasia-73775.html

 

[Tank Girl]

The cold water method does not cause ice to form in their blood. The extreme cold will incapacitate them painlessly. You can then go on to freeze them or add clove oil and let them pass. As another poster mentioned, add the clove oil to a few ounces of water in a container and shake it vigorously so it emulsifies and then add it to the container the fish is in. Once the mouth and gills stop moving the fish is dead. It may take some time if your fish are large.

Boiling a fish is brutal. Please don't do that.


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[Wiggles24]

So this is a bit off topic but any thought as to why your cories all died so quickly?

 

[MonkeyMonk86]

Yeah. The store got a bad shipment. When I called the next day, their whole tankful were sold out. (All their's must have died). And, I purchased mine right after they were received by the store.

My last one is still alive and I got 3 more from a different LFS and they are doing great. All are eating and playing. The original guy is a little more lethargic but I'm keeping a close eye on him ( he's a tad bigger than the new 3).

Both stores said shipping causes massive die offs on occassion with the false julii (so possibly all cory b/c emeralds notorious for being super sensitive to shipping. That's why they are so hard to find. I finely got 4 of them on their 13th day of QT in another QT tank)


(Friend of Bill W., One day at a time)

 

[Brookster123]

I know this may sound a little brutal, if you have the stomach and want a 100% gaurunteed departure from their aquatic coil?? Wrap them in some paper towels, grab a good size rolling pin, make an X on the paper towel and give it one good, solid whack. Lights out, no mess, you can flush the packake, bury it, float it down the river... it will have died in a milli second and felt absolutely nothing what so ever. Didn't even see it coming.

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[MonkeyMonk86]

Idk. Brookster, u could wack it good enough, but that little guy's head was pretty boney for me. I kinda like the icy method best. (It's the one I'd pick for myself.)


(Friend of Bill W., One day at a time)

 

[Brookster123]

I've used the ice water method a couple times successfully. You'll know they're dead if they don't go beserk when they hit the warmer toilet water..

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[keegster803]

The thing with the rolling pin, is they can't breathe while your doing it, so it is sort of painful still


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[Brookster123]

The thing with the rolling pin, is they can't breathe while your doing it, so it is sort of painful still


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They can't really breathe anyways being out of water and all, most fish.. not painful if you do it right. When I bash my finger with a hammer at work just right? Doesn't hurt for a couple minutes

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[mikem691]

Ill will stick with the clove oil. They just instantly go to sleep if done right.

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