# Best fish euthanasia method



## Rasbora (25 Feb 2014)

Occasionally, it is sadly necessary to euthanise fish which are suffering. New research suggest that the standard "professional" method, MS222, may not be the best: 
		Fish-kill method questioned : Nature News &amp; Comment	 
Clove oil looks like the best alternative, but if it is necessary, please follow the instructions carefully: 
What is the most humane way to euthanase aquarium fish? - RSPCA Australia knowledgebase 

Anyone ever tried using clove oil for this purpose?


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## Fern (25 Feb 2014)

Yes, the times that I have used it which thankfully hasn't been very often, it does work well, you just have to make sure you stir the clove oil/water mix very well before adding the fish.
It does smell quite strong, so I put the clove oil in a freezer bag with a little aquarium water stir well, pop in the fish and close the bag, wait for a few mins and check, it's usually very quick.


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## BigTom (25 Feb 2014)

I net them out into a small bag and then crush them with a brick. Pretty instant - it's hard to know how much distress is caused by any of the more prolonged methods.


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## three-fingers (25 Feb 2014)

While it's often harder for the human do to, I believe the best fish euthanasia method is also the fastest: the brick.


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## MirandaB (25 Feb 2014)

Have to agree with BigTom and three-fingers,the brick is the fastest and most humane way imo.


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## Ben M (25 Feb 2014)

I usually opt for the brick method, although I have shot a couple with an air rifle. (Shooting them does sound slightly psychotic, but I thought it may be a less stressful death, and it was done purely out of compassion for the fish).


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## Andy D (25 Feb 2014)

Nathan Hill over at PFK did an article on this - Painful fish deaths? You might be guilty… | Blog | Practical Fishkeeping


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## Edvet (25 Feb 2014)

Or chop the head of.


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## tim (25 Feb 2014)

Edvet said:


> Or chop the head of.


Just don't miss.


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## Fern (25 Feb 2014)

Edvet said:


> Or chop the head of.



Hard to do to properly to a small fish, and even harder to do to a large fish that you have cared for all it's life and it looks you in the eye while you do it....
I'm a bit squeemish, so clove oil overdose works well for me


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## ian_m (25 Feb 2014)

Head off and remains down sink nibbler....


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## parotet (25 Feb 2014)

I was dining... no fish,  promise...


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## Alastair (25 Feb 2014)

Ben M said:


> I usually opt for the brick method, although I have shot a couple with an air rifle. (Shooting them does sound slightly psychotic, but I thought it may be a less stressful death, and it was done purely out of compassion for the fish).



That is a joke isnt it?


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## Ben M (25 Feb 2014)

Err no?


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## James O (25 Feb 2014)

I pop the fish in a small amount of tank water in a jug or similar.  Then mix clove oil & water in a small bottle by vigorous shaking until it emulsifies, then add to jug.

And I hate it every time


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## Alastair (25 Feb 2014)

Ben M said:


> Err no?



So you take out the fish thats already stressed and dying,  place it somewhere then shoot it with an air rifle?
In what way is that humane or less stressful.


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## Henry (25 Feb 2014)

In a bag of shallow water, then blunt force to the head. Tends to be off the side cistern of the toilet. Very quick, and instantly effective. 

Isn't the brick method a little...erm...messy?


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## Ben M (26 Feb 2014)

Alastair said:


> So you take out the fish that's already stressed and dying,  place it somewhere then shoot it with an air rifle?
> In what way is that humane or less stressful.



No I just shot it in the tank...

Seriously though, I just caught it in an ice cream tub, put the tub on the floor outside and shot it. It took seconds, and there's no need to take it out of the water to hit it with a brick.


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## James O (26 Feb 2014)

You shot a 4-5cm fish swimming in a little water and got a clean kill shot to the head?


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## Alastair (26 Feb 2014)

Ben M said:


> No I just shot it in the tank...
> 
> Seriously though, I just caught it in an ice cream tub, put the tub on the floor outside and shot it. It took seconds, and there's no need to take it out of the water to hit it with a brick.



Just seems very very wrong to me and something that's more entertainment than quickly putting a fish out of its misery. 
What made you think of that in the first place?? 
Im not purposefully trying to have a go or anything ben as im not like that but I found that a little disturbing if im honest and reckon im not the only one. 

Its like the people who owned racing grey hounds that when theyd stopped being able to run and were getting on, they'd take them out to a field and shoot them instead of putting them to sleep


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## BigTom (26 Feb 2014)

Henry said:


> In a bag of shallow water, then blunt force to the head. Tends to be off the side cistern of the toilet. Very quick, and instantly effective.
> 
> Isn't the brick method a little...erm...messy?



If you've netted them into a little plastic bag or similar then it's all pretty self contained.


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## Edvet (26 Feb 2014)

(Actually, if done properly, shooting a dog in the head could be as humane as euthanasia)


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## Alastair (26 Feb 2014)

Edvet said:


> (Actually, if done properly, shooting a dog in the head could be as humane as euthanasia)


Do you think ed? ? I know its slightly off topic but surely being put to sleep is a nicer way than getting shot lol. No pain felt even for a second or two......


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## Edvet (26 Feb 2014)

Going out for a walk and then suddenly "bang", life is over? I wouldn't mind that (that's why i dont mind hunting in general). Euthanasia is a good way to go, but there can be a slight stress involved, going to the clinic, getting an aneasthesiashot, not huge but not totally absent either. I don't condone they way dogracers treat their dogs btw, the comment was about the shot.


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## EnderUK (26 Feb 2014)

I've got pretty small fish, only had to do this with an oto and and a young three spotted gourami but I stick them in a small tub and put them in the freezer, 10 minutes later dead fish.

I would probably use the hammer method if my lass didn't think it was cruel.


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## Edvet (26 Feb 2014)

10 minutes in the freezer is far more stressfull for the fish.


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## sanj (26 Feb 2014)

Personally I put the fish in a small containder with tank water mixed with clove oil (10 drops or so), sends them into a deep sleep which they do not recover from. I check on the container over several hours, usually leave overnight before disposal, just to make sure the fish has actually gone.


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## EnderUK (26 Feb 2014)

Edvet said:


> 10 minutes in the freezer is far more stressfull for the fish.


 
tell my lass that, hopefully it will be a while before I have to do anything again at which point I might be able to pursade her of othe rmethods.


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## three-fingers (26 Feb 2014)

Yeah, the freezer method is generally regarded as a bad way to go on most euthanasia threads I've seen in the past, slowly freezing to death sounds like a horrible way to go. Being cold blooded doesn't meant they can't feel it! (that's usually the reasoning given )

The brick/blunt trauma seems a safer and potentially less cruel method than clove oil or anything else to me because I don't believe we have any way of quantifying how a fish actually feels when it's being euthanised . Clove oil could be an unimaginably painful experience for the fish, even though it doesn't look like it.

Until we invent fish communicators and can ask the fish what they prefer, I'll opt for the quickest way! Given the choice between of being immersed in toxic oil in a tub outside the tank for minutes that may or may not be painful, or being instantly crushed by a giant brick, I'd pick the brick!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Tim Harrison (26 Feb 2014)

This crops up on various fishy forums from time to time including this one Sick Gourami - Help! | UK Aquatic Plant Society I think overall overdosing anaesthetic (acetone) is usually considered the most humane way to dispatch a fish. I know from experience that its a favourite with the wholesale tropical fish industry, but perhaps more for convenience than anything else. However, it's also the method that we find most palatable so it always gets more votes; which doesn't necessarily make it the most humane in actual fact. Brain destruction is probably the most humane...or rather a combination of both anaesthetic overdose, and then brain destruction, as described in Nathan Hill's PFK article linked earlier in this thread.


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## James O (26 Feb 2014)

I read that adding vodka after anaesthetising with clove oil does this.  Must be vodka or same type of alcohol though.


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## roadmaster (26 Feb 2014)

Meat cleaver and off with their head's.
Have also in the past froze em. Seem's much more humane than lot's of other stuff we subject them to.


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## Ben M (26 Feb 2014)

James O said:


> You shot a 4-5cm fish swimming in a little water and got a clean kill shot to the head?



Well I can shoot flies off a manure-smeared board at 10m (which is an actual target practise technique, not some weird thing I made up), so shooting a half dead fish from point-blank isn't too taxing.



Alastair said:


> Just seems very very wrong to me and something that's more entertainment than quickly putting a fish out of its misery.
> What made you think of that in the first place??
> Im not purposefully trying to have a go or anything ben as im not like that but I found that a little disturbing if im honest and reckon im not the only one.
> 
> Its like the people who owned racing grey hounds that when theyd stopped being able to run and were getting on, they'd take them out to a field and shoot them instead of putting them to sleep



Well I've done pest control in the past, shooting rabbits, crows, pigeons etc, so shooting an animal to kill it seems like quite a logical thing TBH. I totally disagree with killing greyhounds that can't race any more, however it's done, but shooting animals is used as a method of euthanasia all of the time. For example, on many farms, if an animal is ill and needs to be put to sleep, will the farmer pay large vet bills, or will he go for his shotgun? I've seen many occasions where farmers have shot sheep, pigs etc because it's cheaper than calling the vet out. And racehorses are often shot by a vet if they are injured. And I've also been told by a vet that especially in small rodents and lizards decapitating or breaking the neck of an animal is a valid method of euthanasia, although not frequently practised.

I'm sure you don't mean to have a go Alastair, and it probably does seem a bit disturbing to someone who maybe doesn't live in the countryside like I do? But to me, shooting a fish seems much more humane than putting it in the freezer to die slowly and possibly painfully?

Cheers,
Ben


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## roadmaster (26 Feb 2014)

Can see this thread deteriorating.
Just choose a method and get it done. Ain't everybody gonna be agreeable to the method chosen.
Can say I don't recommend shooting fish in a barrel.
"You'll shoot your eye out!! "


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## NattyAntlers (26 Feb 2014)

Ben M said:


> Well I can shoot flies off a manure-smeared board at 10m



How do you know you hit the one you were actually aiming at?


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## Edvet (26 Feb 2014)

The one with the apple on it's head


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## brumbird (26 Feb 2014)

Just need to make sure people realise they need to pith (destroy brain) after decapitation as the head can remain alive for several minutes after removal.


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## Ben M (26 Feb 2014)

NattyAntlers said:


> How do you know you hit the one you were actually aiming at?



I shoot a precharged pneumatic, which is powered by compressed air rather than a spring, so has no recoil. So you can see the pellet hit the fly as the scope doesn't go out of focus as you fire.


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## sanj (26 Feb 2014)

Motile animals have a nervous system that enables them to respond to undesirable situations. A fish in pain will usually exhibit physical signs of distress, even in a weakened state. It is true we do not know everything about the subject, but the properties of  anaesthetics are not to my knowledge associated with inflicting pain, rather the numbing of it. Clove oil is also used to mildly sedate fish when treating wounds and ulcers.


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## Fern (27 Feb 2014)

brumbird said:


> Just need to make sure people realise they need to pith (destroy brain) after decapitation as the head can remain alive for several minutes after removal.



I believe that pithing has to be done before decapitation...

And that's why I just can't use this method. I'm not confident that I could bang a fish on the head, pith then decapitate properly causing no pain or trauma. 
Using a brick to crush would certainly be easier, but I couldn't do that either!


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## brumbird (27 Feb 2014)

I've not heard of that technique, I thought it had to be after.so as to have proper access to the relevant bit! I have never done it myself but have read the PFK article linked to further up the thread, which suggests pithing comes last. Lovely topic!!


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## Fern (27 Feb 2014)

Maybe I read it wrong, need more coffeeeeeeeee.


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