Clove Oil (contains eugenol) Clove oil is a sedative which at high doses, can be used to euthanase small fish. Unlike veterinary anaesthetics, clove oil is readily available from most chemists. Around 0.4ml of clove oil per litre of aquarium water is sufficient to cause death in exposed fish.
Decapitation - cutting off the head
A heavy, sharp object such as a knife breaks the spinal cord in a second and the fish instantly die without unnecessary torment. This method of euthanizing fish is found by many fish owners as the best, fastest and, therefore, the most humane.
Similar to the clove oil method, the baking soda method can be completed in a few simple steps as well: Mix together 1 tablespoon of baking soda and 1 cup of water. Add to your fish's water.
Add the clove oil mixture to the container with your fish and wait. It should take less than 30 minutes before your fish's gills stop moving. Once the gills don't move for 10 minutes, the fish has been successfully put down.
Unlike veterinary anaesthetics, clove oil is readily available from most chemists. Around 0.4ml of clove oil per litre of aquarium water is sufficient to cause death in exposed fish. The clove oil should be mixed with a little warm water first before slowly adding it to the aquarium water containing the fish.
Use a medicine dropper to drip clove oil into the jar. You'll need 0.5 ml (about 10 drops) per liter of water in the big container. That's roughly 2 ml (½ teaspoon) per gallon. Put the lid on your jar and shake it vigorously until the liquid becomes milky looking.
Staying near the water-surface or piping ('gasping' or mouthing for air) Increased respiratory rate or laboured breathing. Flashing (scraping/scratching themselves against objects) Clamped fins (fins held flat against the body).
Yes, you can treat new fish using the level 1 low salt dosage for 2 weeks. This solution should eradicate roughly 60% of potential illnesses. You can also use this technique for healing any fish that got beat up and needs some solitary recovery time in a hospital tank.
Any dead fish should be removed, as its body will quickly rot in the warm, bacteria-laden water. A corpse will pollute water, risking the health of other fish in the tank. If it died from disease the last thing you want is other fish consuming its body parts, so remove immediately.
In case you have a bigger fish, more species, or do not have enough clove oil, then adding Alka Seltzer tablets to the unconscious fish is a humane way to put them down. This is a great option for euthanizing the fish at home since both clove oil and Alka Seltzer are readily available.
Ice-Cold Bath
Tropical fish less than 2 inches in length can be euthanized by exposing them to freezing cold water. The fish is put into a small container along with some aquarium water at the normal temperature. This container is then placed into a much larger container filled with crushed ice.
And since the heart needs lots of oxygen to work, the bradycardia may help protect the heart muscle when there isn't as much oxygen available. Sadly, though, this still means there's no good evidence that pouring carbonated drinks on fish does them any good.
When Disease occurs: The most appropriate time to consider euthanasia, is when a disease occurs. In cases when diseases are highly contagious, or very hard to treat or even untreatable, then the old adage of one bad apple in the barrel, can be synonymous with one sick fish in the tank.
Tie it up in a bin bag and place it in the waste. You can bury fish in the garden although make sure you bury it deep enough to stop foxes digging it up, or cats. If your local fish store has asked to see the corpse keep it in the freezer as dead fish rot and smell very quickly.
Common table salt is suitable; however, it should be non-iodized and contain no additives. Rock Salt or Kosher salt are excellent choices, as they are pure sodium chloride with nothing else added.
Salt producers ensure that keeping the water in a freshwater aquarium lightly salted has a beneficial effect on the health of the fish, prevents parasitic infections and helps in the treatment of diseases.
So what is salting? Basically, salt (food-grade) is added to fish in order to lower what is called the Water Activity (Aw). Fish flesh contains 75-80% water (fatty fish, 60-65 %), and during salting some of this water is removed and replaced by salt.
Positive buoyancy disorder, where the fish floats at the surface or on its side, is the most commonly presented form of swim bladder disease, especially in goldfish. Most likely, the cause is overinflation of the swim bladder. Overinflation usually takes place in the posterior chamber.
Numerous studies in recent years have demonstrated that fish feel and react to pain. For example, when rainbow trout had painful acetic acid or bee venom injected into their sensitive lips, they stopped eating, rocked back and forth on the tank floor, and rubbed their lips against the tank walls.
“Fish do feel pain. It's likely different from what humans feel, but it is still a kind of pain.” At the anatomical level, fish have neurons known as nociceptors, which detect potential harm, such as high temperatures, intense pressure, and caustic chemicals.
Light oils and petroleum products can cause acute toxicity in fish, but the toxic event is generally over fairly quickly. Heavier oils may not affect fish at all, or, in the cases of fish in larval or spawning stages, may be quite detrimental, as in the case of the 2007 Cosco Busan spill in San Francisco Bay.
Improper clove oil use can decrease fish viability, distort physiological data or result in mortalities.
Garlic as been used in aquariums for quite some time for the treatment and prevention of fish parasites. Several studies have supported its use for this purpose, claiming the ability to kill parasites and offering immune support to control and prevent them.