While this is a very grim subject, I have found what I believe is a painless way to put down small fish without having to sever their spinal cord/head.
I had to put down a small synodontis catfish (4") earlier today, but I knew that freezing was not painless, I lacked clove oil, and I didn't want to have to remove its head. I ended up making the decision to essentially create my own method of putting down this unfortunate fish: death by painkiller overdose. I figured that because the vast majority of fish respire through their gills (dissolved substances can easily pass into their bloodstream through their gills), so I made a very strong solution of acetaminophen to place the catfish in. I ground up 20 500mg tablets (10,00 mg or 10 g total; the lethal dose for an adult human is as low as 7 g) and dissolved the resulting powder into some very hot water (near boiling), and I made sure to get all of the powder into solution. I then added some cold water to make the water slightly warmer than the water that the catfish was in; the solution filled up two-thirds of a standard Solo cup. At this point, I added the catfish to the solution. It didn't thrash at all; it just enjoyed the warmth of the water and breathed until it died. I'm pretty sure that it was dead in less than 30 seconds, so this is probably one of the fastest nonviolent methods of putting down a fish that I know of.
What are your opinions on this method? Does it seem to be a painless way to help end a fish's misery, or did I miss something and mess up?
Please note that I can't make any guarantees that this method will work on your sick fish, too. Please also note that this method will be less effective (or not work) on fish that can aerially respire.
I had to put down a small synodontis catfish (4") earlier today, but I knew that freezing was not painless, I lacked clove oil, and I didn't want to have to remove its head. I ended up making the decision to essentially create my own method of putting down this unfortunate fish: death by painkiller overdose. I figured that because the vast majority of fish respire through their gills (dissolved substances can easily pass into their bloodstream through their gills), so I made a very strong solution of acetaminophen to place the catfish in. I ground up 20 500mg tablets (10,00 mg or 10 g total; the lethal dose for an adult human is as low as 7 g) and dissolved the resulting powder into some very hot water (near boiling), and I made sure to get all of the powder into solution. I then added some cold water to make the water slightly warmer than the water that the catfish was in; the solution filled up two-thirds of a standard Solo cup. At this point, I added the catfish to the solution. It didn't thrash at all; it just enjoyed the warmth of the water and breathed until it died. I'm pretty sure that it was dead in less than 30 seconds, so this is probably one of the fastest nonviolent methods of putting down a fish that I know of.
What are your opinions on this method? Does it seem to be a painless way to help end a fish's misery, or did I miss something and mess up?
Please note that I can't make any guarantees that this method will work on your sick fish, too. Please also note that this method will be less effective (or not work) on fish that can aerially respire.
