Euthanasia by Freezing ?!?!?

[BettaMomma]

Ya know, I had thought of that before I posted too - BUT...
lemme ask you this...
They need to be wet to live, right?
If you take all their water away, they'll suffocate long before they freeze.
If you leave that in, the water will probably freeze right along with them, which would all around make it much more uncomfortable to die that way, wouldn't it?

 

[MegTheFish]

Instead of putting them into the freezer, you could just add ice cubes to a small cup (that they are in), that way the water freezes a lot quicker. I would use the clove oil method though if I ever had to.

 

[Styx]

I dunno, depends on what temperature their body starts to shut down.

 

[OrkyBetta]

I guess freezing a fish is bad mostly because, you have to figure, if the water starts to freeze while they are they can't move, but they will probably die before the water freezes since water takes a lot of time to freeze. Fish aren't warm blooded, so they can't insulate heat, they will die quite quickly in the cold. The freezing would kill them faster than suffocation would. IMO it is still a horrible way to die.

I personally, if I HAD to put a fish down, I would use clove oil. End of story. But what I do when I have sick fish, is put them in a nice little tank, make sure they can breathe properly (ie, lower water if need be) give them a soft substrate to lay on, instead of gravel, and let them die on their own.

 

[fishmom]

I had to euthanize a fish a bit over two weeks ago--I think it was within hours of death. The poor thing was like it was rotting before he died. I decided that he had enough pain and I took him out of the bottom of the tank and laid him on a paper towel and he died just like that. I am still hurting over having to do that to the little guy. I could not have put him in the freezer though. I think that would have added more misery to an already tough situation. Adding cold on top of suffocation. Not for me.

 

[FishEnthusiast]

I have frozen fish before. I truly believe that they fall asleep and die long before the water freezes solid which is when they would suffocate. The fish I have had to euthanize would have died within hours and I wanted to end their suffering. I couldn't bring myself to bash them over the head, nor could I just watch them die. I really don't think clove oil kills a fish, only numbs it. This is actually the only site I have been to that says that freezing fish hurts them. I had sick fish a while back and was considering euthanizing them. I spoke with an expert and they told me to freeze them as it is one of the most humane ways to do it.

 

[SarahBravo]

Clove oil does kill fish....at first they just go to sleep but they do die in their sleep. I've used it twice now and left the fish in the solution for a few hours just to make sure, and they were definitely dead. When you first put the clove oil in they swim around a little, then they just slow down and drift.

 

[FalconStorm]

I think, in the absence of clove oil (if you can't find it or just don't have access to it for any reason at the time), then freezing would be the next best alternative, but I still think freezing is worse than clove oil. Simply because it takes longer. I guarantee that a fish in the freezer takes more than a minute for their systems to shut down, and even if they don't know they're dying the way we do, their instincts know. There is also a certain amount of pain in freezing and it lasts longer than a few minutes. Have you ever been really cold? The likelihood is, you were no where near hypothermia, but you probably weren't comfortable. Imagine how much worse it would get before your body actually started to shut down?

Clove oil does not always kill, true. That is why I recommend doing something else to make sure of death, but the clove oil makes sure that the fish does not feel what else you have to do. With my loach, I severed his spine to make sure. He did not even twitch, so I *know* he couldn't feel anything, if he was even still alive. It's like anesthesia. Even in the human world, lethal drugs are considered the most humane method of execution.

That's just my opinion, but if I ever have to euthanize a fish again, I will use clove oil. Normally, I do everything in my power to save them, so they go on their own, but if they are obviously in pain, or there is nothing I can do, such as the case of my loach, I will euthanize.

 

[daudy_dojo]

how about drowning ... can i drown a fish sorry just being a smart ass!

i thought that when you freeze a fish you let the water get almost frozen then drop them in

 

[SRC]

Don't freeze your fish..omg ...I don't care what you think...a fish is not used to being cold..it will be in agony long before it passes out, goes to sleep, whatever..that is cruel. Don't put them in alcohol (some say use cold Vodka ) either...that is just cruel...that is in essence poisoning them..they do not die quickly or painlessly.

Severing the spine from the head is a quick kill..although I don't know many that can do that...too gruesome. Most whack the fish on the counter to knock it out then cut the head off.

The easiest and gentlest way to put the fish down is clove oil. Although, Clove oil can be quite hard to locate in some areas. A cheaper and easier option is Ambesol Liquid (not the gel kind that comes in a tube)..it cost like $5 and frankly no house should be without this little product IMO.

Use a cup of water and pour about a TeaSpoon of the Ambesol in there. Stir it up, then add your fish. In just a few minutes the fish will have gone to sleep. Leave the fish in the mixture for 10 minutes to make sure it has passed.

It's not different then having your dog PTS at the vet. They just go to sleep and then because it slows their heart/breathing rate down their heart and lungs just stop functioning.

 

[FalconStorm]

I would think you put the fish in water and leave it in the freezer. Even with really cold water, it might shock their system, but there is a possibility they are still aware, so you'd have to put it back in the freezer to be sure. Either way, it takes a few minutes.

And, sure you can drown a fish...in air. That's especially bad for bettas because they can survive longer in air than other fish, so it would take longer for them to die.

 

[3fsh]

How can you say that freezing is more painful than clove oil? We don't even now for sure if fish experience pain the way we do. And how can you say, for sure, which method is the quickest? Do you have little heart and brain monitors on them...? Seriously, though, I have been reading up on it, and it seems that the best way to kill them is to drop them into a container filled with ice-cold water. Sticking the fish in the freezer, as I had supported before, seems to be a bad method now that I have done more research.

This quote is from a very popular fish website (PM me if you want the link for proof, I can't post it here):

"When required to put a fish down I fill a bowl with the coldest water I can
and then add ten ice cubes when the water is cold enough to give me an "Ice
Cream Headache" I gingerly drop the fish into the water. Every time I have
used this method, the fish never lasts more than a second. They "belly-up"
the instant they submerge. The freezer trick seems too slow to me, after all
we are looking for quick and painless. When we consider that transferring a
fish to a tank with a different temperature, we go to great lengths to
ensure that the temperature change is a slow as possible so as not to stress
the fish. Think of the fish in the bag of water with the temperature
dropping by two or three degrees every minute all the time sufferring the
stress that we have spent its life doing our best to prevent and after maybe
ten or fifteen minutes, finally succumbing to body failure and dying.
Probably painless, but seemingly stressfull nonetheless."

 

[Haiku]

I also read somewhere, I think on this forum actually, that putting them in a bowl of water with ice cubes was probably painless. It just causes their body temperature to quickly drop and they die, but it's not as dramatic as just sticking them in the freezer which actually ends up working slower and is very possibly painful.

 

[SRC]

When you put the fish in the clove oil mixture they continue to swim around for a bit. They aren't flailing around or thrashing or darting..just gliding around...or not depends on the fish. They finally just stop moving. They rarely ever "belly up", they just quit moving and that's that.

Clove oil/Ambesol is a numbing agent...which eases pain..not creates it. Common sense would lead you to the conclusion that... it's painless...since it is a pain reliever.

When you stick your finger in a tray of ice cubes...it kinda burns doesn't it??..because it's so cold. I would be lead to believe that it would cause, if for only a moment, some pain to the fish.

 

[sparkly]

A freezer would reduce the temperature VERY quickly and this would decrease enzyme activity at a quick rate, stopping respiration. I'm no fish biologist (my area is human anatomy) but I would take a guess at this, coupled with the lack of oxygen entering the system would mean the fish dies from lack of respiration and very quickly (in air and freezing conditions). Fish obtain gaseous by a countercurrent system, which maintains a high diffusion gradient. This wouldn't work very well at all in air so little oxygen (and importantly carbon dioxide leaving). The smaller the fish the quicker it should cool therefore smaller fish would die quicker, still i reckon it would be very quick for any fish. They would certainly die far before anything freezes.