What is the most humane way to put down your betta fish?

Question

I have a crowntial female betta who has not been able to swim properly for some time now. When I look at her it looks as if her neck has been damaged. Her head is angled down so that it looks as if there is a point like a T.P where her neck meets her body. I have no idea how it got this way but it has.

Just a couple days ago she stopped swimming altogether. Just swimming to the surface for a breath of air seems like a great struggle for her...she also seems to be having problems breathing as well. I've tried putting her into a community take with a filter, air pump, live plants and a heater. Yet she did not respond to it. She was in a breeder net at the time so the other fish were not able to pick at her like they usually do. Her coloring is blah when it used to be beautiful. She can hardly eat as well. I'm tired of watching her suffer and feel that it is time to go ahead and end her misery. Yet I don't want to hurt her in the process. I just want it to be quick and painless.

Answer 1

I'm going to answer this question under the assumption that you have researched betta diseases and have done all you can to help your betta, and that you are not killing your betta because you are too lazy to figure out what is wrong with it.

First of all, the previous answers are all terrible. PLEASE do not flush your betta. They will live for several hours in the sewers afterwards, slowing suffocating to death. Freezing your fish is also extremely stressful.

If you truly feel there is no hope left for your fish, please take the following steps to humanely put it down.

1. Add tank water to a measuring cup or mixing bowl. Measure the amount of tank water you add to the cup or bowl and make a note of it. Place the fish in the container. If the fish is in a clear cup place a dark towel around the cup to calm the fish.

2. Fill a small, clean jar or bottle with tank water, leaving some room at the top. This might be a baby food jar or pill bottle. Put 1 drop of clove oil in the jar or bottle, cap and shake vigorously. The clove oil must emulsify, turning the water milky white.

Gently pour about 1/4 of this emulsified mixture into the fish's container. The fish will begin listing as it starts to fall asleep. Let the fish be for about 10 minutes. The fish should be resting on the bottom by then. It will look dead, but if you watch closely its gills will be breathing once every few seconds. If after 10 minutes the fish is still rising off the bottom swimming intermittently, retrieve the jar or bottle of emulsified clove oil, re-shake, and add the same dose to the fish's container. Wait again.

3. Once the fish is asleep on the bottom, add 20-25% white grain alcohol. For example, if the fish is in 8oz (240ml) of water, add 2oz (60ml) of vodka. Let the fish stay there for at least 20 minutes.

4. Check the fish carefully after 20 minutes for any gill movement. If there is no gill movement over a 60 second period, the fish has expired.

Answer 2

The whole put the fish in a baggie and drop into the freezer. I think that is total nonsense, why make the fish suffer more. The temperature of the water will have to get cold, than in turn freeze. Warm or room temperature water will take longer to get cold and than freeze. So technically unless you have a camera in the freezer watching what happens, this is BS. As for instant death, people use the clove oil. People use a knife to cut off the head. I myself used a cup of Listerine, dropped the fish in, and it was instant death. As well as gave the corpse a appealing smell to it when I dropped it in the trash. DO NOT, flush fish down the toilet. You drink that water, don't infest it even more. And don't let someone say you don't because, tap water is the same from the bathroom sink to the kitchen sink. ("'\(o.o)/"')

Answer 3

Sorry your fish is sick. How long have you had her or do you know about how old she was? That may help play a factor in what you decide to do with her, ultimately. Is there a reputable fish store nearby that you can call and ask for help or suggestions?

I've heard that putting it in a baggie and putting her in the freezer is the most humane way to let her go.

I've used that method myself....and felt fairly comfortable doing it. Down the toilet always just sounded too harsh to me.

Then to dispose, you just take the baggie out and throw it away. I try to do it on garbage day, though, so I don't have to think about it sitting in the trash can any longer than it has to.

Answer 4

The general excepted way in the hobby is the freezer. I live in Montreal and I can't find a vet to treat fish. If anything, you'd have the best bet at asking at a university in the biology department. I minored in biology and have done many other things that make me an "expert" and I don't have a clear image of what this could be other then bad genes...

Answer 5

well, the only way ( or the only way i can think of without getting over the top) is just to get her out of water and let her die. Or just wait until she dies. I had a fish that was kind of like that, she had a big bump on her side and her tail just became more and more shredded. So, that's the only way i can think of so far

Answer 6

If its a fish, why does it need to surface? Perhaps its neck is out of joint from its efforts to locate some oxygen. Is the tanks pump working properly? Don't really know but as soon as you mentioned going to the top for air!?

As for putting it down...make it quick!

Answer 7

Nicole S has the only correct answer. If you check out the site she gave the link to, it's the one I was going to give too, then you will see that flushing and freezing are both on the inhumane ways of euthanizing a fish list.

Answer 8

Besides the freezer method, there is the displacement method. The water is oxygenated, so if you displace it with a nontoxic liquid, the fish will die from lack of oxygen. It isn't quick, but it's completely painless, and works like suicide by car exhaust. The fish gets sleepy (but not cold) and then succumbs to it, and doesn't wake up. Liquid handsoap would work, if you had enough.

Sorry about your fish.

Answer 9

I would use the freezer method, just put her in some watter and then into the freezer. After a couple of hours take her out and you can bury her in the back yard.

Answer 10

I have herd freezing the fish in a cup of water is the most humane thing to do.They die before the water freezes so its not painfull and its fast.Poor fish.I have done this to one of my fish after reading it online.It was having sesuries (cant spell).I think flushing it is sad.So you may want to try this its all personal prefrence.