How Would You Euthanize A Large Koi ?

[Rudy]

Alka-selter works pretty good, narcotizes the fish and then kills it.

It depends on the koi as to how euthanasia is applied.

Beloved pet, worn out brooder, or any other fish with which I've an emotional attachment, they get alka seltzer or clove oil and buried.

Culls, mishapen koi, ugly koi taken from somewhere, etc. these get fed to the bass if small, hacked up with a machete or hand ax and fed to the blue catfish if large.

Its a farm, nothing goes to waste.

Brett

Can you please explain how you administer the Alka Selzer for a given size koi?

Thank you,
Rudy

[tranquility]

Alka-selter works pretty good, narcotizes the fish and then kills it.

It depends on the koi as to how euthanasia is applied.

Beloved pet, worn out brooder, or any other fish with which I've an emotional attachment, they get alka seltzer or clove oil and buried.

Culls, mishapen koi, ugly koi taken from somewhere, etc. these get fed to the bass if small, hacked up with a machete or hand ax and fed to the blue catfish if large.

Its a farm, nothing goes to waste.

Brett

I'm sure alka seltzer is something most of us have in the medicine shelf...how many alka seltzers per gallon of water would you have to use? and do you put the fish in while it is still fizzing or after it disolves...that is sooo interesting..I have never heard of that one....
Lawanna

[Fishbreeder]

If the koi died of some bad, communicable disease, its buried with a lot of hydrated lime. Actually, any dead fish gets limed at the farm to keep it from stinking.

If using alka selter to euthanize a koi...

Put the koi in a tub of water and add about ten alka selters and let 'em fizz.

The CO2 will first make the fish sleepy, then kill it. This is the method we most used before we had eugenol (sorte like clove oil, but from the dentist).

Overdose of eugenol has about the same effect on the fish, it sleeps, then stops breathing and suffocates.

A quick slap to the head with a heavy stick, like a bat or iron rod will knock a fish out and kill it at the same time.

In the lab, prior to dissection or invasive, fish killing procedures, I pith the fish' brain with a sharp probe. Never forget one trip to the vet when I needed to use his microscope...

Cute lab tech helping me with my fish bucket holding a few fingerling catfish needing thier gills checked for parasites. I pick one fish out of the bucket, pith its brain with a sharp probe and the lab tech was horrified. "How you gonna save him now?!" I told her, "Its not this fish I'm concerend with, its his 250,000 brethren I'm worried about." Herd mentality rather than individual care as we see with koi. I still use the sharp probe to the brain method regularly.

The only government approved method of euthanizing fish is with the use of rotenone. Its a horrible death not to be applied to a pet. The rotenone causes the fish' gills to over secrete mucous, which interferes with gas exchange. The fish tries to breathe by coming to the surface and gasping for air. This behavior is what makes a lot of folks thing that rotenone "takes the oxygen out of the water" which it does not do. The fish eventually expires of anoxia, but never "goes to sleep."

At the fish processing plant we used electric shock to kill the fish prior to processing. Not euthanasia, just killing.m It looked quick and easy.

Another preferred fish killing method for the plant was immersion in ice water. This is a common practice as the fish quickly cools down its entire body by pumping cooled blood throughout the body, preventing spoilage. Many fish are sold "in the round" (unprocessed) after having been killed this way.

Hydrated lime is another way to kill a fish, with pH shock.

Back in the East Texas daze, I also used a lot of anhydrous ammonia to kill ponds of fish as it is a lot cheaper than rotenone.

Potassium cyanide is cheap and works quickly, also. Not recommended, though as you might euthanize yourself.

Plain ole bleach will kill fish quickly, but also an ugly death and not a way to euthanize.

If I had another ten years, I could go on forever about ways to kill fish. I keep learning new ways.

Brett

[JPR]

as an alternative method--
MS 222 at three times the normal dose. Freeze for insurance.