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- Aug 29, 2020
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Obviously the goal with any sick or injured fish is to save it, but, frankly, there are cases where trying to keep an animal alive is more cruel than kind. Severe uronema, fish so emaciated that they can't eat or shredded by powerheads. There is a point at which the kindest thing to do is humanely kill something. Especially in the "fish won't eat" cases; how many of those threads end a couple weeks later in "well, it eventually starved to death"? That shouldn't be happening.
As sad a topic as it is, this section needs an article on how to tell when an animal is at the point where it should be euthanized, with some guidance on how to go about doing that. Knowing when to put something out of its misery is a cornerstone of responsible animal disease treatment, and a fish that's lying on the bottom of the tank, gasping for breath, far past the point where any treatment will save it, shouldn't be left to suffer.
I know there was a euthanasia thread awhile ago that went south from people suggesting methods not actually backed by science, but surely the disease experts on here could come to an agreement about what it looks like when a fish is beyond the point of being saved, and it shouldn't be too difficult to find some links to methods of euthanasia that are proven to be humane. Clove oil, MS-222, pithing if the fish is big enough and the hobbyist confident enough to make it quick and clean.
As sad a topic as it is, this section needs an article on how to tell when an animal is at the point where it should be euthanized, with some guidance on how to go about doing that. Knowing when to put something out of its misery is a cornerstone of responsible animal disease treatment, and a fish that's lying on the bottom of the tank, gasping for breath, far past the point where any treatment will save it, shouldn't be left to suffer.
I know there was a euthanasia thread awhile ago that went south from people suggesting methods not actually backed by science, but surely the disease experts on here could come to an agreement about what it looks like when a fish is beyond the point of being saved, and it shouldn't be too difficult to find some links to methods of euthanasia that are proven to be humane. Clove oil, MS-222, pithing if the fish is big enough and the hobbyist confident enough to make it quick and clean.