No one in my family drinks, any substitute for alcohol?

IT says in the article you can do it with clove oil alone and no vodka...

I just tried your method on my terminally ill Betta, and it didn't work out well... The fish became very agitated and tried to jump out of the bowl, though I had followed your advice. I quickly decapitated it; the procedure in total didn't last longer than 1min, the decapitation took 1 second. I do believe that your protocol might work if applied differently (I don't know what went wrong), but it's clearly not fool-proof. Perhaps you should warn your readers (I've read before that clove oil didn't work on bettas, but I sadly didn't heed that).

RIP, my dear Betta, and at least I now know that I will never again keep vertebrates for my pleasure. So you didn't die in vain (but I'm sorry that my learning process caused suffering).

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience. I assume you meant that the fish reacted at the introduction of the clove oil. Fish usually react for a moment to the clove oil just because they sense something in the water and will try to dart away from it. But soon they fall sleep. I know it's too late now, but introducing the clove oil slower might have been less traumatic, or perhaps introducing more at once would have caused the same reaction but put him to sleep (not to death but to sleep) sooner. IAC clove oil does not hurt, so the fish was not in pain. It was just trying to escape. However I realize how upsetting this is to watch.

It is safer to use vodka (after administering clove oil) then trying to use clove oil alone. If your family doesn't drink, buy a small bottle of vodka from a liquor store for less than $3 and keep it with your fish supplies for future use.

In search for a more humane solution I tried this method on a small fish (not a betta) with apparently a tumor in its belly. After slowly administering the clove oil it became a little bit agitated (as earlier described), however it settled down pretty quick on the bottom. It seemed to keep 'gasping' for air, which wasn't a pretty sight (but even so, what way to euthanize a fish is a pretty sight anyway).

It kept gasping, so therefore I decided not to wait the full 10 minutes as described but administered the vodka earlier; perhaps it is a better to go away and wait a while, but after the vodka I noticed the fish became quiet and still, almost immediately! However, there were some spasmodic gasps after a while, so I put in an overdose of clove oil just to be sure and pretty soon the fish passed away.

All in all, albeit it is a bit slow and not entirely pretty to watch, it seems to me this is an effective and reasonable humane way to euthanize your fish, provided that you really mix the clove oil into the milky substance.

I just used this method on four juvenile guppies with birth defects. Upon adding the clove oil mixture they began gasping at the surface and darting around, obviously trying to get away from it. Very quickly however they began to sink to the bottom, and after only a few seconds there was no movement at all. They were too small to tell if there was gill movement, so after waiting the 10 minutes anyway I added the vodka.

So yes, they were agitated, but only for a few seconds. It thus seemed humane as opposed to any other method of euthanasia.

I have 3 12" red belly pacus will this work for larger fish like them?

I think this is basically a good method. However, when one buys eugenol at the drug store (a typical ingredient in toothache remedies) it is usually found as 80% eugenol & 20% sesame oil. I suspect that the sesame oil is irritating and its presence may be causing the less than optimum results described. Unfortunately, 100% clove oil is somewhat more difficult to find on short notice. One place to look is aromatherapy stores. I bought mine at Amazon.com. Or you can ask a pharmacist if he has any 100% clove oil behind the counter.

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to thank you for suggesting the Alka-Seltzer method for euthanizing a pet fish. I had a huge silver dollar that was suffering. I had tried many different "cures" but they were all for nothing and this fish was dying and suffering. I used the Alka-Seltzer method, since I did not have any clove oil or access to any clove oil. The Alka-Seltzer method worked almost immediately. I used a bowl with the water from the tank, placed the fish inside and then put in tablets of Alka-Seltzer and I believe the fish died more peacefully than if I had let it die naturally. Thank you again for the tip!

Thank you so much for this article. I have a molly with a severely twisted spine, and who can barely control her movements anymore. I sadly suspect TB.

I am reluctant to hear the accounts of fish struggling and gasping, thanks for clarifying that this was likely due to the use of not 100% clove oil. I was, however, naively hoping for a totally 'comfortable' euthanasia.

All in all, I thank you for this most complete overview of the clove oil method.

Hello all,

I've had my pet oscar for about 7 years. He and I were good mates. Each week (or two) he'd get his water change, and every day he'd come to the top of the tank for his daily meal. I know he recognised me as his reaction to me was different to that of anyone else.

Over the past couple of weeks, things started to go badly for him. He had stopped eating, stopped swimming and became very lethargic. I put it down to age as the water was fine, temperature was good and there was no disease in the tank.

Yesterday things went critical and I realised I had to do the humane thing and put him down. I scoured the internet for humane ways to do this, and came across this site.

Today I dropped into the chemist and picked up a small bottle of 100% clove oil. He always hated being picked up out of the tank, and the tank is pretty big so I didn't want to oil the whole tank. Instead I went and retrieved a bucket from downstairs, and held it near him under the water. With what little energy he had left, he swam into the bucket, much to the relief of both him and me.

I triple dosed the water with clove oil, mixing it in a separate container as indicated on this site. I gently poured it in, and within seconds he had settled to the bottom of the bucket. After waiting 10 minutes or so, I mixed in the vodka.

There was no thrashing or splashing, and he was definitely unconscious. That was 30min ago, and now there is no movement at all. In a little while I'll place him in his final resting place somewhere in the back yard.

So thanks for the tip on how to do this humanely. It wasn't a job I was looking forward to, but in the end it was not stressful for either him or me. Much appreciated.

RIP Oscar

Thanks all

DaBear

Thank you! I had to say goodbye to my first fish - and the mother of the brood in my tank. It was very peaceful. And it was nice to have such concise information about how to do it.

Thank you for posting this. My platy tank appears to have come down with TB and I will be euthanizing at least one of them tomorrow (if she survives the night). I was really glad to have read this article with its step-by-step instructions and with other people's feedback and experiences as well.

Now I know to get 100% clove oil, if I can, and to leave the room for the 10 minute wait so I don't have to see her gasping for air or any of that.

Thanks again :)

What's with this 'euthanize'? Do you mean 'kill'. If so why not just use that word?

Why go to all this trouble when you can just drop them into some boiling water - surely death must be almost instantaneous?

Well that's a pleasant thought. Is that your final choice when it's your time to go? Boiling water? I bet it isn't instantaneous at all, and I surely hope you are kidding about it now.

I just wanted to thank you for the directions. I had a tiger barb (>2yrs old) that had lost its tail fin due to nipping and even after moving to a different tank never got better. Eventually red sores (under the scales) started to develop and I knew it was not going to improve.

Like others, for the first 3 seconds or so the fish got agitated, but very quickly after that it rolled on its side and is now comfortably asleep.

I did want to mention one tip:

Clove oil is not readily water soluble (that's why it makes a cloudy liquid. While this will work fine I added a single drop of alcohol to aid in dissolving prior to adding to the fish to put it to sleep. When shaken this will make the liquid less cloudy and should help to put the fish to sleep faster without any stress since the amount of alcohol is so little.

Thank you again.

Thanks for the great information. My betta has dropsy and also an ulcer on his skin or ich. My heart is breaking but I couldn't put him in the freezer as the aquarium store suggested. If you are in an emergency situation and need clove oil, call your dentist office. I am a hygienist and we have Eugenol which is oil of clove, either 100% or 99%. I am sure if you took a container they would give you 4 or 5 drops if they have a heart. I have just administered the eugenol and am waiting for anesthesia.

Farewell my beautiful Frank! I am so sorry I did you wrong.

I followed the directions to the letter, using 100% Clove Bud oil (aromatherapy source). It did seem to be a calm, quiet, effective affair. I think the most stressful part of it all was trying to net the fish out of the tank! The fish barely moved when I added the clove oil mixture, was clearly in deep sleep very soon after, and did not move at all when I added the vodka. Gill movement ceased almost immediately, but I still waited.

Thanks for helping provide a solution to a problem..... I still feel like a murderer though :(

I have had the same experience as tillab with bettas on more than one occasion (I had over 70 at one time.) The bettas become frantic, thrash, are in obvious terrible distress that doesn't get better with time or the addition of more solution. I too have removed them from that solution and resorted to another technique.

My theory is that this happens because the fish are anabatoids--that is they breathe outside air from the surface rather than through their gills. I'm not sure why this matters--maybe they are not getting enough into their system to anesthetize but only to be uncomfortable. I have seen many posts about clove oil working great on non-bettas and many that describe the same frantic scenario when it is used on a betta.

spelling correction and additional factoid to my post: bettas are Anabantids--labyrinth fish. Gouramis are also in this category. Any one have any experience with clove oil and gouramis??

I found 100% pure clove oil for aromatherapy. I got a 1oz (which is a TON for this purpose) bottle for 5.99 from GNC at the local mall.

Since vets use clove oil to perform surgery on fish, I can't see why it would not work on Bettas, even though they breathe surface air. The extreme agitation doesn't make sense, and doesn't seem to occur in all cases, but only some. I'm wondering if the clove oil used in those cases had additives that caused the aggravating factor.

Another possibility (in some cases -- not all) is that the clove oil was mixed with faucet water by mistake instead of tank water. In that case the reaction would be caused by chlorine and other chemicals in the faucet water.

Found on another site which changed my mind:

Vodka And Oil Of Clove

The combination can be used IF done properly but the majority of the cases of at home euthanasia the fishes gills are burned by the vodka causing a violent death.

Alka seltzer was the better option. 1 tablet to 5 gallon.

Thank god I kept reading.