How do I ease the passing of my betta?

Question

My Betta is 5 and a half years old. And I am deeply saddened and distressed at his state. I know he is old.

It has a slew of health problems. As of late however I noticed that his bladder has failed too. So I was wondering how to make his death less painful. Due to bladder he can't swim up properly to his food. Due to cataracts(cloudy eyes), he can't even see the food properly. And I keep him in a spacious 25 gallon. When feeding him, I will stick my hand in the aquarium, he will hobble over on my palm, then I will lift him up and using other hand almost directly deposit food pellets into his mouth.

So I can do the following. Transfer him to a more shallow 5 gallon where he can swim up somehow and try to get food without my help. That will keep him alive slightly longer.

Sorry I can't write properly. I just feel very saddened. Can someone please tell me what to do? I want him alive longer, but he is clearly in a lot of pain. He is my favorite Betta.

Answer 1

Matt has asked me to post my results, so here they are.

I had poor execution. If one is easily saddened or depressed then stop reading now.

I set up a 5 gallon tank outside. Attached filter to ensure water circulation so the heat would drop evenly throughout and used a separator to divide the tank in half. Additionally I put a dripper that would drip alcohol in at a very slow rate. I also had slushed water ready just in case, and a tub of ice cubes.

Then I went to my old tank. The Betta was lying on the side just breathing, old and blind. As I made my resolve to go on with it, I reached out for the Betta. I do not know what it was but he would shy away from my hand. He would try hobbling away from my hand with whatever strength he had left. Still I ended up grabbing him and transferred him to the outside tank on one half of the divider.

Water temperature was 27 degrees. I would drop water cubes on the other half of the tank and let the filter distribute it. Temperature would drop one degree every ten minutes. When it reached 23 degrees I noticed that my Betta started moving sideways. At 20 degrees the Betta was actively swimming around. At 19 it got frantic.

That's when it hit me. This is going to be too long and painful for my Betta. I prepared ziplock bag, reached in, Betta instantly darted for my hand(still swimming sideways, almost upside down). I grabbed my Betta and dropped him into ziplock bag.

That was the most gruesome part for me and I broke into tears. For roughly 20 seconds or so (felt like an eternity to me), the Betta was darting very frantically everywhere in pure shock, and maybe even pain. Afterwards for the next 5 seconds seems like Betta realized what happened, slowed down, gills opened up and Betta sank. Not upside down, just sank... No more breathing...

Then I buried the Betta with the ziplock bag (it is cold, so Betta would not wake up again), said a prayed and spent the rest of the day in pure silence and sadness.

If anyone ever plans to use alcohol and ice method, be warned. Fish will be in hell for roughly 30 seconds before falling asleep.

Hope this helps someone someday.

Answer 2

Making a decision:

Whether or not you want to keep your fish alive longer is a very personal question. Only you can decide this. On a personal note, whenever a pet of mine gets to the point when it cannot function properly, and it's quality of life is extremely low, I believe it is time to euthanize. You may wish to consult a veterinarian on this before you make your decision, as it is not an easy one.

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Euthanization methods:

There are several methods for this, which I will provide if you end up making this decision. There are two main categories... So called old school and new techniques.

The old school techniques involve things that you can find around your home. These methods are considered old school and they may not exactly be the most humane but they can be the most affordable and easy. I will list them.

Old school:

1. Freezing

You can put water in a bag and put it in the freezer until it gets slushy. You then put your fish in the bag and continue freezing. This is not a method approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). If you decide to use this method, perhaps the better thing to do is to put the betta in slightly cooler water (approximately 70 °F / 21 °C) and then begin the freezing process. This will slow the bettas heart rate slowly and would most likely be more humane than putting it in slushy water.

2. Decapitation

This is the quickest method. It simply involves cutting your fishes head off with a knife very quickly. It is not painless but it is very fast. The pain is momentary.

3. Fracturing neck or spine

This is less quick but may be less painful. You take your fish and break its neck. The fish may live for a moment or two after this but will feel less pain.

4. Remove oxygen

This method involves putting Alka Seltzer tablets in the water. You may wish to do this in a bag full of water for a betta, if you choose this option, as they can gulp oxygen from the surface. This has been reported to seem slightly cruel due to the fact that it is slow and it is suffocation.

New methods:

These usually involve an overdose of anesthetic or a barbiturate and are more humane, yet complicated and expensive. Overdose of anesthetic is used by universities that conduct research on fish. You could try to find a university of research centre near you that may carry a suitable anesthetic. There are also some household items like clove oil and vodka (not advocated by the AVMA) which will also work. Some of the anesthetics are available from pet stores or other sources.

You can find a list of anesthetics, barbituates, and all methods described here: How to humanely euthanize your fish.

Answer 3

Just to add some further information:

The idea with freezing is to slowly reduce temperature to reduce the heart rate. The best approach for this is to put the fish in to a small container and place this in the freezer.

By putting the fish straight into slushy ice water you may instead induce shock and kill the fish that way, I suspect this may be what happened with your betta.

Answer 4

Is it fair that the quickest method for small creatures might be the most violent? Quickly, firmly and confidently holding by a tail and hitting their head on a hard surface, maybe several times if necessary.

It might seem brutal, however it works and if done confidently then it'll be over before the animal has a chance to realise what's happening.