Killing a fish is by no stretch of the imagination evil.
I don’t understand people.
I’ve got fish. In an aquarium and in a pond that I built. Regular tapwater with a little dechlorinator will do the trick in most cases. I’ve never lost any fish because the dechlorinator didn’t work. I’ve also never lost any due to the shock of changing the water. I have lost some fish, I won’t lie about that, but fish die…accidents happen, whatever, etc. I had all of my goldfish taken by raccoons from my pond one time when I was out of town and the motion light burned out. I’ve had 'em jump outta the aquarium before.
Fish, like any pet, are a responsibility but I just couldn’t leave the creature in the trash.
I would’ve at least found some natural body of water and given it a chance. But I live where there’s plenty of creeks, rivers, and lakes within a few minutes. I don’t know for sure, I suppose it’d depend the water/sewage treatment facilities but surely flushing it would’ve been better than suffocation.
BTW I eat fish, …so it’s not like I’m a radical tree hugger or whatever. I just hate the needless suffering of any living thing.
Ludovic you said, “I, myself, didnt save it” does this mean that you got someone else’s attention and THEY did? I hope so.
Bear_Nenno Dolphin fish or Dolphin mammals?
Ludovic
I can understand your concerns about this. Nobody wants to see any animal suffer.
But millions of fish every year experience the same fate in the wild. Watch a few hours of Discovery nature programs and you’ll see that sad drama occur in wild lakes and riverbeds on just about every continent.
Don’t torture yourself over it.
How anyone can throw away a living anything like it’s garbage is beyond me. Anyone who can do this is obviously devoid of any compassion. Hell, I can’t even flush my dead pet fish down the toilet, because in my mind it’s implying that they’re waste, which a pet that you’re supposed to love should never be treated like. I wrap my fishos in some pretty tissue paper and bury them. I might look like a nutjob outside with my trowel and a fish-shaped package, but I feel like I’m giving it the respect it deserves.
I’ve buried a betta, Amazon Floozy Goddess, so don’t think you’re a weirdo. Or else I, and some other people I know online, are all weirdos.
Water conditioner isn’t expensive stuff. I’ve got a bottle sitting right here next to my fish tank; I wouldn’t skip it, no matter the source of my fishie’s water. That being said, poor fishy. If it was another sort of fish than a betta, though, I wouldn’t have tried to save it unless I knew somebody who wanted a fish and could care for it properly. All I know is bettas. I hope I would have had it in me to at least euthanize it. I’ve heard that the freezer method is fairly gentle, especially if you put the fish in really cold water before they go in the freezer – it knocks them out, more or less.
People throw out hamsters and gerbils? That’s just awful. When you take an animal you are then responsible for it, even if you don’t want to be anymore. So if you can’t take care of it, you find somebody who CAN. It seems obvious to me.
I take it you’re not a divorce lawyer then?
Yes, unfortunately it’s not that uncommon. I once found a cage with two mice (white pet mice, not wild city mice) in the basement of a friend’s apartment building, next to the trash cans and recycling bins. I would have kept them, but was leaving for vacation the next day, and so couldn’t take care of them. We took them to a nearby vet’s office, and I’m not sure what happened to them after that, but most likely they got sent home with an employee in the office, or sent to a humane society. I just dont think people realize that human societies will take all manner of animals in, not just cats and dogs. That, or they’re just lazy wastes of human flesh who bought their kid a hamster and can no longer be bothered with it.
Tsk, tsk, Whiterabbit. You should know betta.
I don’t think that’s a fair thing to say to Ludovic. I don’t know what I would have done either. Sometimes at the spur of the moment a decision like that isn’t immediately clear.
I probably would have tried keeping it in a cup of water, and it likely would have suffered and died because I would have done something wrong.
Both of my cats were put in a trash dumpster when they were so little their eyes weren’t even open yet. They were valiantly rescued by their mother (a stray), and we took mother and kittens in before anyone could do it again. I just don’t understand why people would think putting living things in a trash can is a good idea. If you can’t take care of them or they’re causing a problem, take em to a shelter for crying out loud.
Dolphin mammals. Their tanks are both chlorinated and salinated.
… But no. I don’t work on SeaQuest. But that would ROCK!!
Here you guys go:
http://www.tampabays10.com/video/player.aspx?aid=12382&sid=9438&bw=hi
You can see me over the shoulder of the reporter in the second shots of him talking. I’m hooking a force probe on the litter sling to weigh the dolphin.
Originally posted here:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=270548&highlight=dopers+news
Of those seven dolphins, we’ve lost three so far. Dopey, Grumpy, and Happy.
They’re much cooler to play fetch with than dogs!
That’s really sad. When we had an aquarium we had a black molly jump out onto the floor while we were away. When we came home and discovered the poor fishy he was already stiff (I mean you could hold him up by his tail and he stuck straight up stiff) but my husband still put him in water for awhile “just in case” which seemed a little nuts but…ya gotta love him for it.
just fyi…a stiff fish does not revive in water.
Yes I realized that after I posted. :smack: You know, sometimes you read something and the brain processes what you anticipated. There was a thread recently that pertained or contained some info about dolphins. Maybe that’s why I didn’t notice the initial clarification that you made. So, where is it that you have these Dolphin.
BTW…the chlorine will suffocate the fish and once it gets in their gills you can’t wash it out. It is a terrible sight to watch your pet fish die gasping for breath and not be able to do anything. My wife had raised some goldfish once upon a time from tiny little things. She’d had them for several years and they were quite large by then. (about the size of your open palm) She and the kids had them all named and knew them by their markings. They would let them pet them. It is a strange sight to see a fish come to the surface to be petted. They fed them and talked to them.
We were living in apartments then and the central AC leaked over into the ceiling and down into the aquarium. The “super” had poured bleach into the overflow to kill the algae that was blocking the drain in the drip pan. The ceiling actually fell from the water in the ceiling but not before poisoning the fish. It was very sad to see these fish die. Jumping and flopping to get air, then slowly rolling on its side. I tried to get the last one to make it but there was no way.
Hell of a note ain’t it… a grown man that has caught thousands of fish for food, sitting here recalling a story like this.
Maybe the worst part for me was my wife and children in tears.
We got more fish.
“Necro… necro… animal autopsy.” 
People never cease to amaze me, both for good and bad.
That was my favorite part too!
I respect your compassion for fish, but dumping fish into the environment is a bad idea.
Fish dumping is how the northern snakehead found its way into the Potomac and now into lake Michigan.
I agree w/ ya for the most part. It would of course depend on the fish. I was going more on my own experience. Plus a single fish…in the creeks here is only gonna be part of the food chain. But in any event I’ll concede your point. Probably a bad call on my part for most people’s situation. I’d hate to find out the city sewers are full of giant albino alligators or huge schools of piranhas. 
Yeah, we’ve got tilapias here that are under restrictions in regard to their handling. I understand what you’re saying.
I do feel bad for not being able to think of something to do. But in my school of ethics, the chance I calculated for me saving a lower animal what pain they can feel was not as important as saving a human being the chance of pain from possible glass cuts (from an assumedly broken tank) and other nasty trash stuff: I would have come to the same conclusion if it had been another person rather than me. (If it were reachable, I would have at least tried to save it.)
Still doesnt mean I dont feel bad that it was the fish and not me that was suffering.