what does culling or cull mean?

[David R]

If I had a dollar for every time I'd posted this article.....

http://www.loaches.com/disease-treatmen ... in-the-sky

Ira freezing was once considered "slow and painless" but its now known to be slow and painful as the animals body fluids start to crystallise whilst it is still conscious. Not a particularly nice way to go IMO.

Clove oil in a bucket works fine, just make sure you use an old bucket and not the good one you use for water changes!

[SamH]

I heard that shock freezing is a better alternative to freezing. The fish is dropped in ice cold water so the change from tropical to almost frozen puts the fish into a state of shock. Usually this kills the fish but I always freeze them afterwards just to be sure.

[BikBok]

I heard that shock freezing is a better alternative to freezing. The fish is dropped in ice cold water so the change from tropical to almost frozen puts the fish into a state of shock. Usually this kills the fish but I always freeze them afterwards just to be sure.

why not just use clove oil first so they're asleep - then freezing /shock freezing wouldn't be so bad. If you don't have vodka , it could be a way to do it.

[Joshlikesfish]

i could take some to instead of killing them

The fish i'd be culling are not ones you'd want to keep lol

[phoenix44]

Culling simply means - removal from the gene pool. Culling may manifest itself in different ways.

If you have an animal with an undesirable trait, culling it could either mean you kill it - thus ensure it's genes are not passed on to future generations; or you could simply give it away to someone that doesn't breed it or you could just remove it from your breeding program.

Some people will kill them because they do not want to pass them onto someone else who might accidentally breed the animal and introduce said unwanted trait into the general gene pool - or at least that is the idea.

I personally think that some people over cull fish in fear of said unwanted / undesired trait (s) and without greater understanding of how genes really work.

[Ira]

Ira freezing was once considered "slow and painless" but its now known to be slow and painful as the animals body fluids start to crystallise whilst it is still conscious. Not a particularly nice way to go IMO.

May be the case if they froze before dying. But in the tests I've done they die LONG before that.

[livingart]

so the cryogenic testing was no good then?

[Ice222]

I have done the clove oil and vodka method and it sits quite well with me. I netted my fish and sat it in a small glass of tank water, add the clove oil as per the method I found online, and later added the vodka. I found that the fish seemed, from what I would see externally, to be suffering no pain. In fact it went pale from the stress of being netted, to it's usually vibrant colours as it fell into the clove oil induced sleep, and did not lose it's colour when the vodka was added. Maybe not a perfect gauge, but I still think it's one of the better methods.