PDA

View Full Version : How do you kill em?



REEFBUG
04-26-2010, 03:45 PM
This may be a silly question, but what is the prefered method to kill your fish before cleaning?

I know the easiest way to kill them is to spend lots of money and try your hardest to raise them.. but I mean after all of THOSE fish are dead. Talking about actual harvest time here. :)

Chris

badflash
04-26-2010, 07:05 PM
I use ice & salt. I put a small amount of water in a 5 gallon bucket with a load of rock salt. Drop in the fish and cover them with crushed ice. Temps drop rapidly to 0F and the fish die in minutes. Organic and lots less painless than bashing them on the head or cleaning them while alive. Live fish willspike you too, and it hurts like hell. I'm speaking from experience.

Be sure to purge them for at least 5 days (no food and nothing but clear water). This removes the gamey flavor.

dufflight
04-27-2010, 03:38 PM
Spike through the brain. The fins stand up for a few seconds and the fish draws a lot of blood out of the flesh.

REEFBUG
04-27-2010, 03:53 PM
Not to sound too squeemish but.... ewwww. :shock:


I like the ice idea better!

badflash
04-27-2010, 07:13 PM
Me too, but a farmer makes hard choices.

urbanrunoff
04-28-2010, 02:30 PM
what about clove oil?

badflash
04-28-2010, 04:12 PM
It looks like it would take about $4 to kill a large tilapia with clove oil. Can't see being so humane it bankrupts you. I wonder if the oild would taint the flavor of the fish.

jackalope
04-28-2010, 09:40 PM
The way we always killed trout and steelhead was to cut the lower neck at the gills, and break the neck on the top ...... then gut them and clean them off .... we don't eat the heads ..... fishhead soup is for a different culture than mine ;)

urbanrunoff
04-29-2010, 07:17 PM
my grand dad used to just smack trouts over the trashcan edge then clean them.