Fish out of water.

[MORELLO]

How long can a fish live out of water? Sunday morning I'm alerted by screams from my partner and young lad from downstairs. The biggest of two goldfish, about 4" long, seems to have jumped out of it's large bowl and is lying motionless on the kitchen floor. As my partner comforted my very upset son, I placed the fish in a small box for burial later. About 15 minutes later whilst making some toast, we here a noise from the box. Opening it, the bleedin' fish is still alive! I quickly placed it back in the bowl, and after a quick 'float' it took a gulp of water/air and resumed it's normal behaviour. Amazin'! My 4yr old thinks it was a trick and has asked me to 'do it again' (!), but I was just wondering how long the fish could have been out of the bowl before we discovered it?

[butter1]

wow, that has amazed me.  I'm afraid I don't know but can't wait to find out if someone does!  You must have an amazing fish!

[morg_monster]

A school friend's dear goldfish plopped out of its tank while they were on holiday, when she was little.  When they came back, her dad just dropped it back in the tank so no-one would step on it, before going to break the news to my friend.  When they came back in the room it was swimming around happy as anything. they don't know how long it was out (they were on holiday 2 weeks!) but her dad said it was pretty dry to the touch (gross).

Then again, I woke up one morning to find no fish in my tank.  I was very very confused, as there was only a tiny hole in the lid, where the cable from the filter came through.  after a few minutes I found my fish stuck to the carpet.  It must have jumped out the little hole during the night, and was most definitely dead. I screamed and later when dad came home i made him peel it off the carpet...

[Thunderchild]

size is possible an important factor

[Morrisonker]

fish are tricky little things. My fish was completely motionless, floating in the tank, and was for a good few hours.  My mum took him out and put him in an old ice cream tub to bury him in.  A few hours later he started flipping around and when he was put back in the water he was perfectly ok.  Lasted another 4 years!

[Dark Angel]

thats very unusual that the fish survived for so long. I have known fish to die even while they were in the water, because there was no aereator to provide them with oxygen.

[kick3m0n]

anybody else's Dad ever revive their fish with the old 'drop of whiskey in the bowl' trick??   Now that amazed me when I was little. 

[purification]

I have no idea but my friends fish did that too. After tea one night she decided to clean her fish tank. After cleaning the fish tank out she noticed 2 were missing and searched the house high and low! She found one still in the net she'd fished them out with but the other she feared was lost for good! Her flat mate came home at around  4 in the morning and found it on the kitchen floor! Being a little bit worse for wear he just threw it back in the fish tank. In the morning my friend thought she had gone loopy when she realised all fish were back happily swimming in the tank!  Unfortunately they did all die about 48 hours later but that was by a freak accident! and nothing to do with the previous events! 

[MORELLO]

purification - 'Searched the house high and low' - what did she think? - it might have gone upstairs?! ;-) What was the freak accident?...

[Dark Angel]

ha ha Morello! that's a good point actually.

[fireguy]

as far as i am aware from my knowledge of fishing for carp (a relative of the goldfish) as long as there gills are kept moist with a certain amount of water then they can last for a very long time, the slime on the fishes scales protects them from drying up to quickly. another fact to go with this is that when eels migrate across land they always do it on a damp night and they take a big mouthful of water before they go so that they can still breath a little bit on the way (keeps the gills wet).

[Info Freak]

I believe that the thing about the wet gills is true however if a fish is out of water for so long that it starts drying up they may be blind when they get returned into the water because their eyes need constant moisture

[beresboid]

Thanks for all your tales of stranded fish. One of mine did exactly that this morning, must have been on carpet for nearly an hour. Must admit I panicked and threw him straight back in. To my relief he swam straight away, but seemed a little sluggish and spaced (well, you would be). Problem is, I now have bits of carpet fluff in the tank! I got most of it out with the net, but do you think I should change the water? While were at it, if a fish dies, but you have other fish in the tank, do you need to change the water?

[jojo-hall]

In the middle of the night I heard a flopping noise on the ground. I wondered what it was so I went to my Mum and Dad's room because I couldn't sleep. In the morning, my Mummy and Daddy were discussing what could have woken me up so my Dad went into my room, and he saw my goldfish lying on the ground. He picked it up and put it in the water in his hands. After a couple of minutes, my fish began to swim and get a bit active. So we call him a miracle fish. He was out of the water for about 2 hours.