Fish out of Water

[craig]

This past weekend, I went and got 6 Goldfish about 4" long, and put them in my 110 gallon indoor tank. The plan is for them to grow over the next few months as I build my pond so they are a little bigger when I put them in.

Last night I got home and looked in the tank and could only count 5 fish. I looked around everywhere including the floor to find the other one, but he was gone. I assumed he died and my wife had removed him. When she came in about 30 minutes later, I asked her and she had not touched it. I then started to search again, still no 6th fish. Finally with a flashlight I looked behind the tank and there he was in the dust on the carpet. He must have jumped out the small space next to my hang on the back filter. With 2 fingers I pulled him out by the tail. He was completely dry, dusty, and lifeless. I had him in my hand and was walking to the trash can to say goodbye when his tail twitched. I put him back in the tank, dust and all. At first he kind of floated in the middle of the tank, even going belly up. Over about 10 minutes, he slowly came back to life. He now seems fine, and is swimming with the others. I closed up all the spaces where he could jump out again.

He had to be out of the water at least 45 minutes, maybe a lot longer, I hadn't seen him in the tank since that morning. My son has now named him Miracle, because I said it was a miracle he was still alive.

Does anyone know how long a Goldfish can survive out of the water?

Craig

 

[RSFish1]

Not for sure how long, but many people write off a fish way too early.

Fish will go in to a coma like state when they jump out of water. How long will they survive? I do not have exact numbers, but let me tell you this. On one of my small ponds a few years back had only small comets in it. One day an animal came along and pulled the water tubing out on to the ground. So the pump ran and pumped all the water down until it was dry. I got home and immediately did not hear the water flow and knew something bad was going on. I had 6 comets sitting on a black liner, sun shining on them and no movement. They were not stiff. I believe that is the key from what I have read. So I immediately got water running back in to the pond, got the pump running and turned the water flow toward their heads. Trying to hold 6 small fish is a little tough. After about 20 minutes 4 out of 6 had came back to life and were good to be let go and swim on their own. The other 2 never revived. One that made it had some bad sunburns on his sides but survived until he went ot a new home.

I have found more then a few Koi that have jumped out of holding tanks along the way. As long as they are not stiff I try to revive them. But once they are to the point of being stiff, I doubt there is much that can be done. The main thing is to get them back in to the water. Support them. And have water flowing through their mouth and out their gills. It is best to put a finger under their mouth toward the back and squeeze just a little bit. This forces the front of the mouth open to guarantee the most water flow in and to the gills.

 

[addy1]

hopefully your post will help some save their fish.

 

[shakaho]

Apparently for hours under the right conditions.

Gold fish survival

Where did you find your goldies, Craig?

 

[RSFish1]

13 hours seems a little far fetched. But who am I to disagree with this lady. I think it has to do with how dried out they get, over heating, and lack of oxygen. I never give up in less than 10 minutes and have only worked on one fish for an hour. He was the stud of my pond and jumped out one day during breeding season. I could not revive him for the life of me. I have had more then a few people have a "DOH" momement after telling this story. A lot of people think once the gills are not moving there is nothing else to do except get rid of the body.

 

[craig]

Sharron:

I went to almost every pet store in town, and found:

The Altamonte Petco on 436 just west of the Mall has a big tank with mixed Koi and Goldfish (Pond Comets). Go to the left when you enter the store and it is in the middle, opposite side of the desk from the feeder fish. This is where I got mine, they still have several in various color combinations. They are about 4" and only 1.99 each. I got 1 light orange, 1 dark orange, 2 orange and white mix, one white with black spots, and one calico (white with orange and black spots) almost looks like a Shabunkin with fewer spots.

The Petsmart on 17-92 in the Target Plaza (Casselberry?) has some nice Sarasa Comets (white with an orange spot on top of their head) 3" - 4", and some small Shabunkins.

The Lake Mary Petsmart has a few larger Shabunkins, and some small Sarasa Comets.

I had to do a 100% water change and change out the substrate in my tank when I moved the Cichlids out. I kept the same bio material in my filters. Once I am sure my tank is cycled I am going to add some Sarasas and Shabunkins to the mix.

Craig

 

[craig]

Sharron:
Forgot to mention, I originally got my 110 gal tank from Fishy Business. They had several kinds of goldfish, but all looked washed out - no color at all. Most others that I went to had little selection. I never made it out to Oviedo, so that is worth a look.
Craig

 

[koiguy1969]

I HAD A SIMILIAR EXPERIENCE WITH MY BASEMENT WINTERING POND AND A 13" PLATINUM KOI!! ITS NO SURPRIZE WITH GOLDFISH JUMPING...THEY ARE EXTREMELY PLAYFULL...I SEE THEM 'CATCHING AIR' OFTEN.
IF YOU CARE TO SEE THE THREAD ON THE JUMPING: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/hope-best-t3010.html
BASEMENT POND VIDEO: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/wintering-pond-basement-10-09-09-a-t4504.html

 

[craig]

Sorry to hear about your Koi.

How do you catch and move all those fish?

Lucky I live in Florida, no ice in the winter, no basement for a winter pond either, water table is too high.

Craig

 

[shakaho]

Craig,

I haven't seen the Petco in Altamont yet. A lot of the quality of the fish at most of these stores depends on how recently they arrived. I picked up a couple of stunning tiny sarasa comets at the Oviedo Petsmart earlier this week. Valentine is all white except for a spot of red on the tail and a perfect red heart on the top of the head. I don't need more fish, but how could I leave that to be fed to someone's oscar? so I looked a bit more and saw Lipstick, who is really tiny with really beautiful markings (including red lips) and unbelievably long fins. There were a lot of other pretty fish in the tank. I went back a couple of days later, and there was nothing attractive in the tank that appeared healthy enough to take home.

There are some stunning shubunkins at the WalMart on 436. I have two nice ones, so I passed, but it was hard.

Here's an informative story. I was looking at these babies because of Spooky Fish, who had been in my quarantine tank for two weeks. He remained spooky in spite of my best efforts, swimming away and hiding whenever I came close to the tank. He looked perfectly healthy. I did keep reading that hiding could be a symptom of parasites, but no other symptoms were there. I thought maybe other fish would calm him down. But the little ones (the bigger less than half the length of Spooky) scared him. So I decided to try a parasite medication. I put it in at night. The next morning when I came to the tank, Spooky was right out there with the little ones -- waiting for the food. A totally different fish. Now I need to find out when to repeat the treatment to make sure I got all the parasites.

 

[koiguy1969]

Sorry to hear about your Koi.

How do you catch and move all those fish?

Lucky I live in Florida, no ice in the winter, no basement for a winter pond either, water table is too high.

Craig

i pump the water between ponds as the water level goes down they get eassier to catch!!

 

[Vaipulu]

This happened to my gar, I stayed there holding him right side up for about 20 min until he revived him self. He was dry as a bone.