# How long do fish live for out of water?



## Fuseoe

I never knew & never really thought bout it until yesterday....

*10:00am* I walk downstairs to make my morning cuppa, to find my fish missing! Lucky17 was nowhere to be seen! As my parents & brothe rhad all left for work I assumed they might of discovered him & needed to inform me face to face... I was quite disturbed. I proceeded to go out & fulfill my day.

*4:00pm* On returning from my activities mt brother was home. I asked himif he knew anything & he hadnt noticed. We were both baffled & could still not get through to either parent to see what was going on.

It was 5 minutes later when my brother screamed ,'the fish, hes here!'

I couldnt believe it, to my utter disbelief the fish had jumped over the back between the bowl & wall & fell a good 1.5m & got stuck between the shelf unit & skirting board. He was so well hidden Imnot surprised I didnt notice him in the morning.

I managed to move the shelf & got him, & even more shocking was he was still breathing! still ALIVE! I threw him straight back into the bowl & he was back....He did have some slight marking but hes ok.

*THIS GOLDFISH HAD BEEN OUT OF WATER FOR AT LEAST 6 HOURS! & WAS STILL ALIVE*

I won the goldfish 3 years ago at a fair & named him Lucky17 & from this day forth he may be the luckiest!


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## SeaThreePeeO

Fingers crossed that Lucky17 lives up to his name. I also had a fish that would jump out of our tank. He was able to perfect his aim so that he could shoot himself through the gap in the hood meant for all the cables etc.


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## Guest

This happens quite a lot, however fish can survive for a fair amount of time before their owners find them. Of course the conditions will need to be suitable.

For example, if a fish were to jump out of a garden pond and onto an area of ground exposed to bright sunlight then it would quickly dry out and die. However if the fish landed on a shaded area of grass or leaves (which will retain a considerable amount of moisture) then in some cases it may be able to survive out of water for hours.


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## Guest

Would size have anything to do with their survival time Luke?
Just curious!
DT


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## Guest

I wouldn't think so, larger fish will have higher metabolic rates and hence a higher demand for oxygen. In general the size of the fish would be fairly irrelevant.


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## carol

wow lucky number 17 then


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## penelopedarcy

that fish is lucky!!! to find out you'd have to try it... just don't try it at home! :hand:

how about sleeping fish? have you guys heard of that? i saw in a news once of an inventor having invented something that makes a fish deep sleep... 
once in this state you can literally remove the fish from the water for hours and the fish wouldn't know a thing...

-penelopedarcy
Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling.
fish tank pet and kefir grains


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## ChantalGrimshaw

I have an almost identical story with my fish Trixie which I also won at a fair almost 2 years ago. Just before christmas last year (2011) I was asleep and I heard a woosh sound, but it had woken me up, so I had been unsure if it were actually a 'real' sound, and if it were a real sound, I felt that maybe perhaps just a book had fallen or something. I kept hearing a slight flapping sound almost, but I was really tired and I have a bunkbed, so I wasn't too keen on the idea of getting out of bed just to have to get back in again. Then in the morning when I woke up I went to turn on my light and the carpet was wet, which was odd. My carpet was soaked through with all of the contents of my fish tank spewed out onto the floor. I looked up at the tank and there was a perfect circle from where it had cracked. I was able to piece everything together, and found that the bowl had somehow cracked in the middle of the night, and the fish had been sucked out with the force of the water leaving the bowl. So there was glass and all manner of things stuck into my carpet. Long story short I called my mum and she was as suprised as I was. We cleared up all the bits we could, we still hadn't found the fish. We had talked about how we would discard of it when we found it. But when we did find it underneath the curtain (it must have flapped its way across half the room) it was still ALIVE!! And we put it back in some water straight away, I had to keep it in a tub as I didn't have anything else to keep it in. It did have trouble swimming to start (trouble keeping its balance) and we didn't think it'd last very long (mum put on the radio for it, to keep it distracted), but its as well as ever now. Basically NEVER move your fish tank when its full with water it can develop small fine cracks over time. I hadn't touched my tank for over 3 weeks and somehow it still managed to crack. I don't ever move my fish tank now. Use a pump if you can. Try have a lid for your fish tank if they're available that'll stop them jumping out 
I just wanted to upload my story because I've seen lots of posts saying that small goldfish can't last more than an hour or even 30 seconds out of water. My fish lasted what was probably a night out of water, and is now fine. I'm not suggesting to keep fish out of water, but hopefully this will give you some hope if you ever find your fish out of water, look at its mouth!! It may still be alive


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## goose101

It's really until they start to dry out... if the gills are kept wet, then they have the best chance of survival...


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