"Rodney Pont" wrote in message
news:atcfzvasbuvgflfgrzfygqhx.i8horw0.pminews@ihs1 ...
On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 19:32:02 GMT, george wrote:

This may sound insensitive to some, but he will die within a few minutes
if you
just pull him out of the water, and place him in a proper recepticle. If
you
believe in "waste not, want not, you can always lay him on the ground
until he
dies, and then add him to your compost pile.

This can take a long time if the fish lies still. There is thirty times
more oxygen in air than in water and gills are very good at taking in
oxygen. Unfortunately without being supported in water they will
collapse so their surface area will be drastically reduced. How many
people have found an apparently dead fish outside the pond only too
have it revive when placed back in?


My Pleco laid on the front room floor for hours and had the cats playing
with him before we found him. We thought he was a goner, but we put him back
in the tank anyhow. That night when we got home, he was breathing. For an
entire week he just sat there growing fungus and gasping. He lost his fins
and scales and was really a miserable looking wretch. But he healed, grew
back most of his fins, and today enjoys a leasurely existance in EthelMs
botanical garden in Henderson, Nevada. I'm not sure about goldfish, but some
fish can live for hours or days out of the water.