"Ook" wrote in message
...

"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.

Was he on his last fin, so to speak, before he jumped out (I asssumed that he
jumped out)? You're missing the point. The guy said his fish was nearly dead.
If that is the case, it certainly is not going to linger long after pulling it
out of the water.