Fish out of water

Question
QUESTION: I recently had an awful accident when trying to move our cold water aquarium - I dropped it. The two fish which were in it (one comet goldfish and one Blackamoor) went over the floor of our lounge (thankfully we have wooden flooring).  I found the comet immediately and got it back into water but after much searching could not locate the Blackamoor.  Unfortunately I also had an important meeting which I had to attend, so I had to give up looking, at that time, and get to my meeting.  3 hours later I got back home and my son said that he could hear a noise coming from under our computer table, it is quite flush with the floor.  I manage to get my head down and shone a torch and sure enough there was the missing fish.  Now this is the amazing part.  I really expected him to die/be dead. But six months later we still have him and he is swimming around our aquarium as if nothing had ever happened. Is this a record for a fish surviving out of water?  How did it survive? It was in the dark and there was still a little moisture around it. I look forward to hearing your thoughts
ANSWER: Hi debbii100;

Wow! He's one hardy little fella! The area he flopped around on probably just retained moisture enough that his gills didn't dry out too much. That's what happens with them is the gills get too dry and they "suffocate". If it was a small space and not much airflow went through there, it stayed just wet enough. I don't know what the record is for a goldfish out of water, but three hours is a pretty long time!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi
Just another question. We now have four goldfish in our aquarium (one large Comet, the amazing Blackamoor, another smaller Comet and a Shubunkin).  I have notice quite recently that the have the rather unpleasant habit of nibbling the poo out of (mainly) the larger Comet's bottom. This can become quite frenzied and generally results in them chasing the Comet around the tank. Is it that I am not feeding them enough? I'd love to know.

Many thanks

Answer
Hi Again!

Hmmm. Horrifying, but not uncommon. Fish can be pretty gross, especially goldfish. I have a couple of possible theories;

-Goldfish nip at each other's vents when interested in breeding. A bowel movement by a sexually mature female with eggs may be what triggers the frenzied behavior in your fish. You may have all males except for that one fish. The males will chase the female in order to induce her to swim into large bunches of plants so she will lay eggs and they can fertilize them. Goldfish can breed at a pretty small size (3 inches) so don't be surprised if your fish aren't very large.

-It may be from overfeeding or the fish has a digestive problem. Or, it's more of a pig than the others. Goldfish are natural born gluttons. If fish eat too much or aren't digesting properly for some unknown reason, they poop it out less digested and the others are simply looking for a snack. Not pretty, but they do it. Yuck. :-p

Here's what I would do if they were my fish;

Cut back on dried food. Feed only what the fish can totally consume from all areas of the tank in less than 5 minutes. Don't let it collect on the bottom of the tank or on the decorations. Feed once a day. Provide vegies 3 times a week (instead of regular dried food) such as cooked peeled peas, romaine lettuce, squash and cucumber slices, cooked shredded carrots. These foods are okay to be left in for several hours at a time because they don't rot the same way packaged fish food does. It keeps them busy too. Goldfish are nibblers and vegies usually will satisfy this urge.

Your fish may need a visual barier from each other. Provide lots of hiding places, especially soft artificial and some live plants. Goldfish eat live plants and it's healthy for them. Just don't expect your goldfish tank to be beautifully planted with live stuff all the time. They will usually destroy them and the plants often become uprooted because goldfish will move gravel around a bit when foraging. Some live plants I have used that are more resistant to being eaten by goldfish are; Java Fern, dwarf lillies (bulbs), large leafed Anubias, Aponogetons, Saggitaria, Banana plants, and Broadleafed Swords. Basically, anything with larger and harder leaves. Here is a good page to check out a few and actually see them so you know what to shop for at your local fish store;

http://www.fishprofiles.com/profiles/plants/

If my suggestions don't help, you may have to move the harrassed fish out to it's own tank. They could actually stress the poor thing to death. If you are interested in knowing what sex your goldfish are, here is a good page about it, with pictures;

http://thegab.org/Articles/SexingGoldfish.html

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins