I’ve had many clients tell me their tales of their fish jumping out and they were able to rescue them.
Depending on the humidity, air temperature, surface temperature of the material they land on, wind and a few other factors (including fish size and species), I’d say fish may be able to survive for up to 30 minutes, out of water. A recent client told me he had a fish that jumped out not once, but twice! He was subsequently named “Houdini”.
How do you revive them when they’ve been out and parched? My client says he swished them around the water for about 15 minutes. He was about to give it mouth to mouth! An alternative way is to use a water pump that pumps around 200L per hour to gently pump water past their gills.
Using koi and goldfish as examples, you can raise the salinity of the water with pool salt at a rate of 2-5g/L to reduce osmoregulatory stress.
Additional aeration will help and make sure the pond is clean of dirt and the water quality is optimal.
If they’re not responding, antibiotics may be necessary to fend off secondary bacterial infection. You’ll need to make an appointment with your aquatic veterinarian because the majority of useful antibiotics are by prescription-only.
