Tiger, Flying Fish 🐠

So, I promise I've been working on posting honeymoon stuff, apartment pictures, daily life stuff, etcetera...but nothing thus far has been compelling enough for me to put off schoolwork long enough to finish a post.

Until now. 

We were out of town last week from Tuesday to Sunday, so some good friends of ours babysat our fish for us. We picked him up last night and when we got home, Derek cleaned his bowl. Then we proceeded to enjoy a fun Family Night together, with a lesson, a dessert found on Pinterest, and Secondhand Lions. As we were getting ready for the movie, I noticed something dark on the table by the fish bowl. It was...our fish! Poor little Tiger lay there not moving, not breathing. I freaked out. Derek tried to pick him up, and he flopped all over (Tiger, not Derek), which was a good sign. He finally managed to get him back in the bowl, and after a moment our little fishy was swimming around, normal as can be. 

I'm glad he was fine, because I'm freaking traumatized. I seriously couldn't get over it. We figured that he had just flopped out or jumped out or something, because his water was a little higher than usual. We took a cup or two of water out of his bowl and watched our movie, got ready for bed etcetera. But I was still anxious. I kept checking on him all evening long. I mean, let's face it. My fish JUMPED OUT OF HIS BOWL. I don't even know how long he was on the table!! I was worried about our little guy--he's on suicide watch for now--and wondered if there would be any repercussions from this little incident, so I did what any intelligent, curious, eager-for-enlightenment person would do--I googled it. 

Apparently, I am not the only one this has happened to. Here's one account I read:

How long can Betta fish live out of water?

The reason I ask is because tonight, I was sitting at the computer minding my own business when I see this black thing fly out of the air onto the floor. I immediately freaked out thinking it was a freakishly huge cockroach; after it did not move for a moment I decided to lean closer to it to see if I needed to throw my shoe and scream bloody murder or not. As I leaned in I noticed that it was my adorable lovable little Vinny, my Betta fish. Now, I just cleaned the bowl today, and fed the little stinker, so I was upset, not to mention I was excited that my cool fish had even lived as long as it did. I really love this fish. I know its stupid. Whatever.

Anyways, as much as I love my fishy, I was not about to pick it up and try to attempt to get it in its tank, because...well...I am a chicken. (She later added that she was 9 months pregnant at the time and couldn't even have bent over if she wanted to. Plus she figured her fish was a goner.)

So there it laid on my bedroom floor for over 4 hours....stiff as a board...no life left in him at all...

My husband walks in from fishing (ironic isn't it) and I showed him the fish lying on the floor, dead as all get out...He was nonchalant and throws him back in the tank so we could bury him tomorrow.

5 minutes later we look over and this fish is swimming around ...I kid you not....swimming...and a little more actively than regularly.

How in the world did a FISH survive without water for that long?

I immediately got on the search engine and was trying to find an answer....only thing I could find is that they have the ability to breathe atmospheric air, but not for a long period of time, after they are dry, they are dead. This fish was dry, stiff, dead, gone, and BOOM..he's alive. How did he live that long out of water??

And then a few of the respondents:

The same thing happen to my betta. I remember I cleaned out all of my bettas' bowls. This one betta I had filled his bowl all the way up to the top thinking he will have more space to swim. I left to my grandma's house and came back like 6 hrs+ later to find him on the floor. Now bettas are very good jumpers and this is how they sometimes get their food. So I put him back in the bowl to see if he will swim around. I guess he was in a dormant state where they lay dead or something and he snapped right back to life. Ever since then I always fill their bowl 3/4 now.

ABOUT YOUR ANSWER
I think they can survive for hours out of water. In the wild they can survive in small puddles of water and they are also able to breathe air through their mouth so this combined with its adaptability allows them to wait for limited periods of time until it finally rains. Your fish was probably was going through the same phase and since betta don't need to breathe through their gills like other fish it was able to wait until it was put back in to the bowl. 

There are more, but I'll leave you with these. It was comforting to know that it wasn't just out little fish who had a death wish--and it made Derek like him even more, since he's such a survivor. It is pretty cool I guess, our resilient little fishy being able to breathe normal air, and live outside of water.

I'm still a little on edge from the whole thing, but at least it had a happy ending. And at least it got me blogging again, right? 😉

   (Tiger in his bowl...where he belongs...)