Omg!! my bichir (dinosaur eel) jumped out last night and when i woke up he was pretty dried up but being mad i stuck him back in the tank and he started swimming now i have him in a quarantine tank. after some more research i found that they can breath air!!. haha sorry i just thought that was really cool how he survived.

That's was lucky, they must be very hardy fish to be able to survive that kind of experience.

i got one i found out that they can sevive out of water for 4 hours lucky u found it then

Good info. i posted in a thread about Plecos on MFK, and explained the same thing about plecos breating air they trap in their stomachs.
Some species of pleco can even survive for 30 hours out of the water.
If a pleco jumps out of the tank, always put them back into the water for they may be very alive.
Good to know such a thing about your fish and lucky you rescued him in time!
Bet he looked dead!

some eel, snake head mud fish and perching fish can hibernate under the dry
soil for along time....that is why they immediately exist comes rainy days.

good for you by deciding to put it back in water, otherwise it would be dead
by now.....

lol cool

Way cool! Glad you saved him!

That is quite the story. I bet you felt amazing when he continued swimming. I know I would!. Interesting discussion. I had a friend who's father worked at a water Resevor. There were a variety of fish species inhabiting the very large ponds. Some of which were some sort of cat fish. It was not uncommon to see them out on the shore. As soon as you approached them, back in the water they hopped. One of the workers told me he's seen them out of the water for 18 hours or more. Quite incredible!

I think that Bircher may have the capabilities to take on on Oxygen like some other fish. I think sometimes they find themselves living in pretty horrible places where there is not much oxygen in the water. This is probably why it survived for so long on your floor

Sounds about right to me Penn. You know your stuff!

thanx guys!! haha i felt like the fish god cuz i could have sworn he was dead he was so hard and dry. hes still not the happiest fish but hes breathing and slowly swimming around so hes ganna make it!!