Goldfish survived for 13 hours out of tank

Ginger the goldfish has performed a “Christmas miracle” after surviving out of water for 13 hours. Barbara Woodward was shocked to find an empty goldfish bowl before she went to work on Monday morning.

The previous evening, her pet goldfish Ginger had been happily swimming around inside it. She looked all around but could find no sign of Ginger. But after returning to her Hucclecote home 13 hours later, she found the missing fish alive and well behind the sideboard.

“I couldn’t believe it, it was a real Christmas miracle,” said Mrs Woodward, 61.
Ginger was given to Mrs Woodward as a birthday present in August, and recently had been seen jumping out of the water a lot. We thought nothing of it,” said Mrs Woodward. “Apparently goldfish jump when they need more oxygen, so he obviously jumped out.”



After finding the empty bowl at 7am in the morning, Mrs Woodward had a look for Ginger, but he was nowhere to be found. It was only when she returned from work around 8pm and moved the sideboard, that the fish bowl was on, that she found him.

“When I found him behind the sideboard I even got the box out to put him in, I was expecting him to be dead. I picked him up with a spatula and his mouth started moving, I couldn’t believe it. I put him back into the water and off he went. He was swimming fabulously!”

Gavin Gurnell is a vet at Severnside Veterinary Group in Coleford. He said he has never come across a case like this before. “They are hardy creatures and will last a little longer out of water than other fish, but I would be very surprised if a goldfish would last more than 10 minutes out of water.”