Dead Fish Always Float On The Water Surface.

[myrtle]

This has been bugging me for ages. Why do people in general (non fish keepers) believe that when a fish dies it floats to the surface? It always happens on cartoons etc, ie someone drops TNT in lake, it goes boom, all fish float to the surface. It was on an old episode of the Simpsons the other week which got me thinking about it and before I kept fish this is what I believed too. Is it just that as kids we watch cartoons with this in and believe it's true but nobody corrects us?

 

[BigC]

http/www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/why-do-dead-fish-float-0320/

 

[Carlovel1]

I had a chocolate gourami die a month ago and when it died, it fell to the bottom of the tank

 

[Jimbo1984]

Ha! I'd concentrate on keeping them alive so you don't have to worry about whether they float or not when they die. I can't say I've paid much attention to the position of a fish in a tank when it's died, mainly because I was more bothered about the fact it had died. Thinking about it though, I'm sure I've had some float...

 

[platybabie]

my 2 platys sank

 

[jpeterson]

My corys stayed on the bottom!

 

[myrtle]

Obviously I am more concerned with why a fish has died and whether or not it may affect other fish! I was looking in the tank this morning and couldn't see one of my tetra. I happened to mention this to my husband who isn't into fish and he said "look on the surface, if it's dead it'l be floating". It wasn't dead, just hiding behind a large anubia but it just illustrates my point that people seem to think that the second they die they float to the surface whereas all the fish that I've had die in the 4 years I've been keeping them (not that many, it's not fish hell here!) have all been on the bottom. According to the link BigC posted it's only when they've been dead a fairly long time that they float,so why does the myth that the float immediately upon death persist? Is it cartoons that are responsible for perpetuating it?

 

[rdp50734]

http/www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/why-do-dead-fish-float-0320/

Good article big C, I wonder if people are reading it!

 

[fluttermoth]

Obviously I am more concerned with why a fish has died and whether or not it may affect other fish! I was looking in the tank this morning and couldn't see one of my tetra. I happened to mention this to my husband who isn't into fish and he said "look on the surface, if it's dead it'l be floating". It wasn't dead, just hiding behind a large anubia but it just illustrates my point that people seem to think that the second they die they float to the surface whereas all the fish that I've had die in the 4 years I've been keeping them (not that many, it's not fish hell here!) have all been on the bottom. According to the link BigC posted it's only when they've been dead a fairly long time that they float,so why does the myth that the float immediately upon death persist? Is it cartoons that are responsible for perpetuating it?

I think the myth is perpetuated by two main factors. In lakes and rivers, people wouldn't see the dead fish until it floated. In tanks, I guess more inexperienced fishkeepers wouldn't notice the dead fish until was floating either. It's only people like us who spot them before the fish gets to that stage!
That's my thoughts anyway

 

[Jamepsss]

Whenever I've had fish die they always seem to end up in the most awkward places. Under bogwood or in the plants or just anywhere which is really hard to get to with a net.

I've never discovered a dead fish floating on the surface though.

 

[Biddles95]

i think when fish begin to die they cannot keep up right so they do end up goin upside down and might float to the top.. but when they die they float to the bottom

 

[myrtle]

Thanks for all your thoughts on this highly important matter

. I can't bear not knowing why something is thought to be one way but obviously isn't (does that sentence make any kind of sense?). I think Fluttermoth has something isasmuchas you wouldn't see a dead fish in a lake until it had started floating (unless you were scuba diving) .

 

[hughessomefish]

A lot of myths are created by people who don't keep fish, for instance the myth that you need salt for your tropical fish to keep them heathy and to fish off paracites when in reality I have never put salt in mine and have never had any illnesses other then one run in with ick that was from two rummy nose tetras that had it when I introduced them into my tank.Many of these myths come from inexpirenced people at lfs that sell fish and attempt to give advice on fish keeping.

here is a good website that dispells many fish keeping myths: http/www.firsttankguide.net/myths.php

 

[the biffster]

my grandad used to be in the navy
during the war and they if they were
at sea and got short of fresh meat
like the did they used to put a depth
charge over the side then go back and net out
what floated to the top after it had gone off

 

[onebto]

http/www.lifeslitt...ish-float-0320/

Good article big C, I wonder if people are reading it!