how long can fish survive out of the water?

fish can continue to get oxygen from the air as long as thier gills remain moist. When i was fishing at a pier once a guy next to me tossed a fish in his bucket, I swear that thing flopped around for 10 minutes. In my experience with catch and release any significant (more than a minute) time out of water is usually fatal, even if put back in the water.
 
Depends on the species. However, anything more than a minute starts to stress the fish, increasing the odds of an infection or injury.
 
Eels, like the ones round here in the sea, can live for hours out of water, they can come out of the sea across grass fields and into SW lakes here.
 
It really depends on the species, as OrionGirl already said. Some fish (members of the infamous Channa genus come to mind) can live for a few days out of water if they stay moist and be OK when they return to the water. Other fish, like lungfish, can stay buried in the earth for months in a mucous cocoon of sorts, waiting for the rains to bring back the water.
 
wow that is interesting!

So can it cause a lot of stress picking up goldfish in nets and transferring them to other tanks?
 
once while cleaning my tank i had a yo-yo loach that was in a rock i had removed and he was out of water fo 30 minutes and was fine when he got back in
 
My mom like an idiot, when she got 4 new ottos, put them in her tank and then poured the bag water into the sink. we went to a party then. 3 1/2 hours later we get home and see a poor little otto in the sink, he is still living today.
 
On 2 ocassions now I have had fish survive a flip across the kitchen floor. The first time was a betta that I had in a shallow bowl while I was cleaning his tank, the phone rang, and I must have been on for 5 mins, then I heard something in the kitchen and thought nothing of it. I must have talked for another 20 mins, came back into the room, and he was across the kitchen on the floor. I for sure thought he was dead, so I went to lift him up and he was kind of stuck to the floor, so I poured a bit of water from his bowl on him, and he started flopping around so I put him back in his tank (he lived for a year after that). And Once I had a guppy jump out of a bowl (which was on my table in the dining room), while I was doing a super intensive cleaning of the tank. I went to get the bowl and there was only 4 fish in there, so I called my hubby, and after searching through placemats and on the floor and everywhere, he said I must have left it in the tank (even though I just ripped it apart, and saw nothing) And then the food we ordered arrived, and we must have been at the door doing that "debit on delivery"thing for a couple of minuites, and on the way into the kitchen, we found the guppy on the floor in front of the fridge 15 feet away. Put her back in water and she lived, and still had babies 2 days after all of thet.
 
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