How long can a fish survive out of water?

[Hutch]

I am currently in the process of merging the fish from two 25 gal tanks into a 65 gal... I was aclimatizing my fire eel in a cup partially sumerged in the tank with a net over it. the eel was strong enough to 'kick' the net off the cut and jump out falling onto the carpet floor... I was watching tv... Im not sure how much time passed but when I went to put him into the tank oviously he wasn't in the cup... I freaked!!! but quickly found him on the floor picked him up and chucked him in the tank.... he was a bit of a mess to begin with breathing very heavily, had lint stuck to him and wasn't moving much

Its now 1 full day later and he seems to have returned to normal... he isn't eating but im not worried yet as he just moved tanks...

I really hope he is okay

 

[fishstixs05]

From what i have heard, eels are one of the better fish out of water, there protective slime prevents them froom drying out as qiuckly. As for eating, i wouldnt worry about it. eels can live quite a while without food, and it is probably just getting aclimated. I would do a water change to get the carpet fuzz and other thing that got stuck to the eel, out of the tank.

 

[Hutch]

Thanks for the quick reply

Because its a new tank I will be doing water changes probably every night for awhile... Ive got a 7.6x per hour change over rate with established filter media which im hoping will speed up the time to get steady cycling up