How long is the danio going to live after this incident?

[crimsonpython24]

I took a bit of time to re-gather myself. Please don't laugh at what I did but I was panicking.

I have danios. They jump all the time, so I had my lid closed.

I was doing a water change and went to get water. Meanwhile, I forget to close the lid, and a danio jumped out despite the water level being five centimeters below the aquarium.

When I came back, I saw him twitching on the ground. I grabbed the nearest source of liquid -- which happened to be a mug of almond milk -- and scooped the fish inside. I dumped the danio back into the tank immediately along with ~25 milliliters of almond milk.

Even though an hour had passed and dude's still alive, I'm wondering how long he's going to live and if it's necessary to euthanize him.

He was twitching for maybe around 10-17 seconds (I wasn't keeping track) before I put him into almond milk (forgive me but my mind was blank and the tank was far away from the fish) and he's in the milk for up to 3 seconds before I dumped him back.

I stopped changing water, turned off the lights, and just let the fish settle and whatever.

The main question is: how long can the danio stay alive? I didn't see any visible damage and he isn't leaking body fluids or whatever but I can't really tell as the lights are off. The almond milk is about room temperature. Please also tell me if there's anything that I can do to help him heal.

pH and dKH are on the lower end of danios' acceptable range, according to an API test kit and what sites like Aqueon said online. The current temperature is just on the maximum-tolerated temperature.

I might sound lighthearted but I'm really not.

Update: he's now sitting at the bottom of the tank and not getting up. I poked his surroundings once and he moved reluctantly. Not sure if he's just shocked or he's dying.

The camera flash is off btw

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Oh my goodness! Do you actually think the milk was deep enough for him to have inhaled it? If so I think it would probably feel like when we inhale a liquid into our lungs - it makes us cough and it can hurt. If enough water gets stuck in our lungs the bacteria in the water can cause a lung infection, but usually it just makes us really uncomfortable for awhile and we recover. So he may just be in a little shock or he may have inhaled enough milk to come down with an infection. (do you actually LIKE almond milk?) any way If he is going to die my guess is that he will do it tonight but I suppose it could take awhile. Sounds like there are no real symptoms other than he;s not swimming with the other fish? If he's still alive tomorrow and still not moving much and If you seriously want to treat this there are antibiotics you can buy at the pet store for about $10 (get any general one) Take the carbon filter out of the tank filter and then give the antibiotic in the manner they say to on the box - you may be dosing the entire tank. Once you are done with the antibiotic you can return any carbon filter to the tank filter (carbon tends to absorb any medication you put in a tank which is why you should remove it when you put a medication in a tank).

Fish can behave all different ways before they die depending on what is wrong. Most of mine just die for no obvious reason or due to a swim bladder problem - and they'll start swilmming sideways and they are unable to move their bodies from the bottom of the tank to the top (that's what the swim bladder does is help fish properly). I've never seen a fish survive a damaged swim bladder. Actually I've never had a sick fish survive no matter what I did, unless it was something obvious and identifiable like worms. In this case you don't really know what to treat.

I have a hospital tank and I once lowered the water quite low and built a large platform for a fish with a bad swim bladder to perch on so she could raise and lower her head out of the water, but she was a labyrinth fish (a neon blue Gourami) and they MUST have access to air to survive - they breath air and use their gills so they can die quite quickly if they can't reach the surface of the water. It was hard to feed her so she got very thin. She survived a couple of months but once fell off the perch and was too weak to go back up. I was mainly testing out a possible treatment method because so many fish seem to get swim bladder disease.

I actually had a danio that ate all the fins off of one of my beautiful gourami and then chased his "schoolmates" around the tank one at a time until they stressed out and died. I should have euthanized him after the first event. He killed all his mates then got stuck trying to school with a completely different species (Raspbora) who just ignored him.

Go ahead and turn the lights back on at least well enough so you can see him and finish the water change - you need to get rid of that almond milk that got thrown in the water.

Fish can survive several minutes out of water - of course it's scary for them. I have DoJos who can survive HOURS outside of the water. One jumped one night and was probably on the floor at least 2 hours before I found him lying perfectly still. I picked him up and he started fighting me - so I threw him in the tank and he took off swimming. I also spent 4 hours off and on trying to resuscitate a DoJo who's heart kept stopping and he'd turn belly up. I'd get him breathing again and put him back in a bucket of water and he'd swim 10=15 minutes and go belly up again. so I kept doing it until nearly 4 am and he started swimming regularly and more strongly. I put them all back in the tank (I had been cleaning it - they are VERY messy fish. Went in the next morning and he (actually probably a she) was still fine. I think she hit her head by swimming too fast and hit a wall. Supposed to get a 90 gallon aquarium for them THIS WEEK - got one and it broke during shipping so hopefully this will be good. So get yourslef some DoJo's and a very big tank and you'll never worry when they jump out!

 

[crimsonpython24]

Yes, I like almond milk. Sugarless. Probably the fish doesn't like it as well.

Maybe he didn't inhale too much since he's not in the mug for that long. He isn't swimming too much but I guess it's because he's hiding in one of the decorations -- hopefully, he's just in shock.

I'm not sure if it's good to dose antibiotics right now since I'm already using an anti-algal drug and it advises not to use it with any other sort of medication. If it's really necessary I'll still do it.

Most of mine just die for no obvious reason or due to a swim bladder problem

As a matter of fact, one just did a few days ago. Probably my neighbor overfed her while I was away for six weeks. Her stomach bulged quite ridiculously and it's only that I get her out of the water when I noticed the stomach. She's the greediest danio in my tank when it comes to food, and it's quite depressing to see her die since I bought her at half an inch and it's really accomplishing to see her grow to 1.25 inches.

Maybe I'll just stop buying fish since I'll be traveling back and forth between my home country and the US for college. Couldn't afford to go through one of these, and I guess it's also the better for those fish.

 

[Essjay]

Please don't use antibiotics unless you know for certain it has a bacterial infection.

Anti algae chemicals are not good for fish either.
If you have algae in the tank it is better to find out why and remedy the cause. Though your hillstream loach should eat some algae.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

I'd tentatively suggest that you chill a little and learn the lesson.
A wet net or even wet fingers are usually good for picking up escapees. (I always have a small net to hand whenever I'm doing anything with the tank...even simply feeding).
Now for some potentially better news...
Almond milk is mostly water.
Danios are tough little fish, living naturally in less-than perfect conditions back home.

Forget the idea of randomly pouring in medications. It rarely works out and there are many other ways of reducing algae.

Maybe I'll just stop buying fish since I'll be traveling back and forth between my home country and the US for college. Couldn't afford to go through one of these, and I guess it's also the better for those fish.

Given that a tank of fish usually requires almost daily care*, that sounds like a plan.

*A well-balanced and well-maintained tank can be left for upto two weeks without problems, assuming the tank isn't over-stocked.