How long can fish they actually survive without water?

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]A fish just survived four years without water.

[00:00:04]The last one on this list will actually shock you.

[00:00:09]The goldfish can survive out of water for around 1 hour, barely gasping the entire time.

[00:00:16]The climbing perch walks on land, uses its fins [music] as legs, drags itself between water sources, and survives up to 6 [music] hours completely out of water.

[00:00:27]The mudskipper lives on land more than it lives in water, hours at a time, absorbing oxygen through its skin and the lining of its mouth simultaneously.

[00:00:38]The lungfish does not need the water at all once a year.

[00:00:42]It builds itself a cocoon of hardened mucus in the dried mud, a sealed biological capsule, drops its metabolism to 1/60 of normal, waits up to 4 years without moving, without eating, without water.

[00:01:03]Researchers revived one that had been dormant for 5 years in a museum specimen of dried mud.

[00:01:10]It started breathing again.

[00:01:12]And it is technically not a fish.

[00:01:15]It is the closest living relative of the ancestor of all land animals, including you.