Can a goldfish survive being frozen?

I haven't had a goldfish since I was 11 years old when everybody kept them in bowls. I therefore am not very familiar with their needs. However there is one thing I have heard many times about keeping Goldfish in ponds that people swear is true but I have never witnessed myself.

This is what I have heard. A Goldfish can get frozen in solid ice in the winter and when the ice thaws be swimming around happily like nothing ever happened, like cryogenics. Is this true?

 

My understanding is that goldfish can easily survive over the winter UNDER a solid layer of ice, and that in some cases it is even possible for a goldfish to be encased in ice for a short period and survive when the ice thaws and it is freed, but in those cases the goldfish's tissue doesn't actually freeze solid. If the fish actually freezes solid it will cause massive cell damage which isn't survivable.

 

I've been looking it up. Some people say no, others say yes. I even found one place that said this;

Goldfish can be frozen in water and thawed in the spring without harm. We have done so many times. We had to remove the fish by cutting a block of ice around the fish with a chain saw. We then thaw them in a bucket of water then put them back into the stock tanks with fresh water. One fish we had survived several winters with no ill affects from being frozen in a large block of ice.

 

Whaaaaaat. That's cool! Personally I would freak if I found any living thing frozen in a block of ice lol

 

Dch 48, I don't know if you remember when Ponderosa had a minI putt and had fish in their ponds. I'm not sure if the fish were Koi's or Goldfish in it. I thought I heard that they didn't remove the fish in winter and you know how cold our winters get. brrrrrr

 

Dch 48, I don't know if you remember when Ponderosa had a minI putt and had fish in their ponds. I'm not sure if the fish were Koi's or Goldfish in it. I thought I heard that they didn't remove the fish in winter and you know how cold our winters get. brrrrrr

No, never been to Ponderosa. Do they even have one in Plattsburgh?

 

Yes, about 5-6 years ago we had one. They now have a big hotel in that location. Wish my memory was better about what kind of fish they were.

 

You two are in the North Country, eh? My wife's from up there (farther north than Pburgh actually). In fact, we're leaving tomorrow to visit my in-laws over the weekend.

 

Some amphibians like Alaskan frogs possess the ability to truly stay frozen in a block of ice using an anti-freeze substance in their blood to keep their blood flowing. Their metabolism goes down dramatically and they're able to stay alive with extremely little use of oxygen. Goldfish (for as far as I know) do not possess any of this and would therefore not survive for longer than a couple of minutes truly frozen. Due to goldfishes being able to withstand very low oxygen concentrations and their ability to also lower their metabolism up to 90% they can stay alive under ice for a very long time. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

PubliusVA, yes from the north country. It sure is a small world. Have a great visit and I hope the weather holds up for you.

 

My mother told me when I was young that people froze goldfish when moving cross country. They would then thaw by the time they got to their destination. I always wondered about that. I actually believe they can’t survive once temps drop below freezing without intervention. They will need to have oxygen and a hole in ice to survive. They go into a type of Hybernation and should not be fed.

 

I know carp are carp and all that, but with how heavily the genetics of goldfish have been modified, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some variation on this. Like, maybe a common goldfish or a koi would do better under ice than a fancy goldfish like a telescope or oranda. Of course I'm just speculating here.

 

Dch 48, I don't know if you remember when Ponderosa had a minI putt and had fish in their ponds.

No, never been to Ponderosa. Do they even have one in Plattsburgh?

I told my wife about this thread, and she said she remembers how when she was a kid, if you did well in school you'd get a certificate for a free meal at the Ponderosa down in Plattsburgh.

 

Yeah I've been here for 12 years and I do vaguely remember there being a Ponderosa that has gone the way of some other chains. We have lost Quiznos, Papa John's, Little Caesar's, Radio Shack, KMart, and soon to be Sears. I also swear that I did see an Outback Steak House when I first got here but my friend who has lived here forever, says there never was one.

We have never had an Arby's and I would love to have some curly fries. No Red Lobster or Hardee's either. Of course you can't say this is a growing town when the population is the same as it was 25 or 30 years ago.

 

Yeah I've been here for 12 years and I do vaguely remember there being a Ponderosa that has gone the way of some other chains. We have lost Quiznos, Papa John's, Little Caesar's, Radio Shack, KMart, and soon to be Sears. I also swear that I did see an Outback Steak House when I first got here but my friend who has lived here forever, says there never was one.

We have never had an Arby's and I would love to have some curly fries. No Red Lobster or Hardee's either. Of course you can't say this is a growing town when the population is the same as it was 25 or 30 years ago.

We just got an Arby’s here.

 

We just got an Arby’s here.

They are building a Chick Fil-A here. It should be open soon. I've never had their stuff.

 

When Plattsburgh lost our Air Force base, the city started to decline. Maybe that's why I turned my hobby into fish keeping. It's a dead town.

 

It's funny to me because this, if I recall correctly, was a topic in The. Best. Book. Ever. - The Catcher in The Rye ... when the star of the book , Holden Caulfield, leaves school and decides to go into NYC on his own, I believe he gets a cab driver who somehow discusses this topic. ... I think it has to do with ducks, but the cabby gets agitated and brings up the fact that the fishes *pores* are open the whole time or something like that.


I recently got my first Goldfish aquarium setup in over 20 years... but I had more than a couple in my 10-18 year-old timeframe. If I recall, there was a lot of info that said goldfish and most all carp species (including Koi, ... but despite my lifelong desire to HAVE a Koi pond, I have never kept Koi, so no firsthand info) can go into some sort of fishy suspended-animation ... I have even read about how they can sense the cold coming on, and when they realize it's getting frozen-cold time, they put their mouth near the surface, and get "frozen" in place with their mouths breaking the surface and getting air from the atmosphere I guess?

This has always been one of those things that I have heard of a million times, I've read about, it seemingly is proven, but I have to see to believe. So many things get said as true, that aren't (Like boiling cold water for pasta gets much hotter quicker than hot water -- this is patently, scientifically, and obviously practically false, but people have been passing it down as info for generations.) ... I just don't know.

Unfortunately for me, living down soutttttthest of the the South, if I ever DO get an outdoor, Koi pond, it will never freeze! lol.

 

Here is an article on some of the ways that certain fish survive in environnments with very low oxygen, including goldfish: https://www.go2altitude.com/data/NewScientist.pdf

I don't know about them freezing solid, but it is possible that the pocket of ice they're in doesn't actually freeze due to their waste, etc. Ice is actually a good insulator, so if they can manage it, they might be able to survive basically frozen in place and in hibernation for a few days or possibly weeks.