I’d guess you were the one saying it can be frozen, because you “could swear [you] saw an paragraph or two about it a few years ago, hidden in an article about cryogenics.”
As far as I know, goldfish and other solely aquatic creatures survive the winter’s freezing by going deep enough to escape the ice. Every site I read about goldfish stated thatt hey can survive in water that is freezing (i.e. about 32°F) but not a one said they can survive in water that is frozen. I nother words, they may surive the winter under 5" of ice in their bitter cold pond, but sticking one in the Frigidaire will result in nothing than a dead frozen goldfish (try adding some to your mixed drinks at the next party!)
There was an article in the Dec 1990 Scientific American (Sorry, their online archives don’t go back that far) that talks about how this works. Sadly, they don’t mention goldfish, but it’s a good source for the physics and biology of the process.
My WAG would be that “wild” goldfish (sorry again, but that phrase just made me laugh) didn’t evolve in wintry climates. I think of them as tropical for some reason. Therefore, they would never have evolved a mechanism for living in icy conditions.
Of course, the easy way to find out would be to put the fishbowl in the freezer…
Well, I do know that fresh fish tastes far better than frozen fish. If fish came back to life when thawed, they should taste just as good, so I’d say the freezing is irreversible.
Is nobody going to voluntteer to stick a (domesticaed?) goldfish in the freezer? Surely someone here must have some goldfish doomed to be fed to other pet fish?
Goldfish are carp (or near enough as makes no difference) and there are plenty of carp in northern lakes and rivers. However, as noted above, they don’t freeze in the winter (Holden Caulfield notwithstanding). I have not found any evidence of carp being frozen and thawed alive. (Absence of evidence does not…etc., but I would not give much credence to the frozen fish survival rates at this point.)
Well, it looks like we have a bit of a quandry. Although everyone agrees that the little bugger could survive the intense cold of near freezing water, it’s unlikely that it could survive the actual crystalization of being frozen.
It appears that there is only one way to get the dope on this.
A friend of mine has an Oscar. A really big one. The size that could eat a goldfish.
So you’re suggesting that fish can withstand not only freezing and thawing, but decapitation, filleting, and a light seasoned breading? Wow. Them buggers should be ruling the world!
Smeghead, they are ruling the world! They’re controlling the mass media! They have microphones hidden in your sink! It’s a conspiracy! Tell every one! They must be—
Hey— get your flippers off me! What are you doing with that ice cube! NO!!!
That implies, of course that gold fish bowls and aquariums are submersible devices or vehicles from which they observe us.
Which is silly, of course. If goldfish really ran the world, they would let me pos
But it stands to reason that goldfish may have a mechanism that lets them survive freezing for short periods, like the human “diving reflex” that lets us occasionally survive hypothermia and anoxia for periods up to an hour.
So, I says to myself, I says “How could they possibly
This is more like what I was getting at. My initial thinking was about koi ponds in Japan. Or China. Wherever. From what I’ve seen in Nat’l Geographic, it gets pretty damn cold there. When it gets good and cold here, survive the winter? Are they taken inside into Koi Aquariums?”
And so the battle began.
P.S. Even if I am right, I will still be wrong. Consider with whom the argument is taking place.
The guy who writes the Ponds and Pond Fish column for Aquarium magaziene lives in New England and takes his Koi inside for the Winter. They are not cold water fish. His goldfish he leaves outside in a deep pond. As long as the water does not freeze and they have time to adapt, goldfish metabolism slows down and they sort of sleep through the cold temperature. I have observed my goldfish behaving like zombies under the ice. Very little movement. They are not hibernating like bears, but that is the most descriptive term that I can come up with. If a goldfish were to freeze, the water in his cells would freeze, the cells would rupture and he would die.
When I was a kid, I liked to catch local minnows and keep them in an aquarium (these are the days when I lived in Indiana). But, before I progressed to the aquarium, they were usually confined to a well-decorated tub, usually one that had previously housed a gallon of cheap ice cream.
My first minnow hung out in the garage 'cause, well, that’s where he was allowed to be (minnows jump, and mom had already cleaned up enough dried-up fish remains in her time). He happily swum around through the fall, greedily ate the fish food flakes, and lived a decent captive life.
But winter came around. A cold winter. One night it dipped into the teens, and the following morning when I went out to feed the little feller, I found fish, water, plastic plants, and all frozen solid. (Must have been destiny, what with him being kept in the ice cream bucket and all…)
I tried thawing him out in hopes of resurrection…but ah well. No more minnow, at least live. When thawed, he floated around in the typical dead-fish manner.
He’s no goldfish, mind you, but Indiana minnows are a heckuva lot more resilient than pet store goldfish. Both can live in a freezing cold environment, but neither can survive being actually frozen.