Fizzing

[Bonefish]

Based on Boyle's and Henry's gas laws, the amount of gas dissolved in water is determined by the partial pressure and solubility of the gas, and is independent of other gases. For practical purposes, atmospheric air is 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen, or a ratio of 4:1. However, since O2 is twice as soluble as N2, the ratio of N2:O2 in air saturated water is 2:1, and remains at about at that ratio regardless of temperature or pressure.

The total amount of gas dissolved in water, however, increases as temperature decreases. At saturation under 1 atm pressure, O2 increases from 8.5 mg/L to 14.6 mg/L as temperatures fall from 25 degrees C to 0 degrees C. At saturation the total amount of gas dissolved in H2O increases proportional to pressure. For example, at 0 degrees C the amount of O2 in H2O at saturation increases from 14.6 mg/L to 29.2 mg/L as pressure increases from 1 to 2 atm.

When fish are exposed to deep H2O, they will seek neutral buoyancy by filling their swim bladder with gas captured at the surface or from bubbles produced from plants or substrate. When exposed to a sudden pressure reduction that exceeds their ability to evacuate their swim bladder, the bladder can rupture and cause mortality. Also, when fish are in deep water their serum will equilibrate with the dissolved gases in their environment. In lakes, water turover and gas recharging generally occur in winter months when temperatures are cool, and hence the ability of water to hold dissolved gas is greater. As the weather warms in the spring and summer, the dissolved gas remains in solution because of the hydrostatic head created with water depth. Fish brought from that depth faster than their ability to equilibrate with the decreasing hydrostatic pressure will suffer from the bends much the same as a deep water diver. In these cases when fish are depressurized, death occurs from gas expansion and/or from serum gas leaking out of the blood.

Ernest L. Brannon, Ph.D
Seattle, WA

I thought it would be good to revisit this topic since questions still arise from time to time. There are two previous posts concerning this topic that I will remind you about and they are:

CraigGipe..."How do you bleed an air bladder"

redneckshadrap..."Stripers and the F-n-F"

[RoadToad]

redneckshadrap..."Stripers and the F-n-F"

Tried and tried and I can't find this post or thread. Can you give us the gist of what was said?

[Bonefish]

If you go to "Search" and type the word "Fizzing" in those two posts should come up for you.

[Moose1am]

Ph D's say it so much better than me! LOL
I have been trying to get this point over to fishermen for several years.

I am not a PhD but I did specialize in Air Pollution Control and was forced to study Boyle's Law and Charles Law to better understand the Ideal Gas laws.

Every High School Chemistry Student is taught the idea gas law. Most forget it after the test. Some go on to use this information in their professional Careers. Some of them fish. And a few of them put two and two together and try to dispel grand-paws tails about how to let the air out of a fish's gas bladder in an attempt to save it.

I also studied microbiology in High School and there I learned to culture bacteria and grow colonies of bacteria so that I could later identify them with the help of the teacher. And in College I was forced to take a College Level Microbiology class which was very intense. We had to conduct extensive testing on an unknown bacteria and then figure out what species it was. Some bacteria stain gram positive while other's stain gram negative. Some are round shaped and form grape like clusters while others form single round cells. Some produce gas when in a certain type of broth and others don't. Some are pathogenic (produce disease in humans or animals) and some are harmless and actually beneficial to humans. Some are both depending on how they have mutated over the years. E Coli lives in our gut and helps us digest our food. But there is a new form of E. Coli bacteria that will eat human flesh. Bacteria are plenty and varied.

Poking a hole in a fish with a hypodermic needle is like sticking a dirty 1" diameter pipe though a human body and into your lungs. Without a tetanus shot or antibiotics and surgery to repair the damage you are going to die. Fish that get probed with dirty needles will have to have a good immune system to fight off any bacteria that enter their body. Now some cold blooded reptiles have blood that's has antibiotic like properties. Komono Dragons are one such example. And Nile Crocks are another. They can live in polluted water and survive do to the antibiotic properties of their blood. I don't know if fish have that same type of blood. Fish can die pretty easily if they get a weakened immune system.

Anyone that's tried to keep fish in an aquarium knows how much work it takes to keep them healthy.

One thing that the PhD guy wrote that bothered me. He said that fish will go to the surface to fill their gas bladder. While that's true for some species it's not true for all. For example some fish don't even have a gas bladder. And even if they do have a gas bladder they normally only fill the gas bladder at the surface when they are first hatched and still young fry. After they grow they take gas out of their blood to fill the gas bladder. The gas bladder is much like our lungs in that it's filled with lots of capillaries which have very thin walls. Gases can easily diffuse though the capillary walls in and out of the gas bladder. It takes a while for the gas bladder to expand or contract with air molecules in order to control the buoyancy of the fish.

Note: Great White Sharks don't have a gas bladder. They have a huge liver that provides the buoyancy to keep them in the upright position. Their liver takes up 25% of their entire body. The liver is lighter than water so the Great White Shark can float and have positive buoyancy. I learned that last night while watching the discovery channel. LOL

Some minnow species don't even have a gas bladder.

Bone thanks for posting this articles as it's very important that fisherman understand this subject so that they stop trying to fiss fish. They would be better off just keeping the fish and eating them for supper. That way they won't go to waste and it would help protect the fish populations. After you keep the fish it adds to your creel limit and if you are honest you will stop fishing after you have your limit. Less fish will die if this practice is followed. If not a lot more fish will become Turtle Food.



When fish are exposed to deep H2O, they will seek neutral buoyancy by filling their swim bladder with gas captured at the surface or from bubbles produced from plants or substrate.

When exposed to a sudden pressure reduction that exceeds their ability to evacuate their swim bladder, the bladder can rupture and cause mortality. Also, when fish are in deep water their serum will equilibrate with the dissolved gases in their environment. In lakes, water turover and gas recharging generally occur in winter months when temperatures are cool, and hence the ability of water to hold dissolved gas is greater. As the weather warms in the spring and summer, the dissolved gas remains in solution because of the hydrostatic head created with water depth. Fish brought from that depth faster than their ability to equilibrate with the decreasing hydrostatic pressure will suffer from the bends much the same as a deep water diver. In these cases when fish are depressurized, death occurs from gas expansion and/or from serum gas leaking out of the blood.

Ernest L. Brannon, Ph.D
Seattle, WA

I thought it would be good to revisit this topic since questions still arise from time to time. There are two previous posts concerning this topic that I will remind you about and they are:

CraigGipe..."How do you bleed an air bladder"

redneckshadrap..."Stripers and the F-n-F"[/quote]

[Bonefish]

Thanks again, Moose, for your input. Helps me understand things a little better. By the way, I remember the rigers of microbiology also.

[Bonefish]

Since we are talking about microorganisms, please make it a habit to wash your hands at least two or three times a day to prevent bacteria from building up on your skin which could make you sick or allow you to be a carrier, especially when you go out in public. When you visit a family member or friend in the hospital, follow infection control guidelines on the patient's door. There are a number of infectious microorganisms which are resistant to antibiotics that we need to be aware one being the Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE), and Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is a gram + bacteria resistant to oxacilin/methicillin. Both of these bacteria are spread by skin to skin contact. You can do a lot to prevent the spread of microorganisms by just washing your hands frequently with soap and water.

[RoadToad]

So here's what I've gleaned from the various posts and articles about "fizzing." Please correct me if I'm wrong: It may, under certain circumstances, save a fish's life, but it should only be done as a last resort, and then only by a biologist or someone else experienced in the technique. The average joe (such as myself) would probably do better to adjust fishing technique so as not to abruptly haul fish up from deep water, or if it does happen, just take them home for dinner.

[CTFSHWHISKER]

i have talked to knowledgeable people on this before,now they may not be as schooled as moose or others. in regards to the fish filling their bladder by going to the surface,if he goes up and and fills it how does he go back down?seems about the equivalent of carrying sand in a screenwire bag,won't work very good.don't they deflate to go down?i was under the impression,from a guide in destin,when i asked about snapper we were catching.the bladder has gas in it all time and the pressure he is under is what enlarges the bladder,or deflates,whatever he needs.now he said yes they will go down if you pop it and may live but it is like filling an inner tube with a pinhole in it for awhile until it heals,if it does before he dies.i guess it seems to me if you pop it,it don't work right,it would be swimmin like he was very drunk and that seems stressfull.
hey moose thanks for all the input,i learn something from evry post,but please try to use redneck terms where possible..
by the way i may be way off on all this but i felt the same about the needle.you're making ahole for water and stuff to get in where it shouldn't be.