Can Fish Naturally Stop Bleeding?

[J Francho]

It's a myth.  Not going to argue this anymore. 

Ask a marine biologist if it's a good idea to pour soda down a fishes throat.

[fishballer06]

16 minutes ago, J Francho said:

It's a myth.  Not going to argue this anymore. 

Ask a marine biologist if it's a good idea to pour soda down a fishes throat.

 

I've heard it's not good to pour soda down a humans throat either...

[NorthwestBasser]

But water literally had the same exact results, so why do it? Waste of a delicious mt dew and possibly harming the fish... all a fish needs to stop bleeding, if it's going to stop bleeding, is plain old h2o

[scaleface]

Beer should calm them down a bit .

[rboat]

It is true the water is what stops the bleeding, also as the fish gets deeper the water pressure will also help stop the bleeding and help seal the wound. 

[lo n slo]

feeding the osprey

[WRB]

5 hours ago, tander said:

They say Mountain Dew because it has more acid than any soft drink, ask any dentist.

What acid do you think heals a bleeding wound, citric? Just because you do this doesn't mean it's good idea. You think Mountain contains concentrated citric acid?

Tom

[Team9nine]

17 hours ago, tander said:

They say Mountain Dew because it has more acid than any soft drink, ask any dentist.

 

I first researched and published a piece questioning this practice many, many years ago.

 

To that end, Mountain Dew is actually pretty lame in the acid dept. with a pH of 3.22, there are more than a dozen other common soft drinks with lower pH values. Even Gatorade is lower. This is because phosphoric acid is the stronger acid typically added to soft drinks, and Mountain Dew contains none. In addition, since you brought up dentists, the acid acts as a decalcifyer, eroding tooth enamel. The other (weaker) acid commonly used in soft drinks is citric acid, which is a known anticoagulant, so that would argue against your line of reason. Ironically, this binding and weakening of calcium is largely believed to be why blood clotting is negatively affected by these acids.

 

The only possibilities the acid would have anything to do with helping to stop bleeding would either be by a weak cauterization (burning) of the tissue, or a physiological "shock" response by the fish to the low pH (the more likely scenario of the two), both of which the benefit would be questionable.

 

Immediate water release, or placed into a treated livewell, is still the best practice until proven otherwise.

[Evan Lip Ripper]

On 5/1/2012 at 6:44 PM, slonezp said:

Of course they can. Much depends on where the fish is bleeding from. I have read mortality rate on a tongue or gut hooked bass is 50%, gill hooked is 25%. Every tongue hooked bass I've brought to weighin has died. I wouldn't worry to much.I posted in another thread. Animals and fish have extrordinary healing powers.

Why did they die? IK they were hooked in the tongue.

[Connor11355]

Caught a fish today and starting bleeding from the tounge I put it back in fast as possible and just blood went to the top in a ball

[Bankc]

Caught a bass about two weeks ago and gut hooked him.  It was a mess to get the hook out and took a couple of minutes (dunked him in the water every 30 seconds or so).  When I finally got him free and put him back in the water, he struggled and floated up on his side.  He lost a lot of blood.  So I grabbed him by the back and held him along the side of my kayak and puttered around at about 1/2 mph for about five minutes to get water flowing over his gills.  He finally kicked free and swam off.  I don't know if he survived, but I at least felt better about trying something.  

[Deleted account]

On 4/18/2017 at 8:10 AM, tander said:

Next time you catch a bass bleeding, pour a little Mt. Dew down their throat where it is bleeding. It works, really !!!!

 

On 4/18/2017 at 3:56 PM, J Francho said:

And I'm calling BS on that.  Find some research that conclusively says that acidic liquids cause blood to clot. (A clue: You won't find any.)

 

You can keep doing what you're doing, but rest assured you're doing more damage than help to the fish.

 

My favorite part of this myth is when it's a specific brand of soft drink.  I've even seen debates where it has to be diet.

This ^. The reason lemon soda seems to clot fish blood is because the fish is out of the water, and as mentioned above, fish blood clots in water (first ingredient in all pop) and the fact that it washes all the visible blood away. I'm sure I could cauterize someone's trachea bleeding with a propane torch, but I wouldn't recommend that either.

[Sphynx]

On 4/18/2017 at 2:47 PM, scaleface said:

Beer should calm them down a bit .

Woah man...that's over the line, I gotta call a penalty on that, 2 minute minor for alcohol abuse!

[BrianMDTX]

Short answer- any blood containing platelets will clot. But it depends on the severity of the wound. Cut your finger and it will clot. Cut your carotid artery and say sayonara. 

[cyclops2]

I asked my DENTIST about clotting in a fishes mouth.  He looked at me and started laughing.  Then I joined him.

[Dogface]

On 5/2/2012 at 11:47 PM, Glenn said:

Woa, I'm correct on something? Can somebody please tell my wife?

 

And get her mad at us? Heck no!!!?

[RDB]

On 4/18/2017 at 6:10 PM, rboat said:

It is true the water is what stops the bleeding, also as the fish gets deeper the water pressure will also help stop the bleeding and help seal the wound. 

No…just like mammals, fish go through a complex cascade of reactions (clotting cascade) that leads to a blood clot and there are many similarities between mammals and fish.  Fish do not need water to clot.  As a matter of fact, clotting times for fish are studied in vitro (outside the body) and like mammals, the clotting process starts immediately following injury.  They usually use the same PT and PTT times they use on you if a doctor needs to identify your clotting time.  Fish generally have faster clotting times than humans and it has been shown that environmental factors like stress can negatively impact clotting time.

[J Francho]

Wow, happy ten year anniversary for this thread.  It's still dumb to pour soda down a bleeding fish's throat.  So don't.

[Glenn]

14 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Wow, happy ten year anniversary for this thread.  It's still dumb to pour soda down a bleeding fish's throat.  So don't.

^^ Yup ^^

 

Unbelievable how the soda myth continues to circulate the web.  A pinch of Please Release Me formula on the wound is safe and effective. 

 

Also placing them in the livewell with Please Release Me works like a first aid treatment.  It will help clot the wound, calm them down, replace the slime coat, and provide antibiotics to reduce infection.

 

Soda will never do that.

[king fisher]

On 5/2/2012 at 10:47 PM, Glenn said:

Woa, I'm correct on something? Can somebody please tell my wife?

Why bother.  She would  just say, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[RDB]

In defense of those who believe soda stops bleeding in fish, it is a statement often shared by widely read publications.  Just last year W2Fish published an article about using soda to stop bleeding and the conclusion was that while getting the fish back in the water was best practice, soda did appear to stop bleeding and did not impede recovery.  While they called this a study, I would call it a SMALL experiment and it wouldn’t come close to surviving any type of peer review.  That was not the only article published by W2Fish about the positives of soda in the last year.  I also heard an angler on a fishing show this year share the practice.

 

The only real study I am aware of was the one published in 2020 that looked at pike:         https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.15.150797v1
Their finding was there was no effect.  They also reinforced the need to scientifically test angler anecdotes.

My profession is medicine, specifically biotechnology.  It is not uncommon to find alternate applications using existing elements/compounds, many of which have led to new breakthroughs.  However, it is important to study the impact and effect before wider application.  As others have said, there is little evidence, other than anecdotal, to support the soda claim and most biologists would suggest potential harm.  While to my knowledge the harm claim is also likely theory that has also never been validated, I would err on the side of the folks who make their living studying and observing over some YouTuber or blogger who’s only proof is a 30 second observation before releasing the fish.

 

IMO, the best thing we can do is share findings.  If the goal is to educate others to take better care of our resources, belittling is the best way to keep misconceptions hidden and limit learning.  It is understandable that these impressions still exist as they are still often repeated.  This will go away once there is definitive proof but unfortunately it is difficult for science to keep up with all of the wives’ tales that spread across the fishing world.

[RDB]

On 4/19/2017 at 9:06 AM, Team9nine said:

The only possibilities the acid would have anything to do with helping to stop bleeding would either be by a weak cauterization (burning) of the tissue, or a physiological "shock" response by the fish to the low pH (the more likely scenario of the two), both of which the benefit would be questionable.

Who knows, maybe it’s the caffeine serving as a vasoconstrictor.  Maybe it has something to do with an effect on the endothelial lining that influences the speed of clotting.  I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) that calcium plays a much larger part in clotting with fish v. mammals.  Maybe there is another component that has an influence as well.  The clotting cascade of fish is still not completely understood and there seems to be differences between species.  Clotting, while seemingly simple, is quite complex.

 

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

Wow, happy ten year anniversary for this thread.  It's still dumb to pour soda down a bleeding fish's throat.  So don't.

Good thing you didn’t go back 12 years ?.