Ready for an fishy physiology lesson?
You'd better be. Shit's about to get sciency.
Goldfish, like all animals, prefer to extract energy from whatever delicious things they're able to find and eat through aerobic respiration. First, with some metabolic magic known as glycolosis, glucose is converted to pyruvate, releasing a small amount of energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This pyruvate then makes it's way to the mitochondria where through some craziness known at the Krebs cycle it is oxidized to form even more ATPs (Like 8 of them!).
But this oxidation requires... oxygen, believe it or not.
Many carps (goldfish are closely related to the common carp) naturally live in shallow ponds and lakes that freeze over during the winter, shutting off oxygen to the waters below. So goldfish have evolved an alternative metabolic pathway that anaerobically converts pyruvate into acetaldehyde which is then reduced to ethanol, releasing some energy (though not as much as the Krebs cycle). Similarly to those yeasty beasties that make all of your favorite beverages so delicious.
As far as I know no one's tried brewing a beer with goldfish.
There'd be a lot of fish poop, which would probably have a negative effect on mouth feel.
But, if you think about it, that goldfish you've left in the disgusting bowl on your desk for the past month without a water change is probably working on a buzz.
He is also probably going to die soon.
Change your fish's water.
- Couple days later -
- Couple days later -
- Couple days later -
Want to learn more about goldfish metabolic pathways? Johnson & Bernard 1983
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