Hi guys! just a little question
so I just became aware of Frankelfish routine on Chriss Russel´s Sweet DVD
(which was voted here as one of the worst dvd´s ever)
the routine goes like this.. Magician produces a dead fish, magician revives the fish.. is quite cool (to me at least).

However..
I just did the routine as an opener but I felt like I was rushing throught the routine because I didn't wanted to kill the fish.
so the question is.. what´s the time frame of the fish? how much time a fish can handle it in those conditions? (the frankelfish gimmick) a minute? 2minutes?
(is not like I am going to do a 10minute speech or whatever.. I just want to know how much time do I have so I feel more relax while doing the routine)

Thanks! :-D

I appreciate your concern for this small wet creature. Fish are really cool and they deserve good treatment.

I used to produce a fish in close-up routines, but there is much to consider: The safety of fish, temperature of water, chlorine in water, water ph, and temperature change from holding gimmick to water. It was difficult to make sure all factors were taken into consideration so I dropped this from my routine. My fish did fine, but I did not keep him in the gimmick more than 2 minutes max.

If you can meet the fish's needs in this routine, I suggest you use a male betta fish. They breathe air through a specialized labyrinth organ and you can get them in bright colors. They REQUIRE air in any gimmick you keep them in, in addition to water. They have a big tail and are really flashy! They need warm water [which is good because the gimmick will likely warm up in contact with your body heat.

I have no idea how large the frankelfish gimmick is, but you likely use the betta fish and leave some air in the top of this gimmick [I wish I knew more about the gimmick...] I hope this helps. Here is a betta fish link: http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/anabantids2/p/betta.htm

Click here to view attached image.

Wow! thanks a lot for your help
coicidently
the fish I used is a beta fish!
(i got 10 betas at my house, separated aquariums of course)

I am going to PM Autumn

I love the betta fish, too!

Alex pm'ed me. Wow. All I can say is shame on Chris Russell for suggesting this routine [I have the details now] and thanks to Alex for being concerned about the safety of his fish. I suggest this routine to no one, unless they want PETA camped on their lawn. Shame-shame-shame and two thumbs down.

Thanks Alpha Alex for asking.