Dreaming about a big fish: caught, in clear or murky water, dead

Dreaming about a big fish: the size is the message

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme, always saying which is which.

Dreaming about a big fish does not announce money, a prize or a pregnancy. What the scene usually shows is proportion: something that seems bigger than you expected, whether an opportunity, a desire, an expectation or a problem. Catching the big fish brings a sense of achievement; seeing it swim by, of admiration or unease; finding it dead, of waste or of something that arrived too late.

The general meaning of fish in dreams, including the well-known belief about pregnancy, is in dreaming about fish. Here the focus is on size and the scenes where it weighs most.

Read also: Dreaming about a shark and Dreaming about a whale.

Why the fish grows so big in the dream

According to the continuity hypothesis, tested by Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann in 2003, dreams work with the material of the day. A weekend fishing trip, a video of someone holding up a tambaqui (a large Amazon river fish), the market stall packed with fish during Holy Week. In the north of Brazil, the pirarucu, one of the largest scaled freshwater fish in the world, rises to the surface to breathe, and anyone who has seen it rarely forgets the scene.

And there is the old fisherman's tale: the fish that got away grows every time someone tells the story. We know of no study on the size of dreamed fish, but research reminds us that the report of a dream depends on how it is recorded. In 2002, Schredl showed that the method makes a difference: diaries and questionnaires do not always give the same result. That is why it is worth writing it down as soon as you wake up; see how to keep a dream journal.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Schredl, Questionnaires and diaries as research instruments in dream research, Dreaming, 2002.

Six scenes with a big fish

The water changes the tone of the scene. If it was the center of the dream, see dreaming about clear water and dreaming about dirty water. If the fish was in a wide river, also read dreaming about a river.

The big dead fish also has a very concrete side. In times of drought and intense heat, the lack of oxygen in the water causes fish die-offs in rivers and lakes, and the images circulate in the news. Anyone who has seen those photos may run into them again in a dream.

See also: Dreaming about a flying cockroach and Dreaming about a zebra.

When the big fish is frightening

A big fish rarely turns into a nightmare, but it can: a huge shadow under the boat, an open mouth in dark water, the feeling of being pulled to the bottom. If scenes like these repeat several times a week and disturb your sleep, talk to a health professional; frequent nightmares have treatment. See how to have fewer nightmares. If the fear was of sinking, read dreaming about drowning.

Source: Morgenthaler and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

The big fish for Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud summed up his thesis in one sentence: "the dream is the fulfillment of a wish." In children's dreams, he said, this shows up in the open. His youngest daughter, at a year and a half, went a whole day without eating after an upset stomach and, the following night, said the names of strawberries and pudding in her sleep. In that key, the huge catch may be the achievement that waking life has not yet delivered.

In Jung's psychology. Jung saw a compensatory function in dreams: they balance the conscious attitude. Someone who has been feeling small in the face of problems may dream of a bountiful catch; someone who has been overconfident, of the fish that snaps the line. It is a question to ask yourself, not a rule.

In symbols and faith. In the book of Jonah, the prophet is swallowed by "a great fish", and not by a whale, as many people remember it; he spends three days there and returns to the mission he had avoided. In the Gospel of John, chapter 21, the disciples spend the night without catching anything and, when they cast the net again, they haul in so many great fish that they can barely pull it, and yet it does not break.

Bringing both readings together. Science shows where the fish comes from; psychology and faith ask what, in your life, has grown to that size. Notice whether you managed to bring it close or whether it stayed in the water.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols.

The big fish in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, says nothing about the size of the fish. The entry for fish is positive: in life, prosperity; in love, freedom. Curiously, the entry for fishing goes the opposite way: in life, lack of resources; in love, uncertainty. The same book, then, sees plenty in the fish and hardship in the act of fishing. This is folk tradition, not prediction.

Freud recalled that Artemidorus, the dream interpreter of antiquity, already took the dreamer into account: the same dream would have one meaning for the rich and another for the poor. A big fish in the dream of a professional fisherman and in the dream of someone who has never held a rod do not tell the same story.

Sources: L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014; Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900.

What people say about dreaming of a big fish

In Brazilian folk reading, the big fish is one of the most welcome dreams: it speaks of plenty, of a good phase and of opportunity. Catching it would mean reaping the fruit of an effort; watching it escape, letting a chance go by; finding it dead, a loss or a plan that has cooled off. For many people, it also enters the pregnancy belief. These are readings from tradition, which vary from family to family, and not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.