HUMONGOUS scare this morning....

[kathstew]

This morning I was doing a 100% water change on my 5.5 gallon divided tank for my two girls, Drama Queen and Ocean.

Drama Queen is usually very jumpy, but today she seemed very lethargic, (boy, was I mistaken!) The cups I usually keep them in during a water change, were almost all broken. Only one wasn't, so I put Ocean in that one, and Drama Queen in a good sized bowl. She sat at the bottom most of the cleaning. I went back downstairs when I was done, to put some stuff away, leaving my two girls in their containers.
Usually when I do this they are fine.
I came back up, and was watching Ocean. I look in Drama Queens bowl, and she's GONE.

Well, I start freaking! Where did she go?!
I was sitting on a rolling chair.... I jumped up, and pushed the rolling chair back....

my sister comes running in when she hears my yell. And then, something I wish I'd never heard, "OHMYGOD. KATHRYN, DRAMA QUEEN IS UNDER THE CHAIR!"

I moved the chair out of the way, making sure not to hit her. I thought she was dead. I thought I had run her over. I thought I had killed her, in my mistaken thought that she could be left lidless for a few minutes while I ran downstairs.

I scooped her up, and put her in her tank. She was breathing heavy. But, SHE WAS ALIVE. I instantly put some aquarium salt in the tank with her. I watched her for over half an hour. She sat at the back of the tank, shrinking her fins against herself.
I was freaking. I was almost crying. I was hysterical, I didn't know what to do. If she was hurting, should I put her out of her misery? How? I had no idea what to do.
I left for a minute, to go to the washroom. When I came back, she had actually moved. She was starting to color up a bit, and her stress bars were going away. She was spreading her fins out a bit.
Within a few hours, she is now BACK TO NORMAL.

OMG. I am so thankful she is ok! I was so worried about her! I hadn't run her over, I hadn't killed her! Thank god! She is completely back to normal now. She is swimming, eating, playing, EVERYTHING.

Scariest moment ever!
My little cousin was over, and she was crying when we found Drama Queen on the floor.

Well, lets just say, that I will NEVER leave Drama Queen, or any of my fish (!), lidless while I'm cleaning!

jeez! She really is a drama queen, giving me these heartattacks almost everyday! I don't think she'll be jumping around for a while now! LOL.

[Abby]

OH DEAR! she seems to like to make you think that one haha

[bettafish15]

How lucky that shes back to normal! I would have had a HEART ATTACK! Actually if it happened to me, I would never have even found the girl... I have two dogs and a cat >.< Good thing she was spotted!

[CrowntailxKing]

Stories like this make me scared because I leave my 2.5gal lidless for my male and my 10gal lidless for all my females. At least with the 10gal, I didnt fill it up all the way, so it would take a nice leap for them to jump. I've never seen my male jump before...I've only seen him jump a tad for bloodworms, but he cant jump high enough to catch it sometimes, so I doubt I will have problems with him.

[Abby]

I have egg crate across the top of my tank (my big male tank) and BENNY jumps the inch from water to egg crate through the inch thick eggcrate, hes done it TWICE now little squirt!

[dramaqueen]

I'm so glad she's ok!! :)

[FlareThis]

That is scary!! Glad she's ok! I've had a couple males jump in the past, unfortunately both did it in the middle of the night, so they were quite crispy when I found them in the morning.

[Arashi Takamine]

I'm so glad Drama Queen is safe and sound! I can't even fathom what I would have done...Thank god she's okay!

[Vocaloid]

That sounds like an awful experience. I would've been crying about it because when I was much younger I lost a king betta to something like that. That king betta was expensive and the best fish of the entire aquarium. I promised myself that I'd never leave a fish in a container without a lid to protect them from a horrible death. We learn from our mistakes. I'm glad that Drama Queen was ok after such a horrible experience!

[kathstew]

Thanks guys! She is doing pretty well now, but I think she may have gotten a bit of eye damage from the fall. One of her eyes look sunken in almost. She seems fine though. So I am keeping an eye on her very closely!

It was definitely one of the scariest moments ever! I was close to tears, I thought I had lost my spunky little betta forever! It took a while for her to recover, but she is doing very good now!