My betta jumped out of his tank tonight. I came into the room, and when I come in he gets frantic because it's usually time to get his food. Yet I went on my laptop for a while before I went over to him, and then I noticed he wasn't in his tank, but fell about two feet on to a piece of clothing. I'm not sure how long he was out of the tank for, he was still wet when I found him. It could have been up to 30 minutes, I guess. When I put him in, it was like he was paralyzed. He didn't move for a few minutes, save for starting to breath again slowly. Then he swam around the tank in jolts really fast for a little bit, and now isn't moving but is breathing really hard. He seems to have fuzzyness on him; I think it's from the clothing that he fell on. What should I do? Should I add aquarium salt or some water conditioner to de-stress him? Right now he's suspended near the heater. Before he kept floating to the top. Will he make it?! Please help!
my boy dmIo jumped out of his tank before to.. well bowl that is. it was the first day i brought him home and i was sure to fill up the bowl 5 inches below the top. so i left the room for 5 minutes and wouldn`t you know it he was just flopping on the plastic bag... so i gently scoop him up and put him in the water... then he did AGAIN!!! so i put a peice of paper on top of his bowl for the night so he couldnt jump out... he is fine now and i think it brought us close together.
if you see him by the filter maybe his trying to get it to some how suck the fuzzies off.. or maybe if he is rubbing and or running around the plants, he is trying to get them off as well.
well i hope that this experience brought you to closer together!
Keep him in warm, clean water. Use something to rebuild his slime coat, which may have been damaged. No bright lights,the dark is calming. I would also suggest a lid.
This happened to one of my fish too. I noticed the fuzzyness as well and was worried. It is just some kind of super-thick slime coat, like a big band-aid. Adding aquarium salts may help. My fish (crowntail) started losing her spikes.. they just got skinny and fell off. This required no treatment and she was back to normal in a few days. All of the things you are describing are just what I saw, and you shouldn't need any meds unless you start seeing some infection setting in. (This did not happen to me, but I would imagine that it would make the fish more vulnerable.)
Good luck and may your fish have a fast and easy recovery!
Oh, one more thing- your fish might be tired for a couple of days, so put a leaf hammock or a suction cup near the surface for him to rest on.
I would actually hold off on the AQ, Ella. It could stress him, and a stressed fishy is more prone to getting sick.
Unless you see something seriously wrong, like fungus, open wounds, or anything then just warm clean water will help him go back to his old active self :3
Thank you all so much for your help!!! It made me feel so much better and was such a great help :).
I've left him be and kept the room dim. He stayed near the top on the suction cup connected to the heater. Should I turn off the filter? I read somewhere that you should to stop the water movement when something like this happens.
He still has the weird white fuzz hanging off of him. I came back into the room later and found him at the bottom just lying there. He is still breathing heavily, and then struggled to the top to get a gulp of air before lying on top of the plants. He seems so tired, and is really breathing hard. Is that normal for those of you who had fish jump out? Ella, what did you mean by "tired"? Did he eat at all? Did he stay at the bottom of the tank?
one of my females recently jumped ship and was out for long enough that I was convinced she was dead. I kid you not. When she twitched I just about jumped out of my skin!
Since she had already been in a hospital tank with aq salt, I popped her back in and let her be. Large pieces of dried up fin flaked off over the first few days but by now (about...10 days later) she's clearly regrowing her fins. Honestly, for about 36 hours, I thought she wasn't going to make it,but she did.
Take heart in that bettas are hardy little fishies. Don't worry about getting the fuzz off him. It'll come off as his skin heals and he gets his slimecoat rehydrated.
Her new fin growth has about doubled since I took this photo, just 3 days ago.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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