Betta Jumped

[sainthogan]

Hello,

My male Dragon Scale Betta jumped from his tank, the drop was approx. 4 feet. I don't know how long he had been out of his tank, but he is swimming around now. He fell into a probably the dustiest part of my house and is covered in it. I happened to have a bucket of tank water nearby, so I gently rinsed him off before I put him back in. He doesn't appear to have any injuries. He was recovering quite nicely from velvet and had recently returned to his normal spunky self which is why I think he jumped, simply because he was feeling better. I moved him to a larger tank about a week ago (from a 1/2 gallon to a 5 gallon) with a heater and filter (I took out the bio filter for his medication) to help in his recovery. I'm not even sure how he got out, I have a cover, the hole he must have jumped through was no wider than 1/2 in and not more than 1/2 long, it was right by the filter.
My question is, we are leaving town tomorrow, so obviously, I can't medicate him, and I currently have no aquarium salt - the nearest pet store is 3 hours away. Can I use rock salt, or should I just leave everything be. I also don't have any stress coat or anything like that, just the betta drops, that say the promote slime coats. My mom has agreed to come to my house once a day to feed him, what should she watch for?

Housing
What size is your tank? 5 gallon
What temperature is your tank? upper 70's
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? betta flakes and freeze dried blood worms
How often do you feed your betta fish? flakes 2 times a day and blood worms once a week

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? weekly (more often recently due to his illness
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50% (100% recently due to illness)
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Topfin betta water conditioner

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? No If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? He was recovering from velvet, color was returning and fins were stretching out again, after the jump, he was dusty and swimming slowly, but still wanting to eat
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? While he was sick, he was extremely lethargic and wouldn't eat, when he started feeling better, he went back to being very active, sociable and eating
When did you start noticing the symptoms? He got sick about a week ago, his jump was a few hours ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Nothing for the fall, but I was using quick cure for the velvet
Does your fish have any history of being ill? recovering from velvet
How old is your fish (approximately)? we got him from the store a few months ago.

[Mahachai]

Wow, he had all that energy to jump out after recoverying. Sounds like he'll do fine if you're gone for a few days. Just treat him with the medication you have and one last water change to boost his immune system before you leave.
And careful with how your mom feeds him, because my grandma overfed her first betta. Maybe just let her feed him with the blood worms only because flakes can be dangerours for fish amatuers since they don't know the amount to feed. (just saying)

[Sowman]

How long are you leaving for? If its just a few days I wouldn't worry about feeding him. As mentioned above, I'd do a large water change right before leaving. Ideally, you'd want to move him to a smaller tank and do daily water changes until he is recovered.

[babystarz]

My bettas take the Plunge Of Doom often enough that I know falling to the floor isn't likely to hurt them unless they scrape against something :P The biggest danger to a betta that jumps is staying out of water until you find your fish. In this case you saw it happen so no harm done. If he's acting fine now he's no worse for the wear.

[sainthogan]

Thank you for your quick advice. I got home last night (sunday) to a fish who was extremely happy to see me. He's got a touch of fin rot, so he's getting a water change today, and we'll go from there. My mom told me that the first 2 days I was gone, he didn't move around much and just hung out at the top of the tank, sometimes he was at the bottom just laying there. After the 3rd day, he started to perk up a bit and was more active. By last night, he was back to his normal happy, spunky self. I have all the holes taped now, so that we don't repeat this incident. The fin rot is very minor, so I don't think it will take too long to heal from that.

Thank you again for all your wonderful advice. I am so grateful that bettas are very resilient fish, because although technically fishy belongs to my 6 year old son, as my husband said, I am much more attached to fishy than my son is and we both would have been sad if he was no longer with us, but I think I would have taken it harder than my son.

[Taryn]

too funny, how come everyone calls them Fishy? Mine actually has a name, but sure enough... Fishy is what he gets called.
I'm glad he survived the jump!!! BAD FISHY!!! lol :)

[sainthogan]

his name is actually Fishy, my son named him. My son wants to get a frog to live in the tank with Fishy, and if we do get one, he will name it Froggy.

[Taryn]

Cute: Fishy and Froggy, I'm a fan! :)

[sainthogan]

Today, as I was feeding him, a small fruit fly flew by, and it occurred to me that perhaps that is why he jumped. He may have saw one and thought it looked like a tasty snack. Anyway, I do have all the holes taped up, so I don't think that will be happening again.