Please Help, Betta emergency!

[eugarte]

Greetings all,
I have a betta that I'm very attached to; I cleaned her tank and fed her prior to leaving the house for a few hours. When I returned, I found her in the sink, dry as the mojave desert...I gently picked her up, and placed her in her tank. To my surprise, she was still alive, she swam-about, kind of irratic, and then fell to the bottom to rest...she is still breathing, and comes to the top for air every once and a while. She has not eaten, and I am very worried; it's been almost 24hrs. since the tragedy.
Please help!

Esteban.

[dramaqueen]

I'm so sorry about your fish! There is probably not much you can do for her except keep her water very clean and keep her tank in a dark place to reduce stress.

[1fish2fish]

agree. keep her tank dark, keep the water very clean, add some aquarium salt. Don't worry about her not eating.. sometimes stress will cause fish to go off their food for a couple days.

[PinkDiamond]

I third the above - she needs time to try to recover from the stress, and there's not much else that can be done.

Sorry if this is stating the obvious, but I'd make sure to have a lid on her tank from now on (just make sure that it doesn't seal any air from getting in, as they need the air above the water's surface, that they breathe, to not be stale/low on oxygen). If there is a lid, make sure there are no holes in the lid that are big enough for her to escape out of, and seal them up (possibly put a bit of filter foam in them, or seal them a bit with aquarium silicone) to make sure she can't jump out.

Best wishes for your little girl. :)

[eugarte]

Thank you all for the help and positive wishes; unfortunately, I think the trauma and extreme dryness/time out of water was too much...my fishy passed away
I know it sounds a bit crazy, but she was a lovely and vivacious part of the family, and intelligent too. She would signal me for food when she was hungry, she would look at me, and then look up at the surface of the water and look at me, and do this a number of times; she would let me pet her as well...she was beautiful, iridescently coloured with hughes of pink, green, and blue, and had wine-coloured lips...as if she had lip-stick on.
Fishy, you will be missed...
E.

[Neelie]

very sorry to hear.... i think everyone on here will agree that they are extremely intelligent and special fish.

[dramaqueen]

I'm so sorry to hear that she passed away! Yes, as Neelie said, they are very special and intelligent.