EMERGENCY: My Goldfish Jumped his bowl!!!

fm27 · #1 07-31-2007, 10:37 PM

I went out to the theatres with my mum and brother and came back several hours later and saw that my beautiful, healthy, sleek goldfish Razor was on the ground, covered in black stuff, pale, dried up, and (i assumed) dead. I cried hysterically and my mom picked the poor guy up to put him away for burial then she noticed he was moving, put him in his container and now he's been moving for about thirty minutes. However, he's discoloured, seems to have difficulty breathing, is staying just at the surface, can't swim right and seems to be struggling. I feel so awful! I had moved him to a larger bowl (it was a very large container, took up quite some space) but i didn't realize how stupid i was until now....it was a completely open top! no hood, no bent in angle...he must've jumped (very energetic) i don't even know how many hours ago....landed on the table and dropped a few feet onto the ground where he struggled....i don't know what to do....i feel so horrible.....he was so healthy and growing so nicely and everything! oh my god.....what should i do? i did a full water change this morning and i do one or two 25% ones every few hours while i look for a filtered container so i set out some water and am waiting for the dechlorinator to work....i read somewhere they should be kept warm (though the advice i read was for a betta) but how do you do that? warmer water? also, it spoke about conditioner....is that just the dechlorinator? please please someone help....would it help if i added my other goldfish into his tank (the other one's much less aggressive)? i added in some aquarium salts to calm him down but i don't know what else to do......

Vanilla_Rat · #2 07-31-2007, 10:56 PM

You did what you could.Hopefully he will survive.

Back in the day I had a couple goldfish jump out of open tanks (bowls are not big enough...I would never use a bowl) and I would just put them into clean tanks and wait it out.I had some survivers and some who didn't make it.I learned my lesson tho and now always keep the tanks covered.

Good luck!

Vanilla_Rat · #3 07-31-2007, 10:57 PM

Maybe Sasami has better advice.
But I think that there is not much else you can do.

**Sasami** · #4 08-01-2007, 01:07 AM

Wrap a towel or blanket around the bowl to keep it dark and try not to disturb him.

I would get a tank for him if he recovers so he can't and won't want to jump. He should be in one anyways.

Don't keep him warm since he's a coldwater fish. Bettas are tropical which is why they need warmer water.

Good luck.

An1ma1Lov3r · #5 08-01-2007, 01:23 AM

Let us know what happens. Good Luck

fm27 · #6 08-01-2007, 10:53 AM

I'd like to thank you guys for your help but unfortunately, this morning, i went to check on him and he had died

it was so sad....he was so healthy and beautiful....a lovely gold and orange colour and his fins were so beautiful and sleek and like a comet tail really. i had moved him to a really large bowl (i think more than 5 gallons as the five gallon tanks i saw were smaller than it) to give him more swimming space (he'd grown to about 3 and a half inches in length) as he was so energetic while i could find a suitable tank online/at the store (i actually bought some more fish equipment last night when i was out for his new bowl

now i will have to return most of it as my other fish isn't as active and her own bowl is already fitted with enough stuff....besides she's still only about 1.5 inches long) but i hadn't realised that it was such an open top. i had the water level down about 2 inches from the top (what i'd read online) but he got over the top anyways....he was swimming better last night at around 12 midnight (before i went to sleep) but what i had been most worried about wasn't the cold (i turned on an incandescent lamp near him and had put some blankets around the container) but the fact that it had been such a large drop and his stomach was really inflated.

I put sea salts and some of the water i had left out for another water change for that night and he was moving around (though he still stuck to the surface) and looked like he was improving (he had gone really pale when i found him but was regaining some of his orange colour in some places) so i don't know what happened that made him die...i just hope it wasn't painful.

I slept on the couch last night (it had been a long day so i was pretty tired) in the tv and games room which is connected to the dining room/kitchen where my fish were so i checked up on him and he had stopped being so active last night but i figured he was tired (he didn't look dead) so i went to bed hopeful he would make a full recovery but this morning....it was awful....the water was starting to smell and i think his gills had started to decompose because they looked really different....i told my dad and he ripped up one of his old shirts for me to wrap him in and i dug out a small plot in the flower-bed and buried him there this morning...i put a rock on top to mark the place...i just hope the rabbits don't dig him up.

**Dragonrain** · #7 08-01-2007, 03:32 PM

How is he?

My female betta is a jumper - but she's only jumped out while I was cleaning her tank because usually her tank has a cover on it. She was only out of the water less then a minute so she was fine. My sister had a betta that jumped out and was out for awhile because she was at school when he jumped out, and he lived too.

Good luck, I hope he's ok! Maybe if he lives get him a tank with a cover?

Rest in Peace Razor