...

[solipsistnation]

There's something terribly sad about a fish laying on his side. His little gills are working, and he's still alive, but he looks very very weak. If I move his bowl, he sort of jumps to attention and swims around a little, but he stops after a bit and sinks, which is heartbreaking to watch. I moved him out of his main tank and into a little bowl last night, figuring that clean water couldn't hurt any. His gills seem a little less enflamed than they were yesterday, but they've never been very healthy (his previous owner I think didn't change his water much, and he got ammonia-burned from swimming in his own pee for months on end) and it's hard to tell. He's clearly not getting enough air, because when he gets his strength up, he darts up to the surface of the water and gasps for air, poking his mouth out and taking tiny breaths before sinking back to the bottom. (Bettas are members of the sub-order Anabantoidei and have a labyrinth organ that they use for breathing air. They normally live in slow, not-very-well-oxygenated water and in that environment they need to breathe air directly to survive. Also, they can survive for quite a while out of the water.) The big chin lump is still there, but neither of his eyes are swelling, which is a pretty common betta disease.

Poor little guy. He's a strong little fish, though. Maybe he'll pull through, but it doesn't look good.