Yesterday, my new fish committed hari-kari.

[Beware the Beast Man]

Mrs. Beast and I got a new Betta from the pet store Saturday. His name was Tiki. Yesterday we went shopping and came home to find him on the floor. Assuming he was dead, she scooped him up to flush him, when he started flapping away. We put him back in his bowl, and after a couple minutes he was back to normal (I told her we needed to cover his bowl for a few days, but she didn't believe me). Well, we found him this morning floating vertically at the bottom of the bowl. I guess he was just not for this world.

Rest in peace, Tiki, we hardly knew ye. :cry:

[flamingyouth]

1. I'm sorry...

I had a Betta too once. My family and I had gone away for the night and came home to find him right in front of his bowl... he had jumped right out of it.

[liberalitch]

2. Sorry for your loss....

bettas are notorious "jumpers" I have come home to the "magenta potato chip" more than once....

[Beware the Beast Man]

3. Heheheh...

"magenta potato chip." Good one!

[tigereye]

4. so sorry

did he need special water of something? I know nothing about fish or fishtank etiquette. We can't even have a cat since my son is allergic to them.

[Beware the Beast Man]

5. A few things:

1. We did not cover his bowl. Bettas are top-feeders and are prone to jumping.
2. The water level was too high.
3. We had him in front of the bathroom mirror. I think he was upset over his reflection.

[ladjf]

6. Bettas are labyrinth breathers, closely related to lung fish.

They are able to get oxygen from out of the air which is why your Betta lasted so long on the floor. However, his trip to the floor and the toilet caused some other problem. If he was in the toilet for very long, the chlorine got him or perhaps some bacterial damage.

[Beware the Beast Man]

7. He landed on the floor.

Given I don't know the proper way to scrub & disinfect a fish, I figure that's what killed him.

[ladjf]

12. The impact probably didn't hurt him. But, fish are very

susceptible to various fungi and bacterial infections if the slimy
film on their bodies is damaged.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Technically, he didn't commit hara-kiri

because that refers to suicide by cutting one's belly open. (Yuck.)

I had visions of a fish slicing itself open on a piece of sharp glass or something.

[Beware the Beast Man]

9. He dishonored the fishbowl!

[Drifter]

10. I had a simliar experience ...

with a Plecostamis (sp?). This is a tank sucker.

I went to the store, and was gone about an hour. When I returned, discovered this one sitting on the carpet near the tank. He could have been there 2 minutes or an hour.

He was new and I was bummed.

I scooped him up (he was hard and lifeless), and tossed him in the tank. He immediately flipped upside down, and did a death drop to the bottom. Damn, he's gone.

I did something around the house, and when I went back to administer the last rights (involving a flush). He was not in the place where he had earlier landed.

I'll be damned, but he was alive. This damn thing went on to live for 15 years, and grew to be over 9 inches long.

Cheers
Drifter

[ashmanonar]

11. sure.

those kind of fish are related to lungfish: they can live out of water for some time. throw them back in, and they're fine.