Betta Jumped out of Tank

Question
I changed my betta's water right before going out for about 3 hours a couple
days ago. When I came back, I realized that he was no longer in his tank! I
found him behind the shelf that the tank was on, lying on the ground. I put
him back in the water and he started to swim. I know he was lying there for
about 3 hours because my friend noticed he wasn't in his tank before we left
but she thought he was in his little home. The home was just added to his
habitat and I know for a fact that he does not go in there.
It has been two days and he is in his tank - the water temperature at 75 and i
lowered the water level so he can get air easily. He has some sort of cottony
like growth on him and I diagnosed it as Columnaris and am currently
treating it with Trycelerine.
He was doing ok yesterday because he was swimming around but today he is
in one corner in an upright position getting air whenever he needs it and
breathing heavily. The water level is low enough that he can get air without
straining himself. I'm worried that since it was such a long fall from the shelf
to the ground that he has damaged his internal organs.
Do you think that he'll be able to recover? And if so, how does a fish recover
from damaged internal organs?

Answer
Hi Olivia

I've never heard of Trycelerine, nor is it in any of my medical dictionaries. Could you possibly mean Tetracycline? Chloramphenicol or Tetracycline are commonly used to treat the Columnaris itself. The problem is fish infected with Columnaris often get a secondary infection which is resistant to both of those. A combination of Maracyn and Maracyn Two or Tetracycline and Kanamycin works best. Also an airstone should be added to the tank, Columnaris thrives in low oxygen.

Bettas are jumpers and should be in a 5 gallon, heated, filtered and covered aquarium. A Betta can survive out of water as long as they stay moist. Unfortunately, when out of water for that length of time and with that hard of a fall, they often don't recover.

Add an airstone to the tank and a small amount of Aquarium Salt would relieve stress. (1Tsp per gallon of water) Other than that, nothing much you can do.

Richard