Beta possibly sick?

Question
I'm on work time, so I'll be quick - over the weekend we had guests (children) and I'm just sick over this, but I intended to move the fish food away, but forgot - the next day, my niece infomed me that"someone" decided to feed the fish and simply dumped food in the glass bowl.  Well, the water was cloudy and I'm sure our little "man" just gobbled up what he could - he is generally very frisky and always waiting for a meal in the morning and late afternoon when we feed him 6-8 small pellets of food.  Anyway, I placed him back in his cup he arrived in, along with bottled water.  I rinsed out his bowl and the small glass decorative stones at the bottom.  Refilled the bowl with bottled water and poured him back in.  I kept him downstair since so no little hands would bother him.  This happened between Friday and Saturday.  I peraonally fed him on Monday - he would barely eat - he did eat some, but didn't chase any food that dropped to the bottom like he usually does and I also noticed some very small bubbles forming at the top of the bowl - this morning, there is a small gathering of white bubbles, almost foamy in one area of the bowl and this morning, although Bruce is still swiming all around, he didn't seem to want anything to eat - is he still stuffed from that weekend smorgasbord or do we need to do something else.  I am an extremely new fish mom and have been fascinated by all of the many things that should be done - I had no idea about the warm water, although my common sense told me that I would not like cold water dumped on me, so I did give Bruce room temp water - any ideas on what we can do?  Bruce belongs to my niece and she was pretty sad this morning as even she could tell this was not Bruce's typical behavior.

Answer
Wow, Cynthia your question is bigger than your fish!

First of all, don't feed him anything for a week. Don't worry, fish are cold blooded and don't need to eat like us warm blooded animals. Witholding food will reduce his stress and make it so he needs less oxygen, it will also help with the water quality.

Bottled water is good because it does not have chlorine but it can be very low in dissolved oxygen. Best to shake a half full container of the water for a minute or so to help get some oxygen in there. Your bottled water should be drinking water, not distilled.

The key water change rule is to make the new water very similar to the old water, only cleaner - same temp, same pH, same minerals. Small changes reduce stress.

The decorative stones at the bottom can harbor junk. Don't let it build up down there.

The bubbles may be the result of the fish being stressed and shedding some of his slime coat. It's full of protein and can make bubbles last.

It's important to change out a little water on a regular basis - something like 20% per week. For now, you might want to change out 20% per day for a week to clean things up.

'ol Bruce is lucky to have a good fish mom!

Chris Bushman
North Hollywood, California