suicidal betta

Question
Hi Megan,
My betta of two years had recently tried to commit suicide.  I placed a plant decoration in its bowl and forgot to put the lid back on top.  The next morning he was missing from his bowl.  I'm not quite sure how long he'd been out of water, but when I picked him up, I felt him jump a little.  So I put him back in the water and amazingly he is still alive!!!  He's a little sluggish, pale and his fins look horrible.  Is there any way to help him recover?

Thanks.
Melissa

Answer
I think the obvious forst point would be to keep the lid on. But it seems a little strange he would jump out (bettas don't do that). Test your water quality. fish jump out when the water quality is bad. If the the quality is bad, a series of water changes over several days should fix that. Real plants help lower ammonia.

Assuming the water is good, avoid doing water changes until he is better. Keep the temperature at a comfortable 83F and make sure he isn't under any sort of stress (i.e small children scaring the daylights out of him). Normally I would suggest a little aquarium salt but seeing how isn't doing to hot, I wouldn't recommend this.

Other than that, keep doing what your doing and perhaps get a bottom feeder so eat up the food he doesn't eat if you don't have one already