Betta Fish Jumped
Betta Fish Jumped
Why did my siamese fighting fish (betta) jump out of the bowl?
I woke up this morning to find him outside of his bowl and obviously deceased 
Why and how would he have jumped so high? Is it part of his playing?
Because it wasn’t covered properly. Bettas like to jump. Sometimes a betta will not realize he is not jumping into more water. In the “wild”, a betta can jump from one wet puddle and into another – one which might be bigger. Since bettas can breath some oxygen directly from the air, a betta will stay alive as long as it stays moist. If it wiggles and jumps around, it might just find itself a better water hole by jumping. Bettas have a lot of body strength and can leap pretty high and far.
In your bowl, your betta will normally stay right where he is. Sometimes he will jump out by accident, without thinking. It helps to let the betta know where the top of the water is, by having a cover over the top, or by using a plant or decoration that is partly out of the water, or a toy/plant that floats on the surface. If your betta is building bubblenests, chances are good he knows where the top is.
Sometimes a betta jumps from his tank on purpose. If he has just been transfered to a new habitat, he might be confused. He might try to get back to his old home, or be confused about where the top of the water is. Try covering your bowl with something – maybe use a saucer or plate if you don’t have a proper cover like a screen.
He might also be trying to get to a nearby tank with a female in it, or into a tank with a male that he would like to fight. Again, covering the bowl is always a good idea. You might want to use tanks with lids if you are clustering different bettas in an area. This way, you will not have to worry about your fearless boy leaping to his death!
One note – be wary of those tanks that have separate areas for different bettas in one tank – many a betta fancier has come home to find their males together, ripped to shreds, or even dead. A betta male will try to leap into those different sections if they can. Keep the water level low enough so he cannot jump the barriers. Still the best home for your betta is a five gallon aquarium with gentle filtration, heat (78-80 degrees faharenheit) and a proper cover.
A betta will also jump from his tank to escape bad water conditions. This is going back to the survival skills we discussed above – he is hoping to land in cleaner water somewhere. Make sure you provide him with clean, dechlorinated water. The smaller the bowl, the more crucial this is. If he is living in nasty water, he will do everything he can to escape.
When you change his water, also make sure you are giving him conditions that are safe. If the water is too hot or toxic in some way, he will probably go nuts, almost immediately, bashing himself against the gravel and walls and trying to jump out. Use a thermometer to make sure the temperature of the fresh water is the same as the old water. Make sure you did not use soap when you cleaned his habitat. Make sure you use a declorinator if you are not using reverse osmosis de-ionized water or collected rain water.
Mentally review what you did recently, to see that no contaminants got into the tank. Put your betta aside in a clean cup of water, and clean out the tank again, gravel and all, being mindful of creating a safe and clean habitat, before you put him back in.
Lastly, sometimes bettas exit their bowls and tanks because we have filled them too high after adding water or doing a water change. It’s happened to me several times, and now I am extra-careful. Bettas are too inquisitive for their own good and can go swimming right out of their bowl.
Jumping Betta Fish
