Last night, I noticed Rhythm, my betta, wasn't doing so well. He's never been one to get excited about food, but he seemed to be laying around a lot more than usual. Of course, I figured he was just tired and went to sleep.

Five minutes later, I woke up with this gut feeling that the tank temperature wasn't right. Well, it sure wasn't. It read 87 degrees fahrenheit, rather than the normal 76-78 fahrenheit I usually have. No wonder Rhythm hadn't been doing well! I unplugged the heater immediately and went to do a water change. While the temperature change was probably too fast, I got it down to about 80 and then went to sleep.

During the night, it went down to 68, and has stayed stable. Not sure about tonight, and I don't have time to get a replacement heater yet today. Hopefully he'll be fine. He seems perkier today, so...

I'm keeping my fingers crossed he makes a full recovery, he's a very special little betta.

I am glad you were able to rescue him. What kind of heater did you have Peace? i have a hydor 7.5 watt mini heater and it usually keeps Sunti's tank at around 78 with the light on. With the light off it gets down to around 74-76. did you have the light on Peace? I am glad your baby is o.k.

Yes, light was on, and I had one of the old Whisper Heaters (that was for 5-15 gallons).

I'm certaintly not buying those heaters again!

Rhythm's bouncing back now, his fins took a bit of a beating, but not by much. He hasn't built a bubble nest yet, which leads me to think it's still too cold in the tank unheated (It's about 68 fahrenheit and he's used to 75.)

I'll hopefully be getting some sort of replacement today for him.

That was a close call . Lucky you went with your gut feeling and checked again. Scary! I'm glad he's doing better now. Auto-thermostats will help control temperature but they are expensive.

I agree with Trinket. If you get in the situation again a quick cooler downer that is safe is a cool ( not ice cold ) bottle of spring water added to the tank.