Power outage; Betta went into shock?

[joolish]

After a rather fierce (and certainly unexpected) ice storm last night, we lost our power for some 15 hours. Just so, my tanks did not have any heat or filtration running for that time.

All fish have survived, but one of my bettas seems to have gone into 'shock' during the ordeal.
I looked online and could not find anything about it.

He has lost a lot of his colour. His actual body is something of a fleshy colour, and his fins only show traces of his previously rich colouring.
He seems to be healthy; however, he is moving a little slower than usual.

The heat is back on, and the tank warmed up gradually. Is he in danger? What can I do to make him 'better', if he is sick?

I am worried sick that he has changed so drastically.

 

[susangc]

Give it some time; he might be okay. Eating is a good sign.

Watch for ammonia spikes -- your tank might re-cycle.

Edit: Watch for signs of infection while his immune system is down.

Susan

 

[Inchworm]

Hi joolish and welcome to the forum!

If your betta didn't get too chilled and the temperature didn't drop too quickly, he should be OK. You did the right thing by raising the temperature slowly.

You might want to try adding a dose of MelaFix as a preventative or to head off any problems before they get severe .

 

[White Whale]

The water temperature was just low. It happened to me when I was bringing bettas home from the LFS in cold weather - they didn't look like the same fish I thought I bought.