Nikki,

Have you ever noticed that the first thing snails put out are their
feelers? Bettas love nothing more than hunting live food, and a snail's
feelers look for all intents and purposes just like a wriggler
(mosquito larvae) or small worm, exactly the sort of thing that fills
his life with purpose (other than having violent sex and potentially
killing his partner).

If you haven't been feeding your betta much live food, it would be
itching to hunt something down, to the point where he would easily kill
snails by harassing them every time they attempted to emerge from their
shell. For this reason, it is advisable to use snails which "breathe"
underwater. ie, they don't need to come to the surface to pump in or
breathe air.

And of course, use the same trick you would when adding new fish to a
predatory tank. Just before releasing them, give the existing fish a
good hearty feed, so they don't think those expensive little morsels
are an exotic treat. With your betta, you might find that if he is
already preoccupied with chasing down a few wrigglers or some brine
shrimp (for example), by the time the snail has re-emerged he has no
interest in it and will generally leave it be. Remember though, that
fish really do only live for food and sex, so if it can't f### it, it
will try and eat it.


Gouramis are another labyrinth-gill breather, like the fighter fish,
and can survive a fairly long time out of water. The biggest worry
would be lack of oxygen to the brain. Since fish are cold-blooded
creatures, they can survive much longer out of water in colder
temperatures than in warm. The most important thing with
labyrigth-gillers is that they remain at least slightly moist (since
higher temperatures also dry them out faster, it follows that the lower
the temp. the longer it will live out of water).

The salt may help fight against any secondary infections or fungals,
but as with any major change, you have to consider the stress-factor
and ensure you don't overdo anything, especially when the fish is
already highly stressed. Keeping low light and slightly raising the
temperature may help. In severe cases, as MG suggests, you can move the
fish back and forwards to help with the water-flow through the gills.
While this may work in the short term, permanent damage may already
have been done and you have to weigh up whether or not its worth adding
a non-diseased dead fish to your next home-made blend of fish-food.
I've never been able to do it myself, but I'm sure there's the odd
(very odd!) stooge out there with next to no moral scruples who do it
all the time.

The worst offenders I've ever had for jumping out and usually killing
themselves were newly arrived Koi. Whilst many where way-too-far gone
by the morning, occasionally some very dried-up looking specimens would
come good with a bit of back-and-forthing and holding in front of a
power filter for a little while. Dried-up or "burnt" fins soon
recovered... and I soon learnt to keep better lids on my tanks
especially after a new shipment.