Listless Female Betta

[NinjaPirate]

So immediately I did a 40% water change because we didn't have enough water prepared for anything more. It didn't bring the level down any it seems.

High nitRATE usually isn't as big a deal as Ammonia or Nitrite, that by itself shouldn't have caused any significant problems. If a WC doesn't reduce the nitrate levels, then your tap water has naturally high nitrate and the fish would've acclimated to it.

We watched the fish to see if any had problems until we could find a way to get the nitrates down. Eventually the betta in the tank showed the same signs as the other betta that died. Immediately I moved her to a small fish bowl we have. Her color went from her usual dark chocolate color to almost pure white as soon as I put her in the fresh water. She seemed to be doing great.

Insane color loss after a jar change sounds like temperature shock to me. That or you used water that wasn't dechlorinated, which seems unlikely as you said it was pretreated water. Mkae sure the new water is the same temp as the old water, or you will stress the betta even worse by moving it.

Then I decided to move her into a one gallon that I had been preparing for her. As soon as I moved her she got worse though. The following day I went to work and came back home. My girlfriend had told me she had the lid sitting slightly off the tank for a little bit I guess to cool it off or something. Well she had gone to do something and came back about 15 minutes later and only noticed the fish on the floor when she stepped on it. She didn't crush it. So apparently for some reason the fish jumped out of the tank.

Bettas have a tendancy to jump. Especially if the water conditions take a sudden dive. Small hospital tanks often have that problem. The medications drive down the oxygen content in the water, and the small space accumulates ammonia very quickly. The natural defense response for bettas when they the water conditions plummet very quickly is to attempt to jump from one shallow pond to the next.

As for removing nitrates from the tanks, Chemical applications are unessisary. Fish can adapt to naturally high nitrates in the water. If you're really concerned about it, grab a few leafy plants like Java Ferns. They will process nitrates for nitrogen, thus naturally removing them from the water.