Further update

I'm watching him now from my bed, I know he can't see me from where he is. He's starting to swim what I think is a little more naturally. Now he's hanging out towards the top of the bowl. It looks like he's about to breath some air. I'm going to see what happens if I approach him and sit next to him.

OK so I approached him, it bumped the desk slightly and he swam immediately to the bottom of the bowl. I think he really is afraid of me. I'll give him some time to recover and see if he improves. Right now he's just staying at the bottom of the tank. But I bet given a few minutes alone, he'll do more than that. I'll keep you posted.

There, now he's starting to float up a little. I won't poke him again for awhile to give him some time to recover.

He just took a breath of air, swam down to the bottom, and then up again for another breath of air. I think he's doing better. He's kind of swimming in slow motion.

He's back at the bottom now.

He'd been swimming around the tank slowly, now he's back at the bottom. I wonder if this is part of his resting / recovery process. We'll see what he does next.

Oh, now he's swimming up a little. Up to the top. It looks like he took a breath of air.

He's back at the top now, just floating there. Now he's swimming back down again. He's on the bottom now. He seems to be doing everything in slow motion right now. I wonder if it's because I wore him out by poking him briefly with a toothpick?

I wonder how he would swim and react if I poked the red area by his gills on both sides, then let him loose in his tank. If he doesn't improve soon, I think he may find out.

He's just sitting at the bottom. I wonder if I wore him out, or if he's just resting. Sometimes I still want him to be "fixed". I wonder what he will act like if he is fixed. But I want to wait at least until he is swimming like normal again. If that is he is capable of that. If not then, I may have to fix him anyway, because he won't make it.

I hurt him so little, I really hope he can recover from this. I'm going to time how long he stays on the bottom. OK, about 1.25 mins and he's back at the top of the bowl.