False Alarm

I've joked many times about the real potential of killing my fish. For those of you who don't know I have two beta fish (separated by a colored plastic divider of course so they don't kill each other). I noticed today that I've neglected cleaning their tank. As usual, I turned on the water in the sink, unplugged the bottom of the tank to drain the old water out and began "refilling". Everything was normal until I saw my fish having spasms!!!! I felt the water and it seemed warm, probably TOO warm for their wellness. Yikes!! I tried to make the water colder but it seemed I was starting to lose them. Their gills went into hyperactive mode and my heart was racing. I couldn't believe this was happening. I rushed to throw in food, "Maybe they need extra nutrition to help them survive this." I filled up the rest of the tank with room-temp water and put them on their stand. The two of them were floating on the top.....and I didn't know what to do. They were laying on their side, collapsing to the bottom of the tank and then rising again to the top. I decided to give them some time to "recover" from the water-temp induced trauma. 

Thank God, they are doing much better now. They're still fairly fatigued and not 100% responsive but will get there soon hopefully. I need to find a better way to clean this tank and to water my plant, which is also actively dying despite my best efforts.