Anna, your bettas are BEAUTIFUL boys! One thing about small bowls is ammonia (which is produced from fish waste, and is toxic to fish) builds up a lot quicker than in a bigger container. As it reaches toxic levels, this can cause stress, listlessness, slowing down, etc., and of course eventually death if it got too bad. The smaller the container, the more often you must change the water. It could be when you added water, it took down the ammonia levels again and that caused them to perk up again.

One of the best forums I've seen to learn about bettas (Kara/Sunkissedgoldens referred me to) is here: http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showforum=5

You can just browse the pinned topics and learn a lot. I've been reading there for about a week now and have learned so much. Some of it can be overwhelming, but even just following some of the simple basics can give you happier, healthier fish in the long run . The pinned topics alone have lots of good basic information! Another excellent betta site is here: http://www.bettatalk.com/

Good luck!