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Inukshuk

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Okay newbie here, please bear with me and my abundance of silly questions. :)

I recently got a young male betta (Last week), and i got him mainly as company for when i go off to school in the fall. I will be staying in residence throughout the week and coming home most weekends unless there's bad weather. Is it okay that he stays at school from Friday late afternoon to sunday? The drive to school takes usually only a hour (unless i happen to hit lots of traffic), but im worried about the trip with my little guy anyway. Not worried about a roommate because Ive requested a single room in a quiet area.

In case its of any relevance, hes a black halfmoon with white fins, very pretty. Hes been wonderfully active since i brought him home, always swimming around, looking for food, eating well. No concerns there as far as i can tell. He's only maybe 1 1/2 inches long (Maybe more, im bad at guessing), how long do you think it will take him to reach full size/fin length?

For transport, My plan as of right now is to put him in the glass jar i brought him home in (got him directly from a breeder and not a pet store), wrap it in a blanket, set that in a box, and keep it on my front seat of the car for the trip down. He'll be the last thing i pack the morning right before i go, of course. Will this be warm enough? should i put heating packs in with him? Will this stress him out too much? Its really important to me that hes transported properly.

My other concern in regarding his tank. His in a 3g tank right now (small, i know, but im not sure ill end up in room with a ton of space, i read this was minimum). Its fully cycled and ive been doing 25% water changes once a week (Though ive only had him for just over a week). Its filtered (Very soft flow) and heated to 78. Hes in there with three silky plants and a marimo moss ball. Ive heard the moss ball are near indestructible and im not too concerned about that, ill just put it in the cup it came in and pack it with the betta. But how sensitive is the good bacteria in my filter? When i empty the tank will the bacteria die? Will i have to do another cycle? I dont have anywhere else for him to go, is it harmful for him to be in the tank while cycling? If its okay, how often do i have to change the water in a 3g to keep ammonia and nitrite down while cycling? (I did fishless to start with)

Thanks in advance for any help! Sorry about all the questions, im just worried and want to try my best for him. Any other advice is more than welcome for a newbie!
 
If you keep the tank dark and wrapped, he should be good for the trip. If you do decide to use heat packs, put them on the outside of the blanket, and see what the temperature rises to beforehand. You don't want to accidentally overheat him.
As long as you keep the gravel and filter media wet, the bacteria should be okay.
On a side note, don't feed him the day before you leave. That way, he won't quickly foul the water in his jar.
Also, he sounds beautiful! Got any pictures?
 
Thank you for your advice! Will definitely do!

It's dark here but he did let me get one picture. He's starting to get a bit of red coming in of his fins. Just a little guy but he'll grow
 

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The only comment I have to add to what LyraGuppy posted is in response to your question about weekends. I would not transport the Betta back and forth every weekend. This is highly stressful to all fish. If you do the water change late in the week, and feed the fish on Friday morning, it will be fine without food until Monday and there shouldn't be water issues.

I have 8 tanks in my fishroom, and I do the water changes on Sunday. I feed them most days, missing one a week, sometimes two. The point here is that I've done this for 20+ years, and I could be away from Sunday night through Saturday and nothing would go amiss with the water. [I would want to feed them regularly, but my point is the water quality.] Stable water is going to remain stable if maintenance is regular (a 50% water change once a week) and the tank is not overstocked nor the fish overfed. You also have the benefit with Betta, being an antabantid, of "breathing" atmospheric air for oxygen, though of course I would never rely on that, but the point is that there is even less likelihood of some problem over two days.

Byron.
 
Okay thank you. I realize the wording on my question does sound a little silly. I thought he'd be okay for the weekend and wanted to be sure. But the plan is to bring him with to school, and keep him down there until April when I come home for summer. Just to clear things up. Thank you
 

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