Leaving Betta Home Alone

[bettainseattle]

Hi,

I just registered and am hoping that I can find some answers. We have had our betta for over a year and he is living in a gallon bowl with no heater, no pump, no filter but lots of decorations. Overall he has been doing well.

Having purchased a vacation home, we will be out of town most weeekdends starting in December and will be there for the whole summer next year. I would love some feedback on what we need to do to be able to leave betta home alone a couple of days a week. We care for betta very much and will do whatever we need to do to keep him happy, healthy and most important, alive.

I have spoken to a number of pet stores and gotten different opinions and am so confused. If anyone can provide a simple step-by-step to set betta up in a good situation, I would greatly appreiate it. My main concern is the temperature in the house since we can't leave the heat up high the whole time we are away. None of the pet store people were very confident about the use of heaters saying they overheat small tanks. One woman recommended an external heater used for hermit crab tanks.

This summer we went away for a month and took betta with us and he did great on our short road trip and in the rental place. We will be vacationing at our new home in the same place that we went this summer and thought that when we stayed at the other place for extended periods, we would take betta with us.

I look forward to your help. However we can leave betta for short periods and however we can travel with betta for longer periods away would make our family very happy!

Thanks!

 

[MermaidMel]

Can't you just get him a bigger tank and then you can put a heater in? I use 25w thermostat heaters in mine.

 

[Robotochan]

Yeah the best thing for him is a bigger tank and a heater Although I do enjoy the idea of a Betta holidayer

 

[bettainseattle]

I would definitely get him a bigger tank and heater ... it was just that the advice from the pet store people was not very encouraging. One told me that she could not recommend a heater that would not end up overheating a small tank. She had customers who used the smallest heater on a 10 gallon tank and it overheated. If anyone has a specific heater and tank size they could recommend, it would be greatly appreciated. When you go to a bigger tank, do you use a filter? How does water changing work?

We did not want to travel with him even though it is only an hour and half ride because we did not want to stress him out. When we go away for longer periods, we will take him with us. Any advice on traveling, would also be greatly appreciated.

I have friends that I could leave him with. It would be a 10 minute card ride but we would like to not have to transport him every weekend.

Thank you in advance for any input!

 

[monica]

The heating thing will be a problem, as their temp can't go below 68ish before they start going all "Not moving". But for the 2 days you will be gone on the weekends, you can leave him home w/o eating. It will do him no harm, and he will adjust to the routine. Without a filter in a 10 gallon you do 25% once or twice a week. I suggest twice a week, as this will provide a waaay cleaner environment for your betta. For the two week vacations... eather have someone go into your house, or bring him with you

 

[Kaz1814]

If your friend would call in every other day to feed him and maybe do a small water change if you are away for longer periods, i would set up a 5 gall with filter and 25w heater... Sponge filters that work off an air pump are great for betta's and not too expensive..
You would probably be best cycling it first too to keep it stable.

 

[SouthernCross]

I've got a 25w heater in a 1.5 gallon, and have had no problems with it. Providing you get one with a thermostat (and a lot of the littler ones don't) it should never overheat.

 

[Tolak]

I run 25w Visatherm stealths in 2.5 gallon hatching tanks without a problem. As long as it's a quality heater it will work. Your betta will be fine not being fed for a weekend, fasting one day weekly is a common practice with many aquarists, and all healthy adult fish I can think of can easily go a week without being fed.