Leaving the state for weeks!

[michbelle]

I have four male bettas. I'm leaving to Chicago for about three and half weeks soon. What in the world do I do? Two of them share a divided ten gallon tank, squirt i sin a five gallon tank, and for quarantine because he may have fin rot raptor is in a 1.5 gallon tank. I know for a fact that none of my younger siblings will be able to clean the tanks properly because I siphon them and they're too heavy for a sixteen year old female to carry or a fourteen year old. I dont want to chance teaching her and her not doing it because it takes literally hours and she's way too preoccupied with other things.

This is what I'm planning to do guys let me know if its a good idea or not. I'll do one hundred percent tank cleanings before I go. I also will buy three more small tanks for the the other three fish then transition them into the small tanks. I'll probably put one or two of their silk plants and their hidey caves in as well. I plan to get a weekly pill box thinger for each of them and fill them with the right amount of food for each feeding of my fish.

Now my questions are what things can I do to make the process easy and fool proof for my sister? My fish are pretty difficult to net... But I doubt they can go for nearly a month without a cleaning. I plan for them to be fed every other day... What else can I do? Anyone else been in a similar situation to offer advice?

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I've seen so many people post on tumblr and such about coming back and their fish being dead or dying. It's my biggest worry.

[Kenny G]

Betta's can go up to 3 weeks without food so if they are being feed every other day they will be just fine. If you are going to put the betta's in smaller tanks I would get a few gallon containers and treat the water in advance. This will make it easier for anyone to do water changes. If the tanks are filtered your siblings will only need to do 30 - 50 water changes weekly and will not have to remove the betta's from the tanks. Just do a good cleaning before you go. All will be well.

[aokashi]

I would leave them in the ten gallon if it is cycled. Do you siphon? it is actually very easy with a airline and a cooking syringe as suction. I taught my friends siphoning with a bad drawing online. I'm sure that once shse gets the hang of it it will be ok.

I agree with pre treating the water. Maybe get her to change 10% each week. if you use those gallon bottles you can prepare 5 for her. one empty one to take the water out of, and four others to pour the water from.

[dramaqueen]

I've left mine before with people who couldn't /wouldn't do water changes and they were in gallon containers. The last time I left them for 10 days with no water changes and they were fed 3 times the whole 10 days. They were fine. I did water changes as soon as I could and got them back on their schedule as soon as I could.

[mursey]

Aw. . . As soon I saw you live in SF I felt bad- I just moved from there and would have watched them for you. Then again, I didn't have bettas until I left just recently .. so I guess I wouldn't have known about this website. :/

I have 5 tanks myself- 4 tanks of bettas and one tank of 3 platys.

I left my place for about 8 or 9 days a couple weeks ago - with no water changes and just someone to feed my fish. When I got back everything was ok except there was a lot of algae in the tanks because I was trying to grow plants and maybe the plant supplement I put in the water made the algae go nuts. It was no big deal, I cleaned everything the next day and everyone was fine except my platys had babies while I was gone! I have filters though, and just did water changes the night before my trip. I also put some buckets and pitchers of treated water in my bathroom for the person to use if they needed to change the water .. so they really wouldn't be responsible for math or chemistry or mistakes.

(For the record though- this was my set-up: 1 betta by himself in a 6.6 gallon with filter; 2 bettas divided in another 6.6; 1 betta in a 5.5, 3 platys in a 5 gallon. (I have since changed this a bit)

If I were you, I'd type out a very simple set of instructions, use some kind of vacation feeder or tell the person to feed the bettas only X amount of pellets per day. Treat some water and keep it handy (I use gallon buckets and pitchers from a dollar store with aquarium salt, Amquel/Novaquel or whatever water conditioner you use). People use gallon water jugs, etc. I would not tell your inexperienced or busy siblings/friends to do anything complicated . . just maybe write down to do some partial water changes. That's all. Simple is best, ask only what you think someone can handle . . they should be ok, I think.

Just keep it simple and have fun on your trip. I hear Chicago is awesome! :)

[michbelle]

Kenny and Aokashi, I'll definitely pre-treat the water for my sister turned fish sitter. I'll try to make everything very simple and fool proof for her. Also I do siphon my tanks. And none of them are filtered. Though they are all heated and I do minimum 20-30% water changes every three days. I'm not so sure about 100% changes so I do them once a month.

Dramaqueen, I'm glad everything went well for you! I think I'll start feeding them every other day until I leave so that I can get them used to the fasting every other day as well.

Mursey, I really was hoping I could find a "like" button for your response. You guys have all definitely helped me calm my nerves. I'll sure type out instructions and tape them up somewhere very obvious. Want everything to be foolproof and what a shame that you moved but also glad to hear that your fish are alright as well. How did the Platy Fry manage after they were born?

[Kenny G]

I'm glad our advice helped calm your fears. Enjoy your trip.

[michbelle]

Thanks a lot. I hope to. Wish I could legally take them with me without them having to endure the plane ride though, hahahaha. I'll definitely take the advice and tips given. Though I've decided if I do end up taking them out of their tanks and switching them over to small ones they will get dirtier faster so I'll just have to teach my sister to do the small water changes instead.