Power outage and cold Q

[Friendlyfishies]

Due to my dads health I have to downsize on my fishes (to 1 betta) and move him into our office which isnt heated by our home heat. The room is heated but its only warm when we are in there working, when we arent working its still heated but chilly, id say 50-60 on a frigid cold windy winter night....my tank is heated so Id count on the heater for my fishes survival, but my concern would be if we lose power. Currently he is a 10 gallon tank with 1 snail. Im having ammonia issues due to traveling so much to see dad in the hospital and not being able to perform consistant water changes (mostly the snail causing the spikes). Im thinking, when I move him to the office, id like to upgrade tank size to 20 gallons long.

Anywho, after all that is said...my concern would be when we lose power due to winter snow/ice storms...power outages rarely last more than a day here but on occasion it could be 2-3 days. How long will a 20 gallon long hold heat from the heater if we lost power? I dont live here, so if we lost power in the night I wont be able to do anything for him til morning. However if I were here, I could scoop him up in one of those .5 small plastic tubs and keep him in the living room (which would be heated by the woodstove) during the duration of the power outage, would that be a better choice?

Just trying to figure out if it will work and how I can make it work best :) Thanks all!

Any other suggestions and thoughts are welcomed!

[aemaki09]

I was just wondering this same thing!! And keeping by the woodstove would be best IMO. My plan was to put them all on my fire places mantle unless the power was out for more than a day or so then I'd probably be going to a hotel and taking them with me.

[Dragonlady]

The larger the volume of water, the more stable the water temperature will be during a power outage. If you have a thermometer in the tank, you will know if it is starting to get too cold for your betta and to move him to a warmer area. I keep heat packs around at all times during the winter just in case I need them to keep my bettas warm during an extended power outage.