Oscar needs to be kept in a stable, cycled aquarium. Just leave him at home. He will be fine for a week or so without food, and if you're leaving for 2 or 3 weeks find somebody you can trust to feed him a couple of times.

Trying to keep him alive while travelling will tax both of you, and you're likely to loose him. <<snip>>.

 

Oscar needs to be kept in a stable, cycled aquarium. Just leave him at home. He will be fine for a week or so without food, and if you're leaving for 2 or 3 weeks find somebody you can trust to feed him a couple of times.

Trying to keep him alive while travelling will tax both of you, and you're likely to loose him. If you need a travelling pet get a dog.

When I can leave him at home I do. I am trying to find a more suitable travel setup that will make the unavoidable trips more bearable for him when leaving him is not an option and I don't have anyone who can feed him. The goal here is to maintain a more stable environment when his main tank cannot provide that. I would also like to have a backup tank on hand should something happen to mine to avoid the discomfort of him staying in tupperware for extended periods while I cycle a new tank. I already have a dog, who in fact gets more anxious in the car than most of my bettas have.

 

I've used the Minibow 2.5 gal as a permanent betta tank and I liked it, although I did end up upgrading to a 5 gallon in the long run. Ages ago in college I also kept a minibow with guppies in my dorm room, so I know it's pretty transportable. The tank is one piece of solid acrylic, with a removable plastic base and lid. It comes with a carbon filter, but you can take that out and replace it with a big chunk of sponge if you want. Just a heads up, smaller tanks take more cleaning. Although I could stretch it to a once-a-week water change in that 2.5 minibow, my betta fish were happier when I did a 50% water change+gravel vaccuum twice a week.

For the car ride itself though I think that tupperware or another small, closed container for your betta would be the safest thing. He won't get bored with an empty container for just a day

For moving the tank itself during the ride, I'd drain out at least 75% of the water or more, but keep enough water for the gravel to stay underwater so that the filtering bacteria living in the gravel stay alive. Plop the filter cartridge/sponge in the water, making sure it's covered too so it is always wet and keeping the bacteria safe (or put it in a watertight ziploc bag full of tank water). Just take out the decorations/hides/fake plants and store them in a ziploc bag or something while you travel. There's no real point to trying to permanently fix them to the tank itself. You'll lose some of the good bacteria that's growing on them when you travel, but it's not a big deal because most of the important filtering bacteria will be in the gravel and filter cartridge/sponge.

If you want to keep your little tank up and running during the rest of the year, you can do that too! After upgrading one of her bettas, my mom kept her old small tank going as a plant tank

 

Oh haha I forgot the most important part! What I wrote earlier is how you move an established small tank so that you don't lose your cycle But if you're starting fresh with a tank (like if you're setting it up for the first time on vacation) you'll want some good bateria to get the process going. From your fish's current tank at home, take some filter media (sponge, cartridge, etc.) and a few scoops of gravel and put them in a watertight ziploc bag filled with tank water. Once you set up your new tank, add in the old gravel and filter media to the water. This transfers your filtering bacteria and starts cycling the new tank so it's safe for your fish

 

Thank you for all this info! Knowing that I will only be keeping him in this tank for a few days/weeks at a time, is there anything else left to consider? I think my plan is to go for the minibow (2.5 over the 1gal betta specific?) and get a small hidey hole and fake leaf to keep him feeling at home. Do I need to do a bottom substrate? I will keep him in the empty tupperware during actual transit as that sounds safest, but beyond visual asthetic and live plant rooting I am unaware of the substrate benefits. My main priorities are his physical and mental health and portability, so to me it seems like an avoidable cost and complexity and my money could go into more useful catagories.

My current travel necessitates him being with me for 1x 4 day, 2x 8 day, and 1x 30 day trips where leaving him is not an option. For the 30 day trip I am considering bringing the 6gal setup, but am not sure if the 2.5gal would still be easier/better for him.