Bettas on a month long vacation?

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dcutl002 said:
If those fish are not fed for a whole month they will be dead when you get back. They will last about 5-7 days without food tops.



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Sorry but that's not even close to being true. It takes several months for fish to starve to death.


HenningC has is right.
 
Man, what a risk. I have a hard time believing that they will last that long. I'll have to research that. In the meantime, I like the Automatic Feeder idea.


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dcutl002 said:
Man, what a risk. I have a hard time believing that they will last that long. I'll have to research that. In the meantime, I like the Automatic Feeder idea.


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It's really no risk at all, especially not when compared to the alternatives being suggested.

You can go for more than a week without food (3 weeks is our limit), and being warm blooded your caloric requirements are astronomically higher than the cold blooded fish... Proportionally speaking. I currently have a kissing gourami that's been in quarantine for 3 months now. Has never eaten. It's never going in my show tank. I've had fish last much longer than that, refusing to eat.

Too, fasting the fish while you are gone is the best way to maintain water quality.
 
aqua_holic said:
It's really no risk at all, especially not when compared to the alternatives being suggested.

You can go for more than a week without food (3 weeks is our limit), and being warm blooded your caloric requirements are astronomically higher than the cold blooded fish... Proportionally speaking. I currently have a kissing gourami that's been in quarantine for 3 months now. Has never eaten. It's never going in my show tank. I've had fish last much longer than that, refusing to eat.

Too, fasting the fish while you are gone is the best way to maintain water quality.
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Hmmmm... interesting concept. . How do you know it's not "eating"?? Supposedly a fish tank is a perfect host for many outside organisms and mini bugs.. fish like mini bugs and micro organisms. . I find it hard to believe,.in a mature tank, a fish will not seek out sustenance. .

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I started with 4 gouramis - they had wasting disease, and became quite emaciated. I tried all kinds of food - even tetramin. They may have been eating the fauna, but it was clearly not enough to sustain them. A fish that starves to death looks like it starved to death...
 
Pretty sure that different fish have different tolerances when it comes to how often they have to eat. In this situation I'd probably just fork out for a couple of auto feeders, set them to a minimum, and call it a day.
 
It doesnt matter how you feed yourself in your life, starving your pets for a 3 months, a quarter of the year, is not right just because you think they won't die and ooh it keeps the tank "clean". This is like people that try to turn carnivores vegan. Do you really think gourami in the wild go a whole winter even without eating a thing? That is not healthy for animals, cold-blooded has nothing to do with it when you reach that point. Do you not care about the living creature you bought just because its not in your show tank? Is it just an object to you? Just because people can survive on little food does not mean they are in anyway living a healthy life. Imagine going up to someone starving in a famine struck country, or someone suffering from anorexia, and telling them congratulations on surviving, you are the inspiration for my starving my pets. Your "logic" makes no sense, tropical fish don't just go without eating for months in the wild healthily. In fact many fish are constantly grazing. Please start feeding your fish again and I'm sure they will show you how much healthier and happier they can be, pet owners have a responsibility to care for the fish we keep. They are in a glass box of water totally dependent on you for their every need, whatever your personal eating habits are it is cruel to deny them basic food because you want to see how long they will last. If you were to wake up tomorrow with the gourami or other fish finally dead from starvation what would you say? Oops? Would you care? If you don't want the fish I promise many people will be willing to rehome it. There is no going back once they die and their deaths would be on you because you couldn't bother to drop in some food, just 1 or 2 minutes work, at any point over 3 months. Please don't try and advise me on the care of my fish anymore, I am looking for help from people that actually care about their pets as living creatures, not disposable toys.

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And don't say because your pet shop bettas are breeding that means they are very healthy, that just means you are bringing more fish into the world to likely stunt from malnutrition and torture.

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I think I am going to look into a couple auto feeders, thanks for all the advice everyone.

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Blue_cat, you really ought to research wasting disease before climbing up on that soapbox. And actually read what I said. I said it hasn't eaten, not that I haven't fed it. I was not withholding food from the gouramis. Quite the opposite. I certainly didn't spend $60 on fish (very rare to find wild type kissing gouramis) just to starve them.... And I am DEFINITELY not putting a fish that won't eat in a show tank.

I don't appreciate the attitude you've put forth, or the implications you've made. It's slanderous and it's wrong. I certainly hope you simply misunderstood what I said and did not read the following post. Based on the length of your post I think that's what happened. No hard feelings on my end - we all make mistakes.
 
I've left tanks for 10 days with only one feeding at the 5 day mark.. nothing died.. no bettas though. tropical and dwarf cichlids.

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blue_cat said:
It doesnt matter how you feed yourself in your life, starving your pets for a 3 months, a quarter of the year, is not right just because you think they won't die and ooh it keeps the tank "clean". This is like people that try to turn carnivores vegan. Do you really think gourami in the wild go a whole winter even without eating a thing? That is not healthy for animals, cold-blooded has nothing to do with it when you reach that point. Do you not care about the living creature you bought just because its not in your show tank? Is it just an object to you? Just because people can survive on little food does not mean they are in anyway living a healthy life. Imagine going up to someone starving in a famine struck country, or someone suffering from anorexia, and telling them congratulations on surviving, you are the inspiration for my starving my pets. Your "logic" makes no sense, tropical fish don't just go without eating for months in the wild healthily. In fact many fish are constantly grazing. Please start feeding your fish again and I'm sure they will show you how much healthier and happier they can be, pet owners have a responsibility to care for the fish we keep. They are in a glass box of water totally dependent on you for their every need, whatever your personal eating habits are it is cruel to deny them basic food because you want to see how long they will last. If you were to wake up tomorrow with the gourami or other fish finally dead from starvation what would you say? Oops? Would you care? If you don't want the fish I promise many people will be willing to rehome it. There is no going back once they die and their deaths would be on you because you couldn't bother to drop in some food, just 1 or 2 minutes work, at any point over 3 months. Please don't try and advise me on the care of my fish anymore, I am looking for help from people that actually care about their pets as living creatures, not disposable toys.

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Agreed! Just because you can do something doesnt mean its the right thing. All living things like to eat, need to eat to stay alive. If you are going to keep another living thing that is reliant upon you for survival, then its your job to make sure you are doing right by them. Feeding every 2 weeks is torture and inhumane. They are in a tank, they cannot up and leave to search for more food or tell you if they are hungry. They just have to wait and suffer, which is horrible!
 
ppo8820 said:
Agreed! Just because you can do something doesnt mean its the right thing. All living things like to eat, need to eat to stay alive. If you are going to keep another living thing that is reliant upon you for survival, then its your job to make sure you are doing right by them. Feeding every 2 weeks is torture and inhumane. They are in a tank, they cannot up and leave to search for more food or tell you if they are hungry. They just have to wait and suffer, which is horrible!
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I'm pretty sure the fish eat some of the organisms that are living in the tank in between feedings. You can call not feeding every day cruel, wrong, or whatever. But the bottom line is your fish will not die after 5-7 days. In my opinion automatic feeders are risky and that's because I've had mine malfunction before when I first got into the hobby. I'm not sure I would go the entire month without eating. But if you could figure out a way to feed them at the 2 week mark..... They'll be fine and perfectly healthy


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I know people that stock the tank with ghost shrimp when they go away for longer periods of time. Better than feeders or food blocks IMO.
 
aqua_holic said:
Blue_cat, you really ought to research wasting disease before climbing up on that soapbox. And actually read what I said. I said it hasn't eaten, not that I haven't fed it. I was not withholding food from the gouramis. Quite the opposite. I certainly didn't spend $60 on fish (very rare to find wild type kissing gouramis) just to starve them.... And I am DEFINITELY not putting a fish that won't eat in a show tank.

I don't appreciate the attitude you've put forth, or the implications you've made. It's slanderous and it's wrong. I certainly hope you simply misunderstood what I said and did not read the following post. Based on the length of your post I think that's what happened. No hard feelings on my end - we all make mistakes.
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Sorry man but saying a fish can go 3 months with out eating kind of raised my BS flag to. I mean stranger things have happening but that is not the norm. 3 weeks would be my limit as well.

I think what actually happened is it ate some of the scraps when you weren't looking.

I had a bully fish that used to chase everyone away from the food during feeding time but at the end of the day everyone was full and happy. I just never saw them eat.
 
Back to the OP issue. I think people are way over thinking it.

1. Auto feeders dont work. I never had one work.

2. Feeding cubes suck.

3. Bettas travel easily. My wifes betta lived for 5 years while we were in college and every break she just put the tank in her car and traveled home with it. It was 2.5 gallon tank.

Put the betta in a sealable container in your luggage and check it. have you seen the way they get shipped to petco? I am sure what ever you do it will be better than that.
 
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