Do Betta Fish really need a filtered tank or is a bowl okay? Will he be ok while we're out of town 7 days?

Question

I bought a larger fish bowl and the glass stones and he looks great in there. He's been blowing bubbles at the top of the bowl. We will be out of town 7 days, will he be ok? The guy at the Petco sugested these tablets especially for Bettas called 7 day feeders, are they ok to use?

Answer 1

Bettas can live in bowls, just as long as the bowls are kept clean (100% water change every week) and they are kept warm (bettas are tropical fish). A bowl isn't the perfect habitat for a betta, but I would much rather see people keep bettas in them than goldfish.

As for the seven-day feeders, stay away from those by all means necessary! They are just plaster with little bits of food in them that the fish are supposed to eat. As the plaster dissolves, it raises the pH and hardness of the water, which bettas do not like because they are from soft, acidic water in the wild. Additionally, since bettas are surface-feeders, they will ignore the little bits of food put out by the "feeder" at the bottom of the tank. The food will just sit there and rot. So then you are left with not only hard, alkaline water, but also ammonia problems from the rotting food. Not good!

Bettas, and in fact nearly all aquarium fish, can go for two weeks easily without eating. They are not endothermic animals, so they have very slow metabolisms and do not need a lot of food. That is why they say it is always better to underfeed your fish than to overfeed them (underfed fish just won't grow as fast, but overfeeding contributes to rotting, leftover food and poor water quality). Therefore, a week without food is nothing for a betta.

It would be best to just clean your bettas bowl before you go, and just feed him a few pellets right before you leave. Don't worry about him starving, he won't. He will be just fine. Whenever I go vacations that are one or even two weeks long, I do not bother feeding any of my fish during that time, and they are perfectly fine when I get back. If I go on a longer vacation, I just ask a neighbor or relative to feed my fish (and give them strict instructions to prevent feeding disasters that non-fishkeepers tend to cause).

Once again, to reiterate: do not use those plaster feeders! Your fish will be perfectly fine for a week without food.

Answer 2

Dear J D
Yes your Betta will do fine in a bowl. However i don't recommend using the 7 day feeders. They can cause more harm then good. Sometimes they disintegrate faster then they should and cause polluted water. ( though their are some folks that have used them with out issue) However if someone could stop in and feed him 2x he should be fine.. Betta's can go a couple of days with out food.
Their is a lot of debates over any fish in bowls, ( as i was reminded last week when i answered a question about bowls and was blasted for my answer) and even though i may agree with most fish Betta's do fine. Betta's do better with temperatures of 75 to 80, but can be kept in cooler as long as it isn't fluctuating or below 70. Be sure to educate anyone that is would tend to your Betta on how much to feed.
if you have any questions feel free to email me.
have a good vacation.

Answer 3

I agree with Nunya, a filtered tank is always best for any kind of fish, I don't care if they're find in puddles of rice paddys or not. And also with the feeder things. Don't like those either. Tank is going to end up dirty, water conditions will become poor causing the fish to stress out or die. See if there's someone that can take him for the time your gone. It's not like it's a dog and needs major care. I'd do a water change before leaving, and when you get back. Just be sure they don't overfeed him. If you can't do that, see if there's someone that can stop by at least once 1/2 way through the week. Most fish can go a few days or longer without eating.

Answer 4

A bowl is okay but I would make some kind of cover for it because my betta jumped right out the top. I think the 7 day feeder will be fine but I would have someone come and check on it halfway through the week.

Answer 5

Bowls are fine, just change the water regularly with declorinated water. The 7 day feeders are fine too. Just be sure to buy the ones made for bettas. The size of the feeder depends on lenth of time you will be gone and # of fish being fed. Bettas also make wonderful aquarium fish and can live happily with other SELECT tropical fish. ASK before you add, of course! These fish are super hardly and make GREAT first fish! :-)

Answer 6

Blowing bubbles means they are healthy. They don't necessarily need a filtered tank as they are not known as a "dirty" fish... And yes, the 7 day feeders are great to use, I used those when I went out of town for a week and came back to find my fish happy and fed.

Answer 7

Unless your house is quite warm, bettas should not live in bowls without filters and heaters. They are tropical fish from Southeast Asia and come from temps in the range of 78-84 degrees.

A good sized tank for a betta is a 10 gallon. This will also be big enough to add some non-agressive tankmates for him. Neons, guppies, white clouds, cardinal tetras, black neons, cory catfish, bushynosed plecos and others.

If kept in cooler water that fluctuates up and down with day and night, their immune system is eventually compromised and they will fall victim to an opportunistic infection that will ultimately kill them.

The first signs are loss of color and little or no swimming around (even when you are feeding him).

BTW, it is pronounced bet-tah, not bay-tah. Two t's make a short e.

Bay-tah, on the other hand, is spelled beta and is the second letter of the Greek alphabet.

Hi tiki, I haven't given up yet.

Answer 8

The fish store guy is just trying to sell you something. Vacation feeders are generally worse than not feeding for a week.

As far as housing big is better, and filtered is better than unfiltered. On the other hand a 2 gallon bowl works fine if you are cleaning regularly.

Answer 9

they are fine in an unfiltered bowl and if hes blowing bubbles at the top then you might want to look into getting a female and doing some research on betta breeding. yes use the feeder

Answer 10

They can live in bowls just fine but its not the ideal situation. Just like we can live in a closet but what kind of life is that? I don't like those feeders, they can really mess with the water params and I have heard of people coming home to dead fish because of it. Try to get someone to come over a feed it, if not they can last that long without eating. Its not something I would do but it can be done.