Betta fish question!!?

Question

I was wondering can you put in one of those food blocks that last a week for when you go away on vacation in there?? I've only seen them made for goldfish can I use those or do I need special ones?? and if so where can I get them?? PLEASE HELP, thanks

Answer 1

You can but I wouldn't. Not only can they dissolve too fast and the food can decay in the tank causing the ammonia to rise and kill your fish, they can dissolve too slowly and the fish wouldn't be able to eat the food so it would be like you weren't there to feed him anyway. They can also affect your ph and cause your fish to become very stressed or even die.

Answer 2

Here's a section of one of my answers for a similar question about the feeding blocks that popped up a while ago:

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.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

I did a search for beta fish and vacation and found this;

I would recommend a babysitter or someone who would check and feed your beta twice a week. The betta will be alright with twice a week feedings for 2 or 3 weeks. Just be sure that you premeasure your food. The thing that I hear the most is that a babysitter over-feed the fish.

Another alternative is to purchase an automatic feeder. They will feed for 5 or 6 days, depending upon the model. This would be something that you would have for future vacations. I've never used them because I was too uncomfortable leaving my fish for that long without someone checking to ensure that the equipment didn't fail. With a beta, it is not so critical. They will live at room temp is dirty water for quite some time.

There are things that you can buy at your local fish store that are supposed to feed your fish for 3 or 4 days. IMO they don't work.


- I have two and was wondering what the answer might be also, but htis was just one place, so you can do your own search if you don't like the answers you get here. Good luck

Answer 4

Can you? yes. Should you? depends on what kind of bowl/setup you have for your betta. You dont want it getting too murky with lots of decaying food.

Betta's are very hardy in general, if a few conditions are met. And there are in fact Betta ones available, they are primarily the same thing, but in a smaller package, for a smaller space, and just one fish. :)

Answer 5

I think for a week it would not hurt them.