AquarAdvent

I came home after 5 days away to find a very gaunt, pale betta. I entrusted my sister with feeding him, but she "forgot" since, "He's in your room, and I never go in there." Everyone, make sure you emphatically go over fish care with whomever you ask to babysit! (Next time I won't ask my sister.)

Anyway, I immediately did a 25% water change, which made Frisky perk up some, and decided not to overfeed, but to just put him back on his regular diet (4 pellets in the morning, and 4 at night) and hope he fills out and colors up. After 5 days of this regular plan, he's gotten much better, but is still skinny and a little pale. He seems to forgive me, though!

He also had a badly torn fin. I've just been doing the water change twice a week instead of once a week and adding a drop of garlic guard to the water every night when he's fed. The temp. is a steady 79F, and the parameters are normal. I think he's healed somewhat, about a centimeter, but should I just continue with this plan or do something more?

sirdarksol

I would continue things as they are going. It sounds like you're doing an excellent job of getting him back to health. Fins take time to heal. As long as it's healing, you're doing well.
As bad as this is, there's a worse alternative (for bettas, at least). The over-eager petsitter doesn't understand that fish don't require as much food for their size as many other animals, and will severely overfeed your fish. In this case of bettas, this can cause constipation which can kill very quickly.

fishrule101

If his plan seems to steadily return him to normal, I say you should. You don't want to start something and not know if the outcomes are good. I'm the only one in my family that keeps fish, so when I go on vacation or something, I try to inform and remind the person(mostly my mom) what they should do.

Lucy

Awwww, I'm glad your betta is recovering. A little extra stress coat will help him also.
I always pre-measure food for each meal in those little condiment cups when I go away. Of course that doesn't help if the person fish sitting forgets to feed.

agabr123

poor little guy, i'm glad he's feeling better!

aquarist48

Good morning. Glad to hear your Beta is doing better. Don't be too angry with your sister just find another sitter if you can the next time. I second Lucy's comment. I premeasure all the fish food and put it in zip lock bags when I have to be away, and I hide all the other fish food. I had a sitter once and I came home to a brown water tank and the substrate was full of food. (lesson learned) It was so nasty I wished that person had forgotten to feed them

sirdarksol

I did this once. I even explained the whole "fish are cold-blooded creatures that don't expend a lot of energy" thing. I told him that overfeeding my fish could kill them.
I still came back to a bunch of excess flakes on the bottom.
"That just didn't seem like enough food."
*sigh*

Phinny12

Oh Me too! The Guppie Tank at work ..the secretaries felt that every time they eat ( which is often) The fish must be hungry too.. Brown tank water. Tons of flakes in the gravel.. Polluted!!!

AquarAdvent, Im sorry you had a bad fishsitter experience and your little buddy had to suffer.. but it sounds to me like you have things well under control. I am sure your little guy will make a full recovery. Stick with what you are doing and I wish you Luck.

AquarAdvent

Thanks, everyone! I just wanted to make sure I was doing EVERYTHING (but not too much) that needed to be done! I'll definitely add a little more stress coat, too, and measuring out the food before my next trip will certainly save me from a totally different situation of an overfed fish and brown water!

BettaGammaDelta

You see, this is why I'm leaving my betta to my Da and my community tank to my Mum when I go to FL this year... no blessed way would I leave my brother in charge.

As much as I try to explain it again and again, he's STILL of the 'fish don't need that much care... you can just leave them in a small tank full of water with no filter or anything and they'll be fine' camp. But then, my brother has that atitude to most animals, so at least it's not just fish.

< so wish I could take a sword to him.

uprightandlocked

I like the idea of pre-measuring food. When I left Aadyn James to my fish-sitter (who I thought was fairly competent because she had successfully medicated my mollies for two weeks with two different medications two years ago) ... she didn't have the patience to count out 6 pellets of Atison's Betta Pro and just scooped a bunch out and dropped them in there. He was ENORMOUS when I came home. Now I know how to prevent this! Cross your fingers, my other half will be learning very soon how to care for my betta boys! In their defense, they already know that if one (or both) becomes constipated, they need to dethaw a frozen pea, deshell it, and feed them half of it. Whew! I think we're on to something here!

prairielilly

A very effective fish-sitter feeding technique I've found is to buy a plastic pill box divided into compartments, one for am one for pm, for 7 days. I then premeasure out all the food and put it in the compartment (also hide the food jars) and just ask the fish-sitter to open lid, open compartment, dump in contents...simple (my usual fish sitter is a jewel of a person, but a little fish clueless too lol).