ataraxicstorm

Just over a week ago I set my betts up in his own lil tank away from the community tank. I left for a week for work leaving clear instructions for the folks about water changes etc.

Got back today to find a dead glowlight in my community tank, who knows how long it's been there, and on the betta tank an ammonia Reading of... Not 0.04 or even 0.4... But 4!!! They've done waterchanfe, not sure how many but they've managed to use up half a bottle of Stress zyme in a 25ltr tank! And not put enough water back in so the filter isn't completely underwater. Grrr, now have to spend my one day off in 3 weeks fixing this mess

Lesson learnt!

2lucky

ouch! poor betta! geez how did he even survive that?

aquarist48

Bad parents. Bad! (just kidding)

Jonah

Errrrm I have similar but not as bad experiences when I leave the kids to look after the tanks! but then again I always do the PWCs before I leave and when I get back its only the mass overfeeding I have to worry about

Lucy

I'm sorry you lost your glowlight.
That ammonia! Your Betta must be a tough little bugger, glad you got home when you did.

Red1313

I know what you mean.
<hugs>
hope everyone pulls through.

prairielilly

Sorry to hear about your fish Hopefully everything works out ok!

What I did when I had to go away and get a non-fishie person to care for my fish was do my pwc's before I left, then got one of those cheap plastic pill boxes from the drugstore that has different closing compartments for 'am' and 'pm' for each day of the week. I then carefully measured out the food for each feeding and put it in each compartment. So when my landlord looked after my fish, all he had to do was turn on the light, open the lid and dump it in.

agabr123

yeah, i'd say if you're just leaving for a week then wait a little longer and do your water change right before you leave, that way they don't have to worry about it. then separate all of the food that you want them to put in the tank into little plastic bags (or pill boxes if you've got 11 bettas like i do ) and label the bags so they know exactly how much to feed and to whom. also, you may want to type out a care sheet and schedule so they know when to turn the lights on and off and what times to feed and how often every day, things like that. hopefully that will keep your fish safer next time

CHoffman

Yikes. To bad it didn't work out...Glad your Betta pulled through.