Fish care while on vacation

Question
We will be out of town for 3 1/2 days at Thanksgiving and about a week at Christmas. I have heard that it is alright to leave a Betta for a weekend, but am concerned about the longer time period.

The Betta is fairly new to us. We bought it for our daughter a few weeks ago. He seems to be happy and is eating well (frozen blood worms and/or Betta pellets). He lives in a 2 1/2 gal. tank with no filtration. It seemed like he was having trouble swimming in the current when we first tried a filter even though it was on the lowest flow setting. We change his water and clean the gravel twice a week. We have a small heater that we turn on when needed, usually at night since he stays warm enough during the day. The heater does not have a thermostat. (I tried to buy a small enough heater with a thermostat, but could not find one.)I am not totally happy with the heater since I have to watch the temperature and turn it on and off myself to regulate it.

My two biggest concerns:
Feeling the fish while we are gone for a week. (We don't have family or close friends who could do this.) Are the slowly dissolving feeder any good?
Keeping the temperature constant. Do you know of a good heater with thermostat that is small enough for a 2 1/2 gallon tank?

Perhaps we will move up in size some day, but this is all we can deal with right now.
Thanks,
Pam


Answer
Hello Pam-

Your betta should be just fine for the 3 1/2 days without food, and he also should be able to last for the week without feeding. Before you leave, feed him a normal amount of food, don't try to "over-feed" to make up for the week ahead. I personally would never use a dissolving tab since you have no way of filtering it or controlling how fast it dissolves. As for keeping him warm, try leaving a lamp shining on his water while you are gone. You can "test" it for a few days before you leave to make sure the water doesn't get too hot or too cold (between 75-80 would be nice.)

Hope this helps,
Amber Worman