I need some fish help and advice - a bit long

[Anna Low]

Several months ago, my beloved Betta fish passed away. He "lived" at work, until he started to not feel well and I took him home. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. My work friends felt like I needed another fish, so they surprised me with one for my birthday. I was going to be out of the office for a few days, so I just took him right home with me and he has been there ever since.

First guy had a very steady routine, but we haven't quite established that for this little guy yet. We have had to change his living accomodations 3 times so far - moved from a cup to a small bowl (work friends did that), moved from the small bowl to a much larger bowl (me) and then we bought him a fancy aquarium, complete with filter and things to swim around in. He moved into his new house last night.

Problem is - hubby and I will be out of town this upcoming week. We had originally planned to bring him to work, where he could hang out in my office with everyone. But, I am terrified that we have stressed him out by all of the moving around. Small bowl to big bowl, numerous water changes in big bowl and now big bowl to aquarium. I don't want him to be completely freaked out by another relocation in less than 48 hours.

I would prefer to leave him home where I know he would be comfortable, but I only have one person I know of who could come in and feed him. I have left a message for her and am waiting for her to call me back about it. My first guy "fasted" on weekends with no problem. He also went without during several of those 4 day Thanksgiving weekends with no problem. I don't know what to do here - we will be gone about 5 days total. Do those "vacation food block" things really work? Are they safe?

I don't want to kill my fish and I need some guidance as to what I should do. Seriously, if I were going on a car trip, I would just take him along.

Help.

[silvergrey]

I haven't owned fish in years, so take this FWIW. I think you'd do okay with a vacation feeder. I used to use them without major problems.

If you could find someone to feed him, they wouldn't have to stop by every day, just maybe every 3 days.

Here's an article (http://www.fishchannel.com/freshwater-aquariums/aquarium-care/taking-a-vacation.aspx?cm_sp=InternalClicks-_-RelatedArticles-_-freshwater-aquariums/aquarium-care/taking-a-vacation) that might be helpful.

[mommydearest]

We are a fish family.

FWIW--When we go on vacation, someone comes every other day because we have salt water tanks that need frozen food. But for the freshwater tank with flake food, we bought an automatic feeder. They have them online and at petsmart. They work better than the feeder block, which usually gets moldy and nasty for us.

We have this one and use it all the time since our freshwater tank is in DD"s nursery and we aren't good about remembering to feed those fish. We've had it for 2 years with good luck.
http://www.petsolutions.com/default.aspx?ItemId=41400043&EID=PG41400043&SID=PGRAB

[Anna Low]

Update - we are back and our friend did indeed come over every day to feed our little guy. He appears to be very happy. We are heading over to Petsmart later today for some accessory that hubby thinks we need to have and I will look into the auto feeder.

Thanks everyone!! Glad to know there are other "fish families" out there.

[Tonysweetie]

I'm a proud fish owner (betta that I've had for going on 2 years, and 2 goldfish I just got the other day). I've gone out of town several times and left those weekend feeders for my betta and he did well with it. I haven't tried it with the 2 goldfish yet.