What should I do with my beta fish during hurricane evacuation?
My Beta fish is a very healthy fish right now except for his fin rot.. which is clearing up slowly 
but its getting there
Im worried because If I have to end up evacuating for a hurricane
since I live near New Orleans, Louisiana that he will die because I cannot bring him with me to evacuate
he most likely would not be happy in a car … his water would be swaying all over the place.
How long can My beta fish go without eating?
If it is a bad hurricane we could possibly be gone for a couple weeks.. if not 3.
Im VERY worried
What I should do with my beta fish
I would FEEL guilty having him die since I cannot bring him
Adding another voice to the “take them with you”.
I am in the process of moving nearly 380 miles. I will be packing my ryukin and oranda goldfish and bringing them with me. Since it is a long truck ride in summer- I’ll be keeping their container away from the air vents, and also using a car adapter to run my air-stone.
More on how to move fish safely here:
http://www.bestfish.com/moving.html
One last thought on evacuations; there is usually some advanced warning that one might be coming.
While things are calm; put an ‘emergency kit’ together for the fish:
- A 2-5 gallon rubber-maid tub with lid (cut 2-3 ‘quarter-sized’ holes in the lid)
- A small waterproof carry-pouch with a strap.
- Store a small thing of fish food, water conditioner, and some water test strips in the pouch; keep this ready to grab with the tub along with some big plastic baggies.
- In case of emergency- dump the fish and tank water into the container, put the lid on, grab the pouch and extra filter and go.
- Grab some of the gravel and ornaments from the tank. Put those in the plastic baggies.
- The fish can travel and stay in the container until you get it back home, or moved into another tank if necessary.
- When you get to a stable place like a hotel- keep the fish in the tub, but set up with the filter, gravel, and plants/decorations. Only feed the fish lightly and clear extra food to keep water quality high.
As soon as you get those warnings you might be in an evac. zone- clean the fish tank, drop down to feeding the fish 1 small meal a day, and get your travel kit ready to grab. This way if you do have to net, grab, and go- you can do so quickly. One thing they learned from 2005- its much better to let people bring their pets with them in-case of an extended absence like you are describing.
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I just moved 1200 miles over four days with 5 ferrets, two snakes, a lizard, a betta, and an African Dwarf Frog. The beta and ADF went in a five gallon bucket (very readily available at any hardware store - make sure you thoroughly rinse it with hot water). We filled it about 3/4 of the way and the lid had a little screw on cap that we left off for the ride so fresh air could get in there. Being your betta can easily breathe from the surface, this would be fine. When we stayed in a hotel overnight, we set up the little filter we had in their tank in the bucket (a small Whisper 3i). We fed them very sparingly, only as much as they would finish in that serving. And what they didn’t finish, we siphoned out that night during the daily siphoning. Leaving food and waste in the bucket allows ammonia to build up, which will kill the fish. Every other day, we changed out about a third of the water, conditioning the new water and matching its temperature. The water did slosh around a little, quite a bit in some areas, but they made it fine. And now they’re both perfectly healthy.
If you decide to go the bucket route, do make sure you regularly change out some of the water to fight the buildup of ammonia. Also make sure to remove waste via siphoning at least every other day, daily is better.
Not feeding a betta for two or three weeks results in a dead betta. So the bucket’s worth a shot.