Traveling with a Betta
By Emma Dipompo, Contributing writer
Hey guys! Bubbles again. It’s that time of the year again when all you college folks pack up and go away for a little while. I don’t want any of my buddies to get left behind this year, so I’ll give you guys all kinds of helpful information to get us both home safely.
I’ll make my vacation preparation really easy for you guys, I don’t want to stress you out. Before you start packing up your room it’s important to take care of me first. I’ll need to go on a bit of a diet before we start moving. I should fast for a day or two before we start traveling so that my travel container doesn’t get too dirty. I don’t think you’re going to pull over every time I need to use the little guppies’ room.
The next thing you’re gonna need is some kind of cup to put me in. Any food safe tupperware will work for me, even a well washed McDonalds cup can serve as a makeshift travel container in an emergency. It’s not stylish, but who’s college car is?
After getting a small container make sure to put nice clean tank water in it. I don’t want to be in that cup for more than a few days, so make sure I’m the last thing you pack up. Once I’m in my cup you have to keep me in safe, warm places. I wouldn’t want to be forgotten on a car roof, would you?
If you’re planning on flying home this year, have no fear for me and my fishy friends. We can tag along too. Most airlines allow you to take a fish on the plane as a carry-on as long as we’re in a clear container. The TSA website would like to remind anyone flying with a fish to tell the airline you are going to do so before showing up the day of the flight. Some airlines, like Southwest, don’t have a fish policy so it’s important to do your homework and make sure we can both get home safely.
Once home I’ll need a temporary tank, but this one doesn’t have to be too fancy. I can live for a little while in a good sized storage container, or a cheap 1 gallon fish tank until we get back to college. As long as I have more than 1 gallon of water, my filter and my heater I’ll get along swimmingly.
Traveling is always stressful, but let me be your emotional support fish for just a little while. Together we can, quite literally, cross the world. – The one and only. Bubbles.
