A betta will undo vague sitter notes with charm. He flares, he wiggles, he follows a finger along the glass, and a visitor who was told to feed him 'a little, twice a day' will leave convinced he was still hungry. Written notes for a betta therefore have one job: replace every judgement call with a number, a named item, or a flat rule. Write them as if for a kind stranger who has never kept a fish, because that is usually who is reading them, standing at your tank, with your betta performing directly at them. Specificity is not fussiness here. It is the entire difference between a well-kept fish and an overfed one.
Write the feeding section in pellets, not pinches
State the exact count of pellets per meal, the times or frequency you want, and where the food tub lives. If your betta eats different foods on different days, portion each day's meal into a labelled pot so the rotation survives your absence. Then write the sentence sitters most need: he will act starving immediately after eating, and that performance is not a reason for more. Add the rule for accidents too: a dropped extra pellet or two is retrieved with the net if easy, never compensated for by skipping tomorrow, and a whole spilled tub in the tank is the one feeding event worth phoning you about.
Write water care as top-ups only, with conditioner named
For most trips, the sitter's whole water job is topping up evaporation, so write it precisely: use the jug you filled and conditioned before leaving, pour gently to the marked line, and never add water straight from the tap. Explain in one line why, that tap water contains treatment chemicals your conditioner neutralises, because a sitter who understands the rule keeps it when the jug runs out and phones you instead of improvising. State clearly that no full water change is expected while you are away, and that filter media is never to be rinsed under the tap, since both well-meant acts cause more betta emergencies than simple topping up ever has.
Describe what working equipment looks like
A sitter cannot report a fault they cannot recognise, so describe normal: the thermometer reading in the warm range your betta lives in, a gentle filter hum and surface movement, the heater light cycling on and off. Write which socket strip must stay on, ideally with a label on the plug itself, because tanks are most often harmed by something innocent being switched off at the wall. Add what to check if the tank is silent: plug, strip switch, then phone you, in that order, and never to open the filter or handle the heater with wet hands.
List the never-dos and the phone-you signs
Give the prohibitions their own short list: no treats, no food from their own kitchen, no other fish or snails added as company, no moving the tank, no spraying cleaner or air freshener near the water, and nothing removed from the tank as a souvenir photo prop. Then list the few observations that earn a same-day message: fins clamped tight all day, the fish lying on the bottom and not responding to the glass, white spots or fuzzy patches that were not there before, or a cold, silent tank. Keep that list short and visual, because a sitter will use a list of five concrete sights and quietly ignore a page of anxious possibilities.
Put your number and the vet's name at the end
Finish the sheet with your mobile number, the dates you are away, and the name and number of the vet or aquarium shop you trust. Walk the sitter through one feed before you go if you possibly can, and watch them count the pellets, because a demonstrated portion survives in memory far better than a written one. Then store the same notes in KinsLe's Care Pass, so your sitter holds temporary access to the betta's exact feeding counts and water rules on their own phone at the tank, and next trip's notes start from this trip's lessons rather than from a blank page.