Away for a weekend...

T

Tuffpaws

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Jun 19, 2008
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Our tank is roughly 2-3 months old, and we are going away for the weekend. We have 7 male guppies, 6 otocinclus, a million snails, and live plants in our 30 Gallon tank. We currently have a 12 hour light schedule, with feedings at noon, 6 PM, and midnight. I'm asking the neighbors to come over and feed the cats/fish, but they are young "party" people, and I don't want to hold them to too strict schedule.

My question is, would it be better for the fish/plants to get less than 12 hours light, or more than 12 hours light? (I know for feeding, less is more, so to speak).

Bonus - we're having a green algae bloom right now, does that make a difference? We'll do a largeish water change before we leave, but will not ask the neighbors to do water tests/changes for us.
 
You don't have to feed the fish at all for a weekend trip. A healthy adult fish can go for 1 week comfortably without a feeding. As to the lights, just turn them off and open up all the windows in the room. If you have low light plants, they will survive. If you have high light plants, they may turn brown around the edges.

As for the algea, just do a water change and it'll be fine.
 
Keep lights off for a week and do not feed your fish at all. This is better than asking your neighbors at the risk of causing disasters such as overfeeding.
 
Lupin...?

Just a weekend trip? Put the lights on a standard timer or just let the friends turn them on in the morning and off in the evening. Don't worry about feeding them at all.

If you do have them feed the fish, I would leave pre-measured amounts out for them to use.
 
:iagree::iagree:
Lupin said:
Keep lights off for a week and do not feed your fish at all. This is better than asking your neighbors at the risk of causing disasters such as overfeeding.
Click to expand...


:iagree::iagree:
 
After the experiences that I have had with people feeding my fish, I will be leaving soon for 2 weeks and nobody is being asked to come to feed the fish. The dogs are being sent to my daughter's house for the time but the fish will be a bit hungry when I get back. The only time I let anyone feed my fish, I ended up having to take the empty tanks out in the back yard to wash them out before I started over again.
 
I agree. The fish will be fine for just the week-end. Fish in the wild do not eat all of the time like they do in home aquaria. Do a decent water change before you go and feed the fish just before you walk out the door. Leave the lights off while you are gone since you said you are having an algae bloom. Hopefully a few days without light will take care of the algae. The algae will do more harm to your plants then no light for a few days. Sometimes you have to pick the lesser of two evils.Depending on your plants, a few days without light will not have much effect on them.

Marinemom
 
Fish don't have to eat all that often. Ottos do eat a lot, but they'll have the algae to keep them chubby. If you do need to go for a long time, look at automatic feeders. They're not the greatest, but can help in a pinch. My wife has a tank in her classroom at school that we use an automatic feeder on. It puts food in once a day, and you can set the approximate amount it dumps out each time. We mix flak, freeze dried blood worms and some small sinking algae pellets in it and stop in once a week to check on it. It seems to work fine.

You wouldn't need that for a weekend though. My work tank goes feedless every weekend, and sometimes longer based on holiday schedules. I'll be gone most of the month of July and once or twice a week feedings will do it just fine.

Enjoy the trip!
 
I leave every other weekend and I dont even ask my roomates to feed the 3 fishtanks in my room. Although my oscar does sometimes eat his guppy tank mates... well he does that anyways. Anyways the point was all my fish are fine when I get back. Well except those guppies that get eaten... I just leave the lights off as well (they get daylight in through the shades though its not pitch black)
 
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