Holiday feeding

[charliesimpson1]

I currently feed my fish (tetras, Mollies and Harlequins) flake food every morning - except for the leopard cory who gets pellets. I am going on holiday soon for a week and would like to know if a holiday food block would be suitable for both the cory and the others?

Your opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks


Charlie

 

[Lupin]

Don't use holiday blocks. They're going to mess up your water. Simply leave them without food for a week or have an experienced fellow aquarist sit the fish for you.

 

[furfinsfeathers]

How about a couple of automatic feeders? http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...15/cl0/pennplaxdailydoubleautomaticfishfeeder

 

[ct-death]

Most fish readily have adapted in the wild to go without food for a week at a time. It's not the best solution, but leaving fish without food for a few days is certainly fine, and a week will not kill them.

IF you get a non-hobbiest, I recommend placing maybe 2 small bags aside with the food quanty already divided up. Label them right on the bag:
Tuesday between 6-9am
Thursday between 6-9am

Thsi will eliminate a LOT of issues...Also I would suggest that you also indicate that the tank will be fine and if anything comes up to call you, not to do anything to it without your knowledge. <-A lot of ppl "try to help"

 

[wataugachicken]

don't use automatic feeders, they cause big problems when they don't work properly, and they very often don't. they usually overfeed the fish, and sometimes i have heard of them dumping a whole week's worth of food in at one time. automatic feeders are a disaster waiting to happen, because if anything goes wrong there is nothing you can do abot it until days later.
it's better to just condition the fish for two weeks previous to your trip, feed high-quality foods, and increase water changes to get as much out of the water as possible. this way the water will be clean and the fish will be fattened up and healthy, which makes a week off of eating much easier.

 

[shaggbark]

:iagree: wataugachicken and the other posters are giving you some great advice and it's what I do myself when traveling.

Don't trust those food blocks, don't trust an autofeeder, make certain that if someone will be checking in on your tank that you place portions of food in baggies and label them, people tend to way overfeed fish, and also leave a note that they should contact you if they have any concerns and should not try to clean the tank or touch the filter in any way. I feed them very well the few weeks prior to vacation, then clean their tank extra. I have someone come in once or twice a week. They are always fine when I get back.

 

[Wat2Go]

Just went on a five week trip and was very nervous about leaving my fish under the supervision of non fish people.

On advise from this forum I bought medicine organizers and measured food for every day my friends were supposed to come in and feed the fish (I had food for two days, then skipped a day, so that the water parameters wouldn't be completely off due to possible overfeeding). After two weeks someone did a good cleaning and big water change, other than that they simply left the tanks alone.

All "feeders" said they REALLY appreciated the medicine organizers: it was easy to feed the fish, didn't feel they gave too little (my fish always behave like they haven't had food in months, so it is easy to think you should feed them just a little more) or too much.

All fish survived, the feeders were happy, it worked great and is so much cheaper than an automatic feeder (which wasn't an option anyways as I don't have the money to buy the 5 automatic feeders that people advised me to buy...).

You can leave fish without food for a week, but if you happen to have a pleco it might go and hunt for food and attach itself to one of your fishes...

Do NOT use the vacation blocks, they are really a TERRIBLE mess.

L.

 

[DLV082]

If leaving the feeding of your fish to non fish person, stress that they should not feed the fish any more than you have asked even if the fish want more. I lost four 8" Discus on a 2 week holiday because my father in law thought that I was not giving my fish enough food. Good luck and have a great holiday.