Vacation Feedings

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srstickler

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Mar 5, 2003
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Hello All,

I've owned my tank for about a year and now that I just feel comfortable that I sort of know what I'm doing, I'm taking an 9 day vacation.

Would you all suggest the best way to feed my fish during this period. Slow releasing tablets? Invest in an automatic feeder??

I don't have the luxury of being able to have someone come over and feed them every day......

Thanks,

SRS
 
What kind of fish do you have? A lot of fish are able to go that long without eating and are able to survive. Of course some fish might start snacking on each other if that is the only choice.

I personally use an autofeeder when I leave for more than a week at a time. Of course a lot of people hate them as they can lead to over feeding. I just make sure to clean my tank really well when I get back.

Those feeding blocks have never worked for me in the past. The last time I put one in my tank it barely started to disolve a week later, plus it was only covered in snails anyway. I guess it is a great way to feed snails.
 
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What fish do you have in there? Planted tank? Size of tank?

The feeder blocks are not a good idea--I haven't heard a single positive result and many, many bad ones. They do make mechanical timed feeders, and several people have success with them, but they can be costly and require monitoring before trusting them in your absence.

In a planted tank that is not overstocked, 9 days is do-able for most community setups, if the lights are on timers and power outages are not a concern. If someone could stop in on about day 5 and feed, top off, ect, it would be better, but not a requirement. For example, I have a 5 gallon tank with plants and several small fish. I am comfortable leaving them for 5-6 days without food. My planted 40--well, 3-4 days would be the max, since there are some predators in there. The planted 20--3 days tops, longer than that and the frog will find a way to eat a gouramie (but the gouramies would be fine). If you have aggressive or predatory fish, this won't work out.
 
i used vacation feeders in my planted 55 community tank. seemed to work out ok .
 
The Algae Eater worries me a little, but the rest could go without food for a short amount of time.

OG, I use the Wardley's tabs for 10g tanks that are more heavily stocked than mine, and they last for 4+ days, even with the Betta chewing on it from the second it enterred the tank...is this not a good practice if I do an H2O change right before going on break???
 
What kind of bad things with the feeder blocks? I've used them maybe 3 times in the past. Once when I was gone for 14 days. Never had a problem when I used them.
 
I've heard of many people coming home to cloudy tanks with sky high ammonia. Guess it depends on the setup. If you don't have a problem, then I won't advise anyone to quit--just saying there are lots of reported problems with them.

For your tank, I would say that you'll be fine if someone could drop by and feed them mid-way through. No predators to worry about, and the algae eater should be able to find enough to keep himself busy.

Even if no one feeds, it's not a bad idea to have someone check your tank mid way through your trip. Just in case, fo rthings like broekn heaters, slipped fittings, power outages, etc.
 
That's a lot of calcium sulfate to dissolve into the tank water.

My advice is to give them some spinach as you leave. Give them some spinach again as soon as you get back.

You'll come home to a sparkling clear tank, in my experience. Hungry fish slow down, don't expend energy. But they don't "starve" like mammals, because they're not running a metabolic furnace.

Turn the temperature down to 71o or so. The lights are on a timer, yes?
 
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