Vacation food

Those blocks are made of calcium sulfate ("plaster-of-Paris") with some cornstarch to speed the dissolving. Unfortunately, you can't simply "frontload" the fish by overfeeding them just before you go.
The CaSO4 doesn't affect the alkalinity ("KH")-- no carbonates-- but it does add to the general hardness or total dissolved solids.

If you leave them hungry instead for ten days, they'll just settle into a quieter mode and pick at the plantings. In nature many species go for many weeks during the dry season with little to eat. You might turn the heat down a notch (within their comfort zone of course) to help them slow their metabolism.

When you see how clear the water is when you come back, you may even rethink your feeding schedule. Giving the fish a "starve day" every week is hard to do, but very responsible....
 
I agree that fish can go for long periods without food...most fish in the wild don't eat daily. You spoil them by feeding them every day anyhow. Fish can go for up to a month (although that sort of extreme is not something anyone would recommend for a pet fish...) without food and still live just fine. I think that you could leave them with no problem, assuming they are doing okay now. Something that nobody has mentioned: do you have live plants? Your fish will happily munch on them while you're gone if you do.

If it really bugs you to leave your fish completely unattended, do like everyone sez: measure food out and have someone come feed them once or twice. (Be sure to hide the food, though. No fish-sitter ever thinks "geez, that's too much food...", they always think "man, those poor fish are gonna starve! Here, fishy, have a little more"....) :)
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I guess I will leave them starve for a while. The vacation food does not work for my fishs anyway. As a test, I left a 14-day shell in the tank, it is gone in less than 24-hours. I have some really smart and big "food diggers" in the tank :D .

F.Z.
 
Does this go for all types of fish? Would you like to leave Oscars w/o food for a week? Wouldn't you worry about the tankmates getting beatin' up?
:confused:
 
I'm not an expert by any means, but I used Tetra's Holiday Weekend Sticks on three seperate occasions. Each time I was gone for five to six days.

They don't contain plaster which is a good thing since my tank's pH is around 7.6-7.8.

My fish were fine and in fact I waited until the next day to feed them just to be sure no to overfeed them.

Maybe you could do a test run and use your choice of "vacation feeder" while you are home and for the same amount of time you will be gone. That way you'll really know whether they work or not. And if they don't, you'll be able to find out before its too late.
 
My Mother went away for two weeks. She bought those 14 day shell vacation feeders and put two in her 39 gal tank. I went up to her house to check on it four days after she left and they were gone. Her fish ate them all and it must have been constantly. I put more in and when I came back in five days they were gone again. This tells me that those shells are not good to use for long vacations. Even if they say 14 days. Your best bet is have someone feed them for you if you are gone long. Fish also can go a couple days without food and be ok. Though I wouldn't do it.
 
Hmm... so I checked Tetra Holiday Weekend Sticks, and the makers aver that the Stick "contains no plaster which can detrimentally affect the pH balance of your aquarium while you are away." Don't let Tetra convince you that calcium sulfate can affect the pH of your aquarium-- nevertheless, this is the time-release feeder that isn't cast of plaster-pf-Paris. And it has a mold-inhibitor...

A way to check whether calcium sulfate has an effect on pH is a www.google.com search: " calcium-sulfate gypsum pH " Cut-and-paste it and try it.
 
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