vacation time care?

[midnight1]

i have 12 2-3inch discus in a 55 gallon tank - i currently feed 6 times or more per day and change water once but also remove fish waste after ever feeding. i am running 2 sponge filters with a bare bottom tank.

i'm leaving for vacation from the 27th thru the 5th. my neice is house sitting and will feed the fish but knows nothing about water changing ect. i'm thinking on having her feed frozen blood worms in a.m. and flake twice during the day.

my thought is to cut down on the waste produced by the fish (only 3 feedings) since water won't be changed when i'm gone.

what your thoughts on what to do in this situation? am i thinking along the right lines? should i add a box filter with carbon? should i feed more/less?

thanks

paul

[Ardan]

Hi,
Its only a bit over a wk. If the fish are small they may need more feedings.
I would consider once a day or even once every second or third day. THey can go quite a bit without food. It is better to have cleaner water IMO

hth
Ardan

[Carol_Roberts]

Tough decission. You're going to be gone 9 days and have 12 two to three inch discus in a 55 gallon. I'd just feed lightly once every other day. That tank is full of fish and it is a long time without a water change. . . .

Better to slow their growth from less food than slow their growth from sickness (high bacteria in dirty water). It's quicker to catch up feedings and water changes than to medicate and treat sick discus.

Carol :heart1:

I would get some live brine shrimp and blackworms and have your niece feed only this while you are gone. These will not pollute the water as bad and will still give your discus enough food........................JMO Randy

Get your niece to do one waterchange in the middle of the vacation and ask her to syphon waste off the bottom every 3rd day or so.

[RAWesolowski]

Midnight,

You didn't mention what you're currently feeding your fish. I do like Randy's idea to feed the fish live blackworms. Not as much waste as beefheart or even flakes. The problem will be - can your niece touch them?

[midnight1]

i currently feed my fish frozen blood worms - 2-3 times per day, frozen brine shrimp - 2-3 times per day and flake food - 1-2 times per day.

seems like the consensus is that feed live food or feed less - seems like water quality is more important than large quantity of food.

so far i'm leaning towards changing my initial thought and feed only 3 times tomorrow and twice the day before we leave. then feed only twice per day while gone with strictly frozen bloodworms (just won't be able to get any live food prior to leaving). also will cut down the amount the lights are on from maybe 15 hours down to about 6ish???

i will try to show my neice at least how to syphon some water off maybe 5 gallons toatl while i'm gone strictly removing waste. i just don't trust her to be able to add water properly since i add from the tap and not a preheated tank.

thanks for all your help - let me know if i'm still way off base with these last thoughts.

paul