To Feed or Not to Feed during Vacation?

[Very Fishy]

What is everyone's experience for feeding or non-feeding while away on vacation? I am referring to a short one week vacation. Is it better to feed with an automatic feeder or not feed at all. I can see pros and cons to both but I am leaning more to not feeding. By using an automatic feeder you are increasing the waste in the water(uneaten food and poop) and the water quality will decrease quicker.

How long can healthy discus go without food without causing problems?

[Carol_Roberts]

Adults can go a week. Juveniles should be fed a time or two.

[fishfarm]

Don't feed, they'll be happy to see you when you get back. Ken

[Francisco_Borrero]

I agree with Ken on this.
The way I see it is:
The fish will be okay for several days without food. The fish will suffer for everyday they are in bad water. Of course, if the are juveniles, they will need some food.
What I would certainly do is clean the filter well one or two days prior to leaving, and have water ready for a water change when you come back.
Good luck and good vacation, Francisco.

[daninthesand]

I should think that a week without food is better than a week of food clouding up the water and no water changes. The more the fish eat the more ammonia they are likely to produce and the worse your water conditions will be. I'd go with no food at all. I'd bet the adult discus should be fine for even a couple of weeks with no food. Not surre about no water changes though for that long.

You might want to lower the temp to around 82 to slow down the fishes metabolism. It should help keep waste production down as well. Every little bit helps.

of course verything depends on how many fish per gallon etc. etc etc.

You could experiment while you are home and do no feeding or water changes for a week and watch what happens. This way you can see what to expect when you are actually gone..

Daniel

[henryD]

I went on a mini vacation 2 weeks ago. I have both Juvies and adults. I decided on the no feeding thing.

This is what I did...

Extra feeding for about 1 week. 2 extra meals to both juvies and adults.

The night before we were going to leave I changed 80% water. Wiped down the tanks and cleaned out the sponges. I lowered the temp to about 84.

The morning I left I did another big water change about 80%. All of the tanks were in areas where there was natural sunlight so I did not set up an automatic timer.

When we came back 5 days later they all seemed fine. I did another water change about 80% and feed.

[ReeferKimberly]

yup,
don't feed. do the big waterchange thing and don't feed for 24 hours prior to you leaving, that way they get most of it out of their systems. and be sure not to leave any uneaten food in the filters. they should be fine...just hungry when you get back.
hth
kimberly :-*