Vacation Feeding (or fasting?)

[JimmyB]

I have two different battery-operated vacation feeders, which I am testing right now to see how reliable they are. It got me to thinking if I really need to worry too much. If I feed my fish on Wednesday morning, and I don't get back to feed them until Saturday at noon, is that a problem? That is a total of 72 hours. I'll do a good water change before leaving, I'm feeding them a little heavy for the few days prior...hopefully the battery-operated timers drop in the dry food....It is a planted tank, I've been changing the water about 30% every couple of days. Any ideas how to fatten them up? Do I keep the lights on, or off, or use timers? Lower the temp to slow the metabolism?:confused:

[ronrca]

Better perhaps to feed less than have the water quality suffer. Keep everything normal imo. They will not starve in a couple of days.

[markwill]

I don't believe you have anything to worry about for such a short period of time (although I agree with the comment to ease up a little on the feeding, not the other way around) but I would try to find a friendly neighbor who can swing by and feed a few times. Certainly not essential though - even if the auto feeders fail the second you walk out the door, they will live :-)

I once had a fish that went 3-4 weeks without apparently eating a thing. He's now recovered fine and recently bred...

Mark

[Westie]

I just spent a week in Florida. My crap timer clogged up from condensation and did not feed my babies at all for a week. They seemed fine minus a few neons. I've been home for a week and they seem as happy as...well, fish in a tank!

[JimmyB]

Thanks for the replies. I have had that condensation issue and clumping too, so the next time I used all pellets and crumbles instead of flake. I have not had luck yet feeding pellets to my discus, they eat flake though. I am warming them up to it.

[crash]

I had that problem too,
They wouldnt eat flakes not pellets.
But the best way to get them on certain type of food is, only feed them that food nothing else. They have no other option than to eat it. it works like a charm.

[Bainbridge Mike]

I would not lower the temp---you might expose your fish to ick. I would keep everything as close to normal as possible. The only auto-feeder that works well is the one made by Eheim--in my experience. I keep mine loaded with with tetrabits. You need to mess with your auto-feeder for a bit to make sure it does not dump too much food all at once. overall, I would not worry too much about a 4 day vacation--fasting for that period is not really a big deal.

Mike

[KIWI13]

I agree with Seattle Mike. Ehiem are truely the best, they have a built in fan to reduce humidity and do work well. There was a post on here once about the best auto feeder and ehiem came up on top.

I would personally, feed em normally before I left, do a nice big water change 24 hours before departure, keep the temp high and go away and feed em when I got back on the 3rd day, discus can go for periods without being fed and this diet will clean out their intestines too. At the most I would keep one dose of feeding for the neighbour to throw in. make sure you calculate the quantity, neighbours are famous for overfeeding.

Jason

[JimmyB]

So I was gone for 78 hours total, and no harm was done. In fact, two of the newer fish had some increase in coloration. I checked nitrates when I got home and it was at zero. I did a small feeding immediately, then a larger one later in the evening. Did a good water change with a vacuum job too. Whew.......all is good.

[Y0uH0]

Hmm,there was once i went on vacation for 5 days and the auto feeder screwed up...dumped a whole lot of food into the aquarium and clogged up the surface skimmer cause mine is a planted aquaria. In the end,a layer of oil developed on the surface and the tank water became foul,lost alot of my tetras and shrimps to that catastrophe so i agree with the others that either u can get a good auto feeder like eheim or simply just keep their feeding to a minimum so that u can avoid a disaster like mine. My stand is better to let them starve a little than let them die. Afterall,fishes can last without food for some time.