Two weeks with no food and all was well.

[Rudustin]

I was away for two weeks and decided I would follow the advice of several members and not have my seven tanks of discus fed for the entire time. I did a major water change three days in a row in all tanks and the day before I left I didn't feed them at all. I was quite nervous about it. I had in the past had someone feed them very minimally but came home from a trip and found the water in some of the tanks had turned bad and I had a few deaths. I should also say that I have both adults and sub adults not juveniles or fry so in following my experience please don't assume that you will all be able to do this. I have all bare bottom tanks by the way. When I returned yesterday evening I was a bit anxious about what I would find when I got home. To my relief all was well with all the discus and every tank. As a matter of fact the water was crystal clear and no algae because I had closed drapes and shades to give very little light. I didn't lose one fish including cardinals, cat fish, bristle noses etc..I just thought I would give this experience as a example of following the advice of several members here on SD that are far more experienced than myself. Thanks to all of you that have continually contributed the great advice to those of us that are still somewhat new at the keeping of Discus. Rufus

[judijetson]

::happy dance:: really good to know this Rufus, that's a long time...I would have been a nervous wreck!

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3

[Rudustin]

I was!!!! LOL! Many of them have put on size in the two weeks. Fed them all three times today with light feelings. Yes I danced the happy dance! Rufus

[Ryan]

Good to hear it all turned out well. Adult fish can go quite a long time without food. There's so much more that could go wrong by feeding than not feeding. There's no quicker way to mess up your water than by letting someone feed the fish without knowing what to monitor in the tanks.

I was just on vacation for eight days and most of my tanks went without food, and I didn't have any losses or water quality issues. I did have someone stop by and feed my juvie angelfish every other day, but these were very small pre-measured feedings. I was too afraid I'd stunt them as young as they are.

[Rudustin]

Good to hear it all turned out well. Adult fish can go quite a long time without food. There's so much more that could go wrong by feeding than not feeding. There's no quicker way to mess up your water than by letting someone feed the fish without knowing what to monitor in the tanks.

I was just on vacation for eight days and most of my tanks went without food, and I didn't have any losses or water quality issues. I did have someone stop by and feed my juvie angelfish every other day, but these were very small pre-measured feedings. I was too afraid I'd stunt them as young as they are. Hi Ryan, Yes, it's the way to go. Several large water changes a couple of days before, stop feeding for a day and then leave on a trip. But again one must caution that these are sub adult and adult discus not juveniles! I just don't want someone with juvies to think they can leave their fish unfed for two weeks without causing some problems, namely stunting. I think the pre measure thing is a great idea for juvies. Rufus

[XAnhLe]

Great to hear that all of your fish are okay! (:

[Aquacrazed]

2 weeks with no food, good to know! Glad your fish are ok!

[Rudustin]

Yes, the fish are fine. It's amazing to me but it works. Rufus

[tonytheboss1]

Glad it worked for ya. Left mine last Feb. for about 12 days w/ -0- fatalities. They were all ready to eat that first meal though. Even the 'Cats' came out of hiding that first meal back. lol lol

[zonkkie]

Glad I read this thread... I am going on vacation for a week and was wondering if I should set up an automatic feeder. I guess there is really no need to.

[kris2341]

This is definitely good general advice for most healthy fish really. As long as they are healthy and well-fed while the owner is around, they typically will be fine for a week, 2 weeks with some extra special consideration as far as water as shown with this thread

Only exceptions i could think of would be fry related and young fish could get stunted, I've seen this with african cichlids but a stunted fish is better than a dead one usually.

Of course, having a hobbyist take care of your stuff while gone is optimal, but aside from that, it is safer to not feed in almost all scenarios

[zonkkie]

Sounds good. Just a question though - for humans, i have heard advice that after a prolonged period of no food, it is better to eat small amounts initially to let the stomach get used to food again. Does the same apply to discus or do we feed the usual amount the first day we are back after a long vacation?

[khooyang]

I saw my discus feed themselves at night chasing after my cardinal tetras. Found tetra head lying at the bottom of my tank :)> now sure if your discus did the same with no food ?

[Rudustin]

I did numerous small feelings for two days