Going on Vacation - Discus Care !!??

[gandalf]

Hi,

I am going on vacation for 10 days and wonder whats the best way to keep my discus when i am gone.

Either i can give my fish to the LFS and they will take care of it or I keep the fish home and make someone feed the fish twice a day. whats the best thing to do and what do i need to ensure that fish stay alive if i leave them undisturbed at home ??

regards
Balaji

[ReeferKimberly]

super clean right before you go, turn off lights...no feeding while you are gone it will only make the water dirty. dicus can go for that amount of time and even longer without food. when you get home do a big water change and feed them then. you will do more harm than good by feeding them while you are gone. HTH
kimberly :-*

[Larry Grenier]

Ooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrr...

If you can train a person to maybe feed once about an hour after lights on and do one water change before lights go out you're even better off ;D

[korbi_doc]

;D ;D When I leave for horse shows/vacation, I do lg w/cs night before. I have someone drop in frozen cubed H.bloodworms once/day. If they miss a day, no big deal, & there is no mistake with a frozen cube. If I have babies, I use the Eheim feeder 4x/day. When I return they get w/cs as soon as I can make the water up (100%R/O) & get it heated. This method has worked for 5, 7, & up to 10 days, don't gen'l get away any longer than that. No way could I get someone to do w/cs, they all think I'm crazy as it is. The lights are on a timer & when I leave, cut down the time they are on. I have the roots of pothos, philodendron plants in the tanks to help with nitrates. I look forward to the day when I have my tanks all together & I can set up autochanges, that may not happen for awhile, retirement seems pretty far away at this time, lol, Dottie 8) 8)

[DiscusinDaytona]

I have a friend who house sits. She does w/c and feed 2X daily. Has this website for emergencies. I am very lucky! She loves taking care of the fish in my absence. She's done it 8-10 times now and never had problems.

Tina

[RyanH]

I have a friend who also happens to be a biology professor watch my fish while I was in Italy last month. I had him feed them CBW once a day for about four of the nine days that I was gone. Since they are alive, they don't pollute as badly as frozen or processed food. All was well when I returned. I even had a new pair start to form while I was gone.

The moral of the story: find a friend who doesn't mind handling blackworms and who is willing to come in a few times and feed your fish. :)

[gandalf]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I have given my fish to the LFS and they will take care of the fish when i am gone. Actually my maid agreed to come in twice a day to feed the fish when i am on vacation, but images of air pumps failing, fishes dying etc... made me give the fish to the LFS.
Last year when i had gone on vacation and one of my friends fed the fish, but i lost 2 BD's :(
I hope this time around, fishes stay alive till i get back.. :)) :))
I am planning to buy a bigger tank and make a really good planted discus tank when i come back and get more discus and also have a arowana tank too...

[CARY_GLdiscus]

Hello,
I leave for weeks sometimes! Before I go I feed the hell out of them because when Am gone No food is offered. I clean the tanks and filters real good 2 days before I leave and a big w/c right before I go! I also lower all temps to 83F NO LIGHTS or food and all goes Very well.

hth
Cary Gld!

[fishfarm]

Don't feed them, Change the water right before you leave, they'll be fine. Worse thing you can do is have a non fish person take care of them and overfeed and pollute the water. Ken

[gandalf]

Hi,

I am back from vacation and all the discus are safe and sound and doing well. Just one goldfish dead :(

thanks everyone for their replies.

[RyanH]

And they say that goldfish are easier to take care of than Discus... ;)

Glad everything went OK for you.