Going away for a few days

[Doug A]

I'm going away for 5 1/2 days and was debating what to do with my discus. I'm leaving early thursday morning and will be back tuesday afternoon. I have been feeding my fish very well for the past week and doing lots of w/c's. I was debating between not feeding the fish at all, or having my sister (who is stoping by everday to check on and feed the cat) feed the discus a couple cubes of BW on friday and sunday.

The discus are about 3.5 - 4.5 months old and 3" - 4".

I would prefer that that don't go without food the whole time I am away.
Will feeding them BW 2 times in 5.5 days foul the water? :confused:

They are healthy and growing well and I don't want that to change. I don't know if my sister would be up to doing w/c's for me while I am gone. If she is I would set the auto feeder to give them a couple feedings everyday.

Any and all suggestions/advice is greatly appreciated,
Doug

[Greg Richardson]

If you have your sister over and confident in her wc abilty I'd definetly do the two feedings a day. Even if she only changes 25% a day that would work till you get back.

[Doug A]

Thanks Greg

Having my sister do w/c's would be great, but she has never done a w/c in her life. My W/c setup is very easy (almost foolproof) and she should be able to do it. Just have to see if she is up for it.

I forgot to mention that the fish are in a 75 and there are 8 of them at 3-4".

Doug

[Carol_Roberts]

Safest is not to feed at all. Next best is Feed one cube of beef heart on Friday and Sunday.

[shaunn]

When I go away I do aggressive water changes before and I have the person who comes and feed my dog go ahead and put a pinch of flake food in the tank once per day.

I feed the flake food along with BH and worms so my fish are used to them. My wife refuses to touch anything other than flakes.

Good luck!

[Evan]

I went away for 8 days once. I had a trusted friend feed them and do a couple WC.

He came over a few times and did the WC with me before. I also had the food put into proper portions. Went off no issues.

[RyanH]

I was in Key West a few weeks ago for 7 days. I just cleaned my tanks and changed a ton of water before I left. I had a friend come by on Wednesday to change the water on my juvenile tanks which I set up autofeeders to lightly feed flake a couple times per day. I did nothing at all with my adults... no food or WC's.

All were fine when I got home. I even had a spawn when I walked in the door. :)

hth
-Ryan

[korbi_doc]

:D When I have someone to feed, I use H.bws in cubes, once/day, or every other day. There's no mistake with cubes & each tank has a flourescent card posted for #of cubes. When I left juvies, had an auto-feeder set up 3-4X/day.. Now, when I leave for few days with no-one to help, I just set the autofeeders small am't 2X/day, & this has worked well for me. Big W/Cs before & after. I believe the adults can do well with no feed, but the babies need feeding & auto-feeders set properly fill the bill. Just be sure it's used early on so you know the am't & frequency is ok... JMO, Dottie :sun: P.S. this week, have to prepare food for the horses as well, so I marked the buckets with magic markers, fill the outside tubs with lotsa water, & make up small plastic containers with the meds the mare needs..... so much preparation, so much to do, so little time, :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[jimmyhat]

one word dont do it

[Doug A]

Thanks for the replies!

My sister is coming over tonight for instructions on what to do. I will see if she can do a couple of wc's for me. If she can I will set the auto feeder to feed a small amount 1x daily and have her feed them a cube or two of blood worms each day, syphon the poop out and replace the water, and do a 20% wc every other day. If she won't do WC I will just have her feed 2 cubes of BW on friday and sunday.

I have been doing 90% wc's for the past few days. I cleaned the tank and filters very well over the weekend and will wipe the tank down again tonight before my last wc before I leave on thursday morning.

I'm sure I will be thinking about my babies the whole time I'm gone and will call my sister to find out how they are.

This is the first time in all my attempts over the years to have success in growing out juvies. So far my fish haven't really had any sickness, except for a slight case of constipation. :D I owe this success to all the fine information I have obtained from the great people here at simplydiscus. :thumbsup: Getting healthy fish from Cary didn't hurt either. :D :thumbsup:

Thanks,
Doug

[Doug A]

Well, my sister will be doing a small (10-15 gal) w/c daily for me. :)
I have the auto feeder set to give them one small feeding of colorbits 1x daily and she will feed them bloodworms when she comes to take care of the fish.

I will know how everything worked out on tuesday. :scared:

Have a good weekend
Doug

[BGTW]

They are growing fish, you need to feed them somehow.

[Doug A]

My fish came thru my absense with flying colors. :thumbsup: :D
My sister did a great job taking care of my fish while I was gone. She changed about 15 gallons of water daily on my 75 and fed them bloodworms everyday.

The fish got used to her quickly. She said that she wants to come up and visit with the fish. Just goes to show the powerful influence of a friendly discus. :fish: :D

Doug

[April]

glad it all worked out. : )

[Greg Richardson]

There ya go! I hate to see people leave and fish not eat. Now you got her hooked!

[korbi_doc]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Audrey]

I am facing the same dilema soon. Going away for a week.

Will my discus be stunted if they don't eat for a week?

I have a few possible w/c volunteers, but I still need to show them the ropes.

Worst part is I am not even moved into my fishroom yet, it's not ready, and we leave in like 3 weeks! :( :( :( :(

[tlum]

Audrey,

If you have a few water change volunteers, the problem is half solved. Just put your fish on autofeeders, feed them twice a day with very small amount.

I was on vacation for 9 days in Decembers, with two tanks of juvenile discus and 2 breeding pairs and some young adults. I did not have anyone to change water. So, I built a drip/heat recovery system with 1 gallon / hour / tank drip rate. Since you have water change volunteers, you do not need to worry about water change. But, a drip system may be something you could consider when you build your fish room.

During that nine days, I feeded my fish with Colorbit from automatic feeders. Nine days after when I came back, all my fish are in very good shape. Their red color came out even better. My juvs are now 5-6 inches. No stunt.

If your fish do not take Colorbit, you may ask your volunteers to drop a cube or two of bloodworm or, even better, Mysis shrimp into your tank. Mysis shrimp is better because it has more fat content and provides more energy to the fish. Furthermore, your fish will produce fewer and smaller poops with Mysis tha BW. Don't use beef heart or beef as it fouls your water quickly.

If you decided to use auto feeders, make sure you have it setup and running for a few days before you leave. This will give you time to re-adjust the amount of food coming out from the feeder so that you will not either overfeed or underfeed your fish. Anyway, if you have concern, errors on the underfeed side. Underfeed your fish may slow their grow a little bit, but overfeed your fish will kill them.

HTH

Terry

[Audrey]

Hi, Terry! :)

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I do have an auto feeder that I will use while we are gone. In the auto feeder I have color bits (most my discus eat those), and a good assortment of flake foods. I will set it up for 2x a day, and IF my volunteers come through, I will have them drop in a cube of mysis shrimp right before they do a w/c.

I found even another possible w/c volunteer this morning...my daycare lady! I think she must have saw the worry in my face when I was telling her my dilema. It pays to whine sometimes!

Thanks!
Audrey