5 day vacation.. Super stressed

[hennaartist]

As a Christmas bonus for work, my family (husband and daughter) are being sent to Disney in January. It's going to be hard enough to find someone to feed our dogs and let them in and out, and even harder to get someone to properly care for my fish?

I can get a timed fish feeder for two of my tanks, but I'm mostly concerned about my large tank which houses my prized ropefish and angelfish. I cannot leave a space in the top of the tank for a feeder, because the ropes will definitely escape.

Also, they are used to being hand fed. I've been trying to stop the hand feeding, but my nitrates ended up rising, so I went back to hand feeding, and I'm slowly fixing the water parameter issue.

Any suggestions?

 

[Brookster123]

Leave the lights off and go have fun.. just fees heavy the week leading up and do a nice wc the day before you leave. . They'll be fine. Hide the food from the dog walker too

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Jmunroe]

Leave the lights off and go have fun.. just fees heavy the week leading up and do a nice wc the day before you leave. . They'll be fine. Hide the food from the dog walker too

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Do this.

 

[hennaartist]

Will leaving the lights off hurt the plants in the tank?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Will leaving the lights off hurt the plants in the tank?

Not for only 5 days, you could always rotate your photo period so it's in the middle of the night if you're concerned though. Also, hide all the fish food and tell the dog walker they don't need to be fed. I did the same thing this summer.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[fishenthusiast]

Will leaving the lights off hurt the plants in the tank?

The plants will be fine. If you have CO2, don't run it while you're gone if you plan on keeping the lights off the entire time. Have a nice trip!


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[hennaartist]

I just don't know if I can bring myself to leave them without lights and food for 5 days. These are my babies, my prized fish, I hand feed them every night. They get dried tubifex and shrimp pellets in the morning, then live crickets or worms in the evening.

When my bosses told me about my bonus, I almost told them I couldn't do it because of my fish. I decided to hold off bringing up the fish to see if I could figure something out.. But I don't know if I can leave them without lights and food. I will be devastated if something happens to them.

 

[Jmunroe]

Nothing will happen. 5 days is not long for fish to go without food.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

I have left my fish for a week without food on vacation and they all always make it fine. Don't worry about it and just feed heavy the week before like brookster said. Go on your vacation and have fun with your family and don't worry, they will do excellently. Feeding fish everyday is overrated. I feed mine 2-3 times a week and I rarely if ever have losses and the fish seem healthy. Take the advice and you'll be glad that you did.

 

[CoronaBlue]

I know it may seem cruel but they will survive. Leaving lights off will help break the routine they have now. They will go into a more vegetative state until you return.

Enjoy Disney

 

[jetajockey]

Use an autofeeder and set it to the lowest setting /frequency possible. A feeding once every other day would be ideal and would lessen the risk of overfeeding.

 

[Coursair]

I don't trust auto feeders. I know too many that break or feed too much.

I'd just fast the fish. They'll be fine.


Smoke signals from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jetajockey]

This one looks like it'd be pretty good. You could always run it for a few days before you leave it just to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to. The compartments are nice since it lets you control how much goes in the tank, and you can just leave some of the compartments empty if you intended to skip feeding days.
Fish Mate F14 Aquarium Fish Feeder

The downside is you'd have to rig up some plastic or something to keep the fish from jumping out of the gap. Eggcrate is what I use on a lot of my tanks.

Another alternative that seems the simplest is just to get your animal caretaker to feed them. Use a pill minder and emphasize how important it is to feed that exact amount on the days specified.

As mentioned, though, if these are adult fish they will be fine fasting for 5 days.

 

[Brookster123]

Don't set the lights for middle of night please. . That's how fish get hurt... i didnt know it was planted, how extensively?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Rivers2k]

There should be a sticky for this especially this time of year. Question has been asked at least 10 times this week. 5 days with no food is fine for fish. Plants will be fine also.

Congrats on the vacation. Don't take it for granted most companies don't do bonuses anymore.

 

[gilpi]

5 days no sweat. I have left my fish for 10 to 12 days.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Don't set the lights for middle of night please. . That's how fish get hurt... i didnt know it was planted, how extensively?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Just curious, but why? I didn't even think to turn my lights off when I went on vacation.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Just curious, but why? I didn't even think to turn my lights off when I went on vacation.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

It can shock them out of their "sleep" so to speak and send them into a frenzy, running into everything in the tank and potentially wounding themselves.

 

[Brookster123]

Just curious, but why? I didn't even think to turn my lights off when I went on vacation.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

You leave your lights on 24/7?? If it's pitch black and the fish are sleeping, flicking the light will startle them, could result in injury or death.. a friend of mine kept finding dead fish in the morning, couldn't figure out why.. went down to for a drink of water late one night and his tank was lit... turns out a timer issue had caused the lights to come on in the middle of the night, fish smashed into the glass and died.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Fresh2o]

My tanks take a week without feeding at least once a year (vacation) without incident. I leave all the timers on the same cycle. Big PWC before I go.
A few years back when we had a big storm in the summer that knocked out power to most of the US mid-Atlantic region, my house was without power for 5.5 days. Outside temps were 95F /35C during that time. Fish were fine despite these exceptional conditions.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice