Leaving my fish for a week! Mandarin question.

[Abiroad]

I am going on vacation. This is the first time leaving my tank for more than just over night.
I have a coworker/friend staying at my house to care for fish and dogs.
What are good things to remind him of?

Also- My biggest concern is my itty bitty baby mandarin. Im still plumping him up because he was half starved at the lfs. I spot feed him a lot, and he eats mysis. But My concern is that the person won't spot feed him good enough and the other fish will beat him out of the shrimp.

I have him in my 55 reef tank now. But i have a 12g nano-cube that is almost finished cycling.

I was thinking of only moving my mandarin in there with a big piece of chaeto from my fuge, and dosing with like 2000 pods before i leave, then he can just munch away and then the fish-watcher can throw some mysis in there too and he will have no food competition. I could even leave a bottle of pods for the guy to dose my tank with half way through being gone.

Or is this just gonna stress him out and is pointless?

 

[Abiroad]

guess i'm the only freak who worries over fish on vacation.

 

[ivan_dalmatia]

I think just putting 2000 live pods will keep him going for months if not for the rest of his life, pods reproduce like crazy!!!! I never bought them and my tank is full of them keeping 2 fully grown mandarins busy constantly

 

[Abiroad]

In my big tank? Or putting him in the 12g? I also have a fat six line who I know eats them

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

I would definitly put the mandarin in the 12 gallon tank as long as it is only for a few days. If you can do it easily and quickly without stressing him out much that would be best. My situation is differant from yours because i could probably leave my tank alone for over a week and everything would be fine, but it has been set up for a while. What else are you concerned about besides the mandarin?

 

[ivan_dalmatia]

In my big tank? Or putting him in the 12g? I also have a fat six line who I know eats them

Into the big tank, your not sure if its cycled, personally even if it was I don't think it would be able to sustain life for the pods, they would just die off. Mandarin should be housed in a fully established tank.

 

[mr_X]

I would leave the mandarin where it is. Dump the bottle of pods in the 55 after dark and go on vacation.

 

[Abiroad]

I must have jinxed it. I woke up to a dead mandarin. He was getting fatter than he was at the fish store, but he must have been too far gone. I knew this could happen, buying one that was ALREADY starving, but I thought I could help, I'm pretty disappointed

Anyways.. I'm having the fish-sitter feed mysis/brine every other day. I told him about the 12 hours max on day time. I also told him about turning the sump light on when the dt lights go off.

Idk if I'm missing anything?!

 

[Bray84]

Can you not just get timers so you can set the times so one less thing to worry about

 

[Jmkb02]

Sorry to hear of your mandarin, they are not easy to keep at all. You pretty much need a constant replenish of pods and that where a Fuge comes in. Most lfs are not capable of caring for them so they end up starving to death. Sucks but it's the truth.What else in your tank are you concerned about?