going on vacation... how will my fish be fed?

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illuminum

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Messages
307
Location
Southern California
I'm going to be gone for about a week and I don't know what I'm going to do. I put flake in every other day and 2 algae wafers in every day. I've got 7 tetras, a pleco, a guppy, and a dojo loach. Should I just give the house keys to a trusted friend and tell him to take care of it or is there a better way to go about it? Are there automatic feeders (that are inexpensive)?
 
Unless your friend is experienced with fish keeping, IMO the fish would be better off not being fed at all for the week you're going to be away. More often than not, inexperienced people "fish-sitting" cause more harm than good by unintentionally overfeeding the fish, which can cause water crashes, etc.

Of course, you could individually wrap meals for each day (using wax paper or aluminum foil)- so your friend simply empties the contents of that package each day.:)
 
Agreed. My roommate almost killed off my fish a few weekends ago... when I got back the algae had grown sooooooooo much from added nutrients in the tank.
 
During the summer and this semester I've had to leave town alot. I usually have friends stay and watch the animals. I don't particularly trust the friends to feed the fish right so I have done something to hlep prevent over feeding.

I have bough those pill containers that have the days of the week on them. I fill them with the food the fish should get for that day and then my friends can just dump the contents of that day into the tank. For my frozen food fish I have done the same but left the containers in the freezer. If I am gone for more than a week I mark dates on the containers with something I can remove later.
 
Just wanted to put my $0.02 in.
All the aquarium books I have read say that you should never trust anyone to feed your fish. Fish can live up to two weeks without feeding. In your case it is a week so I think they will be just fine.
 
I am away a lot, so I've been dealing with this for awhile. I have a Nutramatic (?) feeder. It cost $30 at my lfs, and I saw it for $20 at Walmart. (Canadian prices of course). I set it up if I'm gone for a week, but if only a couple days, I just feed them well before I leave and they seem fine.

Before I got the automatic feeder, if I went away for a week, I'd ask my bro to feed the tank a "tiny pinch" every 2-3 days. Other ppl always feed too much, so I stressed that they shouldn't feed them every day.

I tried those 3-day feeders that dissolve, and they just seem to mess up the tank - not worth it if you're not going to be gone very long.
 
captainGregor said:
Just wanted to put my $0.02 in.
All the aquarium books I have read say that you should never trust anyone to feed your fish. Fish can live up to two weeks without feeding. In your case it is a week so I think they will be just fine.

However that's not always an option depending one how long you are gone and how often.

If you are gone a week come back a week gone a week come back a week I'm sure that it is not healthy for the fish to only be fed every other week.
And i'm not really sure how much I'd trust not feeding fish for two whole weeks.
 
Got an autofeeder on clearance at a LFS once, still have it...somewhere. If I'm gone a week or less, they'll be fine. More than that, I'll have someone come in the middle and dump the contents of the ziplock in to keep everyone happy. No biggy.
 
*nods and agrees with Bearfan*

A week or less won't starve the fish. You can leave em be. My betta at work goes from 2 to 4 days without food and hes a nice healthy pig.

More then that would require some feeding. Either find someone you trust, make single packets of food (those daily pill containers with the Monday Tuesday etc on em make good containers) and lock up the rest LOL Even someone you trust can't be trusted when it comes to feeding fish *grin*

You could also try an automatic feeder. I found those Nutramatic 2X a day feeders at Petsmart this weekend for $15. They'll be getting a test run the weekend before Xmas as we go to England for the Holidays :)
 
Very good advice, thanks everyone.


Do you think that the loach and the pleco will be okay if I don't feed them for a week? I feed them by putting in 2 algae wafers daily. Are there inexpensive feeders that will be able to dispense wafers as well?
 
Just break up the wafers and add them to the food if you use an automatic feeder if your concerned :)
 
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