3 week vacation

[Kim Kipper]

I currently have a 2ft tank and take a 3 week vacation each year.

I have a 14 day feeder and have a friend visit to restock it after about day 12. This has worked fine. No fish lost.

I am considering updating to a 4 ft tank and am also hoping to avoid having to ask my friend to visit (long story).

Please advise on

a) Is it true that a larger tank will retain better water quality whilst I am not around to maintain ?

b) Any other considerations for the bigger tank (in terms of being away) ?

c) Does any body know of a suitable 3 week auto feeder. I have searched but been unable to locate one.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[tkos]

MOre water means a better chance of buffering out any problems. But of course larger surface area means more evaporation.

Hagen makes a fine auto feeder. I use it when I go away for longer than 4 or 5 days.

I assume that you mean by 14 day feeder one of those white blocks. Normally those aren't too good as they are made of calcium carbonate and can affect the pH of the water. Of course a larger tank will be able to buffer out that problem. Though if I were you I would wait til after my vacation before upgrading the tank. New tanks can of course have problems and I wouldn't want to be on vacation and have something happen.

 

[TankGirl]

This is why I don't go on vacation! My puffers need live or frozen, so no auto-feeding for me.

 

[tkos]

Get some liveberrers. They will have babies and then the puffers will have a snack. LOL

 

[TankGirl]

I wish! I don't think the livebearers would last long enough to produce any progeny. For their really tiny size, these FW puffers are fierce! I do keep a nice crop of snails going in another tank for them. If I can coax my squeamish sister to deal with the "bait" I keep in my freezer for them, I would be all set.

 

[tkos]

You are lucky that yours eat frozen food. Mine never did. They were so picky they ended up starving to death. Poor little guys.

 

[TankGirl]

I had the same problem with mine, until I fed them live adult brine shrimp. That seemed to "kick-start" them and after that they started to eat well for me. I lost one from this initial fasting thing. I have heard a lot about this probelm with FW puffers - seems they all go through it.

 

[Kim Kipper]

3 Week Vacation

In reply to Tkos: Thanks for reply. My current 14 day feeder is not a block but a battery operated one.

I'm looking for something with more than 14 days.

 

[justDIY]

if your vacation is ~21 days, and you can feed for 14 of those, IMO that is fine - your fish won't starve those last 7 days, unless they're underfed to begin with.

be sure to do a water change a few days before you leave (not the day before, you want some time to watch for problems)

you can try overfeeding on the days leading up to your water change, so the fish have chance to 'bulk up'

some of my fish are so fat I'm sure they could live for many weeks without food.

plus, most of them will be able to snack on bacteria, algae and other micro-organisims that live in the tank

 

[TankGirl]

I have had a tank go completely unfed for a week (this is a tank I maintain at my daughter's elementary school and they did not tell me no-one would be there at all for spring break!) and there was some algae but otherwise no problems.

 

[tkos]

I agree that 14 dyas is fine and let the last week go as a fast. Your fish will be fine as long as they are healthy. In the wild fish go for long periods of time without eating.

 

[Kim Kipper]

Thanks for the advice all. Sounds like it should be okay. Just bought the tank and I'm not going away for 13 months so should be no problem.

 

[purplestarfish]

Fish can survive for seven days fine without food, pretty easily. Another alternative is to put in those sinking tablets that often last longer for the last couple of day spots on your automatic feeder; these will last a few days at least. My fish (at the time, they were in a 20 gallon) lasted for two weeks on a couple of these; none perished. Also, zephyr also once posted that a danio of his had lasted FOUR MONTHS without food! (wow!) Besides, livebearers often eat algae. I think they'll be fine. And it is true about a larger tank has stabler qualities; my 55 gallon is at 0 ppm for both nitrite and ammonia (despite the mulitude of fish, including the platy and gouramis who are always eating algae and concequently always producing waste). Good luck with it all; the fish will be fine!

 

[Oscar]

I agree that healthy fish can go at least a week without feeding. You will probably come back to a nice clean tank. The fish will do their "wild" thing and search for any thing edible. (By the way, that "anything edible" might just be smaller fish.. so beware) 8O