How to keep my fish happy while I am on holiday?

[Ags11]

I am going on holiday for two weeks and leaving behind 5 small CPDs and two Nerites. The nerites can feed themselves, but what about the fish? The nano tank is around 26 liters and heavily planted. There should be a little food naturally occuring in the tank, but would it keep the fishies going for two weeks?

 

[kayjo]

I take a 2 week vaca each summer. For 10 years I didn't feed my fish while away and never had any losses or issues. This year I had someone feed them for me, but I had him feed a predetermined (by me) amount every 3 days so they wouldn't be overfed.

 

[Ags11]

Interesting to hear!

 

[Kevin Eades]

You can buy holiday blocks which slowly release food by dissolving. But if you can get someone to pop in it would be best as they can check there are no other issues. Then as above leave some food bags with pre measured amounts. Nothing worse than an overfed tank and no maintenance to kill everything.

 

[Hufsa]

I would definitely not recommend holiday blocks, those things have killed far more fish than a 2 week fast ever has.
Leaving them alone or having someone give them premeasured food from containers work well. I would even go so far as to hide the rest of the fish food, guest feeders can be fatally generous.
Autofeeders are also good, I use one myself. But always test them well in advance of leaving. Its better they give too little than too much

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Leaving them alone or having someone give them premeasured food from containers work well. I would even go so far as to hide the rest of the fish food, guest feeders can be fatally generous.

Same for me.

cheers Darrel

 

[tiger15]

I have been on vacation each year for 2 to 3 weeks at a time, and never feed my fish. Having someone who is not a hobbyist to feed your fish can cause more harm than good, and potentially risk disaster. Adult fish can fast for weeks with no ill effect, considering brooding mouthbrooders and plecos stop eating for 3 to 4 weeks. In fact, dietary restrictions prolonged life of guppies and a range of animal in experiments. However, for small fry that have no reserve, not eating for a week can be fatal.

 

[tiger15]

I would definitely not recommend holiday blocks, those things have killed far more fish than a 2 week fast ever has.
Leaving them alone or having someone give them premeasured food from containers work well. I would even go so far as to hide the rest of the fish food, guest feeders can be fatally generous.
Autofeeders are also good, I use one myself. But always test them well in advance of leaving. Its better they give too little than too much

Those holiday blocks last about 3 days each plus and minus depending on water hardness. 2 blocks don’t make 6 days or 3 blocks 9 days and so on. The only way to make them last longer is to drop them sequentially. I’ve designed a way to do it using floating foam as illustrated.

I only provide slow release food to my fry on vacation.

 

[Kevin Eades]

Depends on the block I've used some and they had to be taken out when I've got home as still not fully gone. Never had an issue feeding with them or any issues with water quality on return. I do not agree with leaving fish for 2-3 weeks without being fed at all. They may survive but they will not be happy. I class it the same as not feeding a dog or cat for a few days. They will be alive but it's still abuse. We made a commitment when getting our pets so should have a plan for holidays etc. I know fish don't eat every day in the wild so some people fed every other day etc but I doubt they go 3 weeks without food. This is just my opinion and its up to each of us what we feel is right but I would not personally leave a tank unattended for more than a weekend max

 

[SRP3006]

I bought a auto feeder, tested it out well in advance just in case. Works on the same mechanism as most analog plug timers. Quite happy with it to honest. Fish Mate F14 Aquarium Fish Feeder Amazon product ASIN B000YK5W18

 

[tiger15]

Depends on the block I've used some and they had to be taken out when I've got home as still not fully gone. Never had an issue feeding with them or any issues with water quality on return. I do not agree with leaving fish for 2-3 weeks without being fed at all. They may survive but they will not be happy. I class it the same as not feeding a dog or cat for a few days. They will be alive but it's still abuse. We made a commitment when getting our pets so should have a plan for holidays etc. I know fish don't eat every day in the wild so some people fed every other day etc but I doubt they go 3 weeks without food. This is just my opinion and its up to each of us what we feel is right but I would not personally leave a tank unattended for more than a weekend max

Dog and cat are warm blooded animal that need to be fed daily. Cold blooded animal like reptiles only need to be fed weekly to monthly. Fish are cold blooded and don’t need to be fed daily. Koi and goldfish keepers don’t feed their fish in ponds the entire winter. I’m not sure if fish are unhappy if they are unfed for few weeks, but goldfish are happy to eat as much as you give them until they blow up.

Large feeding block can last up to a week before dissolving, but you run the risk of polluting the water in a small fry tank. I only feed my small fry when I’m away from vacation.

 

[John q]

This is just my opinion and its up to each of us what we feel is right

That's the crux of it.

I occasionally fast the fish for a couple of days and generally feed 2 days out of 3, some folks feed twice a day, seven days a week.

I'd have no qualms leaving the fish without food for seven days, but would feel uneasy stretching that to two weeks. I suppose it horses for courses.

 

[Ags11]

Well.. the omicron strain solved the problem: my holiday got cancelled!

 

[Carol]

I would be more concerned with evaporation,for future reference. When fish are wild caught they go for a long time without food. Most living things in good condition can last some time without food,water is the problem, and of course fish wont suffer from that.
Back in the day when Marine fishkeeping took off we used to feed our fish once a month.
Sorry you are missing out on your holiday. I seriously think theres an over reaction to Covid. We all have a certain immunity now whether via vaccines or having caught it or both even. Those of us who are extra vulnerable like my husband should not have the whole world stop for them. We both have a good life and know how to protect ourselves. The young and the healthy should not have to be penned in for the vulnerable.

 

[arcturus]

(...) Sorry you are missing out on your holiday. I seriously think theres an over reaction to Covid. (...)

We can start talking about overreactions when COVID stops overwhelming the health care system and its workers, even with all the major investments in new hospital beds and ICUs that took place during last year. Anyway, this is off-topic for this forum...

 

[Carol]

Quite so ,but I am Guilty of starting it ,so I apologise to members. I might reconsider my first post tho if I ever meet anyone who has had it,or died from it.

 

[MichaelJ]

Quite so ,but I am Guilty of starting it ,so I apologise to members. I might reconsider my first post tho if I ever meet anyone who has had it,or died from it.

Well never mind - this is just not the right place to bring this up. However, it's always good to remember that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence... if you never met anyone who had it or died from it, it statistically means you don't know enough people in the high risk category. We had family and friends who had it (and it was bad) and we have (remote) family members and close family members of friends who died from it. Be safe.

 

[mort]

With such a lightly stocked tank, when you do get the chance to go away, I think you would be ok if you tried to build a little more natural food in the tank. Big fish can easily go a couple of weeks without food but I'm always more cautious about smaller, more high energy fish, like cpd's. You could build up a little corner of botanicals in the months before you are away and introduce some more life to the system. You see this approach when breeding small fish like pygmy cories and it does work well. I did something similar with some fry I was raising and there was so much life, enough for constantly fat bellies, that I didn't need to feed the tank all summer long.

 

[arcturus]

With such a lightly stocked tank, when you do get the chance to go away, I think you would be ok if you tried to build a little more natural food in the tank. Big fish can easily go a couple of weeks without food but I'm always more cautious about smaller, more high energy fish, like cpd's. You could build up a little corner of botanicals in the months before you are away and introduce some more life to the system. You see this approach when breeding small fish like pygmy cories and it does work well. I did something similar with some fry I was raising and there was so much life, enough for constantly fat bellies, that I didn't need to feed the tank all summer long.

Can you kindly elaborate on what exactly is in this "little corner of botanicals"? This sounds like an interesting approach!

 

[mort]

Can you kindly elaborate on what exactly is in this "little corner of botanicals"? This sounds like an interesting approach!

It kind of follows the thoughts shown here

The web of life...and food. And botanicals.

After almost two decades of playing with botanical-style aquariums, I've come to a conclusion that likely will not surprise any of you: These systems are biologically diverse, and, if given the chance, are more than capable of meeting some of the nutritional needs of the resident fishes...

tanninaquatics.com

Essentially you just use one small area of the tank to add some life and living area to species we don't normally think about. Some of us like botanicals as a feature so don't mind them front and centre or covering the whole tank but stuffing them into a dark hidden area will help as well. The way I have done it was to add some sludge/leaves and stones from a local river or my pond, to a tub in the back garden where I could add my own botanicals to. I then use these botanicals to inoculate the tank with an array of life (i also add live foods from these tubs regularly).
If I were to just add some nice botanicals I would see some live foods produced, some nice biofilms and algae but I don't think it's works as well as when you can introduce a mini food Web. It was a tip I got from a very old fish breeder and his stock was the healthiest I've ever seen and was about as maintanence free as you could get from a fish house (although it wasn't always a pretty display tank).