Tetra Feeding...

[M.G.]

I will be off on vacation soon. I have 8 Neon Tetras and feed them a small pinch of flake food each morning. Tank is stable.

So, question is, how long can they go without being fed? Depending on that I may have to get a friend to do some feedings.

Thanks.....

 

[Colin_T]

if the fish are in good condition and have been well fed leading up to the holiday, they should be fine for a couple of weeks without food. If you start feeding them 2 or 3 times a day, and increase water changes to compensate for the extra food, then it will help build them up a bit more before you go away.
Adding some true aquatic plants to the tank will also help.

 

[M.G.]

Excellent.

I will do as you advise, increasing feeding for the next three days while doing perhaps 10% water changes each day followed by a nice like 50% water change the night before I go. The trip length is 10 days, so there is really only 7/8 days they would not be fed. I can put their light on a timer also, though I am not sure that is necessary? The room they are in gets muted ambient light though a skylight.

 

[Colin_T]

if you have live plants in the tank then put the lights on a timer and have them come on for however long you normally have them on for (ie:8-10hours a day).

 

[millym]

instead why not just invest a little bit of cash in an automatic fish feeder - does just what it says .........we always use auto feeders when we go away and there are several different types avail - for flake feeding the ehiem one ( its a digital) is very good & in our experience very reliable and can be adjusted to change the amount of food you give your fish and how many times a day. you can buy them online. just a tip though ....test your feeder before you go to make sure its working and also its dispensing the right amount fo feed. i hate not feeding little creatures that are reliant on me even if it is just for a few days

 

[M.G.]

Yes, i admit, I do feel a bit guilty. I will have a neighbor drop in and no doubt overfeed the little critters a few times I think. This scares me a bit, as their tank looks like this...

Thanks for the help....

 

[Colin_T]

Please don't get a neighbour to feed them unless the neighbour keeps fish. Too many people have lost fish because a neighbour added a bit of food. There's plenty of algae in your tank so I would just leave them be.

I have had fish living in tanks for months without being fed. The longest time was 8months where a group of small rainbowfish where left unfed and simply survived on the stuff in the tank. A couple of weeks without food is nothing and not likely to cause any problems to the fish.

 

[M.G.]

... There's plenty of algae in your tank so I would just leave them be...

Yeah, that was the neighbor's tank, with all the algae in it. My daughter's tank is pretty clean.

I will pre-measure the food into pill reminder containers and only have the neighbor feed them 2 or 3 times in the 8 days I am gone.

 

[M.G.]

Back from vacation and the fish seem to be in great shape. The tank however has a mystery film on the surface.

New thread in the New To Hobby Forum devoted to that in case any are interested in the fallout