Advice Needed (Going Away)

[Jamie24]

Hi folks... I'm flying out to France in the morning coming back on Monday night, I know that isn't a long time but as it's the first time I've been away since having fish I'm just looking for advice on what to do regarding food ?? I do have Tetra holiday sticks but I've heard very mixed reports, I also have Otto's in my tank which eat & eat....

On a slightly different note I'm away again at the end of the month, this time for 5 days what should I do during this time also ??

Thanks guys.

 

[CezzaXV]

On both occasions I would just leave them as they are. Most fish will go a week without food no problem, many as much as two weeks. Not to mention there will be plenty of naturally occurring stuff in your tank they can nom on in the meantime.

 

[OldMan47]

If you are going to be gone for just a few days, do nothing. The fish will be fine.

 

[Jamie24]

If you are going to be gone for just a few days, do nothing. The fish will be fine.

Returned from my trip yesterday to find 1 Rummynose dead & the rest very very pale near enough floating at the bottom of the tank, some had there tails curling up & didn't look well at all... Straight away done a water test & all was fine, looked for any fungal/infections & nothing, temp was the same as I left it, filter running fine with no blockage so I feed immediately & hoped for the best... this morning all Rummies looking in good colour again & swimming happily

What an earth happened ??

I now don't fancy leaving these fish for an extra 2 days when I'm away at the end of the month.

 

[NeonNeptune]

Well if your going to France then make sure you bring some ..... Oh this is about fish. Yea they should be fine if you have little algae in the tank to fill them up. But if you don't they should live but would just be very hungry!

 

[Jamie24]

Well if your going to France then make sure you bring some ..... Oh this is about fish. Yea they should be fine if you have little algae in the tank to fill them up. But if you don't they should live but would just be very hungry!

They wasn't fine though, see post above

 

[eggo]

get yourself a automatic fish feeder or have a friend/family member feed them while you are away

 

[Curiosity101]

Can you give exact details of what the water test results were?

Did anyone go into your house whilst you were away?

Is there anything around the tank that could affect it? Diffusers? Window/light?

Did you do a water change before you left/the day you left?

 

[Livewire88]

It may be that you dont feed them enough if they could not go 3/4 days without food.

By that I mean you feed them enough to keep them going day to day but not enough to allow then to have a period without food. Just up the amount of food you feed for a few days leading up to going away for a weekend and the fish should be fine.

 

[eggo]

if you have a someone to come round and feed them buy a 7 day pill box am/pm and put the food in each compartment, then whoever feeds them will not be overfeeding, has above did you test your water when you got back ?

 

[Jamie24]

Water results at 12.15 last night where:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 3ppm
PH - 6.8
Temp 26

I done a water change on the Wednesday as I left on the Saturday, yes someone did check on the house whilst I was gone but I told them not to feed them as I was told it wasn't needed plus I didn't want any overfeeding, they get fed once a day when I'm here so they have only been the 3 days that I was away without food. Nothing around the tank that would effect it, heating was off & window blinds were tilted away from the tank.

 

[Curiosity101]

No heavy feedings before you left? When you did to water change did you clean the filter?

To be honest I really can't think of anything much that obviously went wrong. But I find it hard to believe that this was because they weren't fed for 3 days. I'd probably put it down to bad luck. Can you list any other symptoms? Paleness can just be because they were in the dark... alot of fish go pale when left in the dark for extended periods of time. Normally they're fine once the light has been on for awhile.