Holiday Feeding

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trixilator

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Am preparing for a 2 week holiday for first time since setting up my 75l aquarium. There are 10 fish (2 guppies/2 swords/2 platties/4 mollies) and no live plants - just plastic for decoration. How much lighting should I arrange for - presently on for 12 hours per day? My main concern is feeding - searching the forums I note feed blocks are NOT recommended and the best solution is for a neighbour to come in to feed them (subject to careful instructions as to just how much etc) I can organise this but would like to know the minimum number of visits I should arrange for the 15 days I'm away. There was also some discussion about water change - do a "big" one just before leaving and another on return - or what? Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has faced similar problem. Many thanks. :look:
 
The fish would actually be fine without feeding at all. I have left mine on several occasions for 7 days and others have gone longer. If you want to have someone feed them, the best thing to do is measure a normal amount of food into small cups or containers. Just instruct them to pour one in each time. Hide the other food so they can't decide to add extra because it doesn't look like enough to them. They could feed them every 3 to 5 days during the time your gone and that would be plenty.

As far as water changes are concerned, if you do a normal to slightly larger than normal WC just before you leave, it will be fine until you return. One advantage to light feedings is that there is less chance for problems to occur. Even if the filter should happen to malfunction, less food means less waste.

IMO, you could turn the lights off all together. Since you don't have live plants, the only reason you really need lights at all is to view the fish and that's not an issue since you won't be there. They certainly don't need them as they get plenty of ambient light during the day anyway.
 
The fish would actually be fine without feeding at all. I have left mine on several occasions for 7 days and others have gone longer. If you want to have someone feed them, the best thing to do is measure a normal amount of food into small cups or containers. Just instruct them to pour one in each time. Hide the other food so they can't decide to add extra because it doesn't look like enough to them. They could feed them every 3 to 5 days during the time your gone and that would be plenty.

As far as water changes are concerned, if you do a normal to slightly larger than normal WC just before you leave, it will be fine until you return. One advantage to light feedings is that there is less chance for problems to occur. Even if the filter should happen to malfunction, less food means less waste.

IMO, you could turn the lights off all together. Since you don't have live plants, the only reason you really need lights at all is to view the fish and that's not an issue since you won't be there. They certainly don't need them as they get plenty of ambient light during the day anyway.


Thanks rdd1952 appreciate your advice!
 
tetra soft holiday blocks are brilliant they are a jelly that the fish peck at

will not polute water or turn it cloudy

turn the lights off, curtains open fish don't mind it a bit dark and you have no plants to worry about.

leave the blocks in the tins makes for easy removal of anyuneaten bits when you return. I have used them many times with complete success
 
I tried the soft gel type blocks last summer and all of my fry were lost to predation by the adults. When I had trouble figuring out why I thought I might as well see the blocks in action so I put a remaining one in a tank. It was gone in 2 days although rated for a week. I had basically left my fish unfed for 2 weeks. Most of my adults were fine but they were fed by there being fry in most of the tanks. There was a very obvious lack of fry when I returned. The tanks that had no fry also had a high survival rate for the adults so I suppose they were OK without being fed. If I had it to do over, I would make the feeding arrangements for at least twice a week while I was gone.
 
i went on holiday for a fortnight in the summer and used a tetra gel block in my small tank on my return the fish had not touched it at all - I wouldn't use it again.

HOwever, for my larger tank i bought a battery operated automatic feeder. I've always been hesitant about using them due to their bad press but mine is pretty easy to use and is very reliable.

Usually i only go away for a week and so I leave my fish with no food at all. A family member used to pop in once a week just to feed them if he had time but otherwise i have left the tank regular without food all week and it also helps my filter to give it a bit of a rest. But because this time i was going away for a fortnight and the family member was also on hols, I got the auto feeder and I've been impressed up to now with it.
 
Am preparing for a 2 week holiday for first time since setting up my 75l aquarium. There are 10 fish (2 guppies/2 swords/2 platties/4 mollies) and no live plants - just plastic for decoration. How much lighting should I arrange for - presently on for 12 hours per day? My main concern is feeding - searching the forums I note feed blocks are NOT recommended and the best solution is for a neighbour to come in to feed them (subject to careful instructions as to just how much etc) I can organise this but would like to know the minimum number of visits I should arrange for the 15 days I'm away. There was also some discussion about water change - do a "big" one just before leaving and another on return - or what? Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has faced similar problem. Many thanks. :look:
 
Back from holiday to find feeding by neighbour went very well and community appeared thriving. However my test showed horrific ammonia levels. Is water changing the ONLY solution - my ph/nitrite/nitrate are within recommended tolerances - so whats with this ammonia problem?
:angry:
 
ive left my fish for 3 weeks without food, not my fault but it turns out the neighbours didnt feed them. and i wouldnt recomend feeding blocks there a bag of crap, Literally
 
A little tip i use, is to use pop bottle tops and put a small amount of food in there slightly less than you would usaly, then all someone has to do is put that it. every couple of days Also hide the food stop anyone trying to put any more in. I found it works great
 
Is there any way the neibour has overfed?

Can you re-test and post the ammonia result and the ammonia stats from the tap?

If the ammonia is raised very high, a large waterchange must be done, now!!! Unfortunately there are no "quick fixes" that are guarrenteed to work, so waterchanges are the only advisable action-plan :crazy: By large, I mean drop the water level down to where the fish just about have enough to swim in (90% ish) and re-fill from there :good: make sure you roughly temperature match while filling :nod:

No chance of a power-cut in your abscence was there?

Realy at this point, you need to look into why the ammonia is high, as well as dealing with it :nod:

All the best
Rabbut
 
Definitely start water changes immediately. That is the only way to lower the ammonia. You might also want to get some Ammo-Lock to detoxify the ammonia until the filter can catch back up.

If the tank was fully cycled, there are really only 3 things I can think of that would cause high ammonia readings:

1) There was a power failure that lasted for several days, long enough for the bacteria to die off

2) Your friend severely overfed the fish. Even that though would normally not be a big issue as the extra food would take time to break down and the bacteria would have time to catch up. Also the tank would have most likely been a mess with leftovr ood everywhere

3) There is/was a dead fish that decayed, creating high amounts of ammonia. Once again, this would take time.
 
Is there any way the neibour has overfed?

Can you re-test and post the ammonia result and the ammonia stats from the tap?

If the ammonia is raised very high, a large waterchange must be done, now!!! Unfortunately there are no "quick fixes" that are guarrenteed to work, so waterchanges are the only advisable action-plan :crazy: By large, I mean drop the water level down to where the fish just about have enough to swim in (90% ish) and re-fill from there :good: make sure you roughly temperature match while filling :nod:

No chance of a power-cut in your abscence was there?

Realy at this point, you need to look into why the ammonia is high, as well as dealing with it :nod:

All the best
Rabbut


Is there any way the neibour has overfed?

Can you re-test and post the ammonia result and the ammonia stats from the tap?

If the ammonia is raised very high, a large waterchange must be done, now!!! Unfortunately there are no "quick fixes" that are guarrenteed to work, so waterchanges are the only advisable action-plan :crazy: By large, I mean drop the water level down to where the fish just about have enough to swim in (90% ish) and re-fill from there :good: make sure you roughly temperature match while filling :nod:

No chance of a power-cut in your abscence was there?

Realy at this point, you need to look into why the ammonia is high, as well as dealing with it :nod:

All the best
Rabbut
 
Is there any way the neibour has overfed?

Can you re-test and post the ammonia result and the ammonia stats from the tap?

If the ammonia is raised very high, a large waterchange must be done, now!!! Unfortunately there are no "quick fixes" that are guarrenteed to work, so waterchanges are the only advisable action-plan :crazy: By large, I mean drop the water level down to where the fish just about have enough to swim in (90% ish) and re-fill from there :good: make sure you roughly temperature match while filling :nod:

No chance of a power-cut in your abscence was there?

Realy at this point, you need to look into why the ammonia is high, as well as dealing with it :nod:

All the best
Rabbut





Have done a 50% water change and have following results:

Nitrite: O
Nitrate: 20
PH: 7.6
Ammonia: 2

Thats a big drop in ammonia, thank goodness! Will try a 80/90% water change tomorrow. Very much appreciate your help.
Thanks
 

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