I don't think it's true

[MXPX4318]

ok so I went on a trip for the holidays and I left on Sunday morning, feed everyone and everyone was looking nice and healthy, well I got home tonight (thursday) and found one of my cory catfish DEAD and so I pulled him out, checked my water, everything seemed fine 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20 nitrate, but I flipped him over and his belly was very sunken in, so I'm convinced he starved to death as my german blue ram who was a beutiful gold and blue when I left was PALE white and was looking a bit skinny too, so I changed the water and gave them a healthy portion of frozen shrimp and shrimp pellets for the rest of the cories and so now the rams color is starting to come back, if I wasn't so worried about the health of my fish I would have taken a picture of him to show you just how white he was! needless to say I'm not too happy about this and will be investing in an auto feeder for any other trips that I may go on! So to you guys that say "2 weeks easy" I say YOU ARE WRONG.

Now this isn't saying that losing only one fish isn't BAD for having 2 tanks and a total of 28 fish but I think losing ANY fish is unacceptable when I work so hard to keep a nice tank and have healthy fish and then they die due to going off for 5 days.

RIP cory cat (no names so I don't get attatched)

to the petstore tomorrow to replace him I guess (errr ummm monday b/c tomorrow is new years eve and I'm not sure if they're open)

 

[astroboy]

Normally, a healthy adult fish can last a week without food, and depending on species much longer.
But, i guess it was too long for your cory. Sorry about your fish

 

[Opcn]

Your cory should have made it 4 days, I think that perhaps it wasnt getting enought food before you left, are you sure that they are getting enought food on the bottom?

 

[MXPX4318]

yeah I drop three sinking shrimp pellets every day and all three of them huddle around one and eat.... the other two seem fine, maybe he was left out and didn't get enough....I don't know... as for the Ram I think I just startled him as it's been dark for about 2 hours before I came in and turned on the light and "woke" them up and he hadn't caught his color back at the moment as everyone else is swimming around fine now.

 

[sylvia]

It's also good to get them used to not being fed before leaving them for a long period all of a sudden. You have to be especialy careful with young or fragile fish. Cory cats don't grow particularly fast so if he wasn't yet full grown he may not have been able to handle the time without food. I still will have to agree though that there must have already been something wrong as 4 days without food should not have killed him. The pale coloration on your ram is no surprise though. They always look pale when they've not eaten for a while. Out of curiosity, has anyone tried lowering the water temp before leaving? In theory this would lower metabolism and mimick nature (winter when food is scarce) and probably help keep the fish alive longer without food.

 

[Munch]

Why didnt you just buy a tropical vacation block?
I bought a 2 week one when i went away for 3 weeks and there was still some left in the tank so it took about 4 weeks to get eaten and all my fish were fine.
It cost me £1.20 from my lfs.
Sorry to hear about your cory.
Chris

 

[Stryker]

Is your tank planted? Plants useually look real tasty to hungry fish.

 

[bigfish]

I always go for vacation blocks when i go away even if its for a long weekend. Usually find some remains of it when i get back.

I have had a bad case once before left my fish for 3 days, came home to disaster

1 dead bloated guppy
1 dead cory
and the other two didn't look good either one was half dead

Immediately done a 25% waterchange there and then as i think the dead guppy was to blame!!! Hoping the corys would recover, unfortunately the 1 past away during the night

The tank was cloudy as if someone had turned the power off on my filter, so i asked my dad and sister if we had had a power failure in the house or if dad had been playing with the electric's again!!!!! Of course no one would own up of course!!!


I don't like leaving my fish unattended!!!

 

[Gourami Lover88]

I have gone away for 1 and 1\2 weeks and all of my fish are fine that includes my guppies and corys which are not full grown.

Your corys may have internal parsites if they couldnt go a couple of days, what type of sikning pellets do you use? Many brands use fillers.


Edit : as Sylvia said you fish might not have been acustom to the time with out food, I reguarly skip a days feeding once or twice a week.

 

[mrplaty]

my friend went away on holiday and his gourami went 3 weeks without food before eventually it died

 

[ioNightShade]

None of y'all will believe this, but my betta lived for almost 4 weeks without food. I had an emergency trip to India and I totally forgot about him, until I was on the plane.

When I came back, he was pale blue and lying at the bottom. Wouldn't move at all when I tapped on the glass. Did an immediate water change. Next morning, fed him. Almost cried watching him struggle to the top. If he ever stopped flapping, he would sink really fast.

Eventually, he was almost as good as new (never got to 100%). He was 3 years old at the time. Died about 4 months later.

RIP Spike.

JT

 

[Dorkhedeos]

arent vacation blocks worse than nothing? they cloud the water and its mostly plaster right?

 

[Aquamick]

arent vacation blocks worse than nothing? they cloud the water and its mostly plaster right?

They raise pH a lot. No good unless you keep Africans, I find. Also, the cloudy plaster can irritate you fish's gills. They are still sold 'for keeping your fish healthy and happy while you're on vacation' with pictures of Discus, Rams, Corys etc.