My Holiday Experience.

[bigcheed]

So last week I went for my first week long holiday since I started keeping fish. ive been away for weekends but never more than 3 days. To say I was a little apprehensive is an understatement. I invested in two types of timing switches for the lights both digital and mechanical. went with the mechanical as the digital proved to be very unreliable when I tested them. My main problem was feeding. Getting someone to come in and feed them was not an option for me. ( its a complicated story). So I turned to vacation feeders, both mechanical and in tank. I opted for the tetramin holiday gel feeder. There were a lot of mixed reviews for these but a lot more were positive compared to the traditional white blocks. So on to the results. I have three tanks. the first a 28l shrimp only. this tank gave me the least head ache as I new the shrimp would be fine without any additional food. I just put fresh catapa leaf in a few days before I left. The feeder is said to last for two weeks so I cut it in half and placed half in each of the two remaining tanks.My main tank is 125l community. When I got home I did a water test right away and found that the feeder had not altered the water parameters by much at all. In fact there was only a slight shift in ph from 7.2 to 7.4. All the other readings were optimal. The feeder itself looked to have been fed on and the majority of my fish looked happy and healthy. With the exception of my female chocolate gourami. she looked a little washed out and a bit thinner. But on closer inspection I noticed she had a mouth full of eggs so that was why she hadn't eaten. The second tanks water was also fine. This tank is 40l and is home to my betta and 4 bronze corys. The feeder in this tank however looked untouched and was covered in a white furry looking stuff. All the fish looked fine though. The aftermath. The day after I got home I got geared up for some maintenance and water changes. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself having had no major problems and losing no fish. That's when I noticed the little white spots on my black neon tetras. Yep ive got white spot in my community tank. Looks like ive caught it early only a few of the fish are affected and there only a few white spots. my other tank is unaffected thankfully. ive begun treating the tank with king british ws3 as well as turning up the heater. its a steady 30oc in there at the moment and ive decided to dose 1/2 ml daily of the ws3. This due to some of the more sensitive fish I have namely chocolate and licorice gourami's. not sure what I can pin the white spot down too. Were the fish stressed by the irregular break in feeding? or was it a bit of laziness on my part. I introduced a bn plec to my tank about a week before I left for my holiday. when I got home with him I was in a bit of a rush and dident quarantine him. plus I broke a cardinal rule and released him from the bag into the tank. this is not something im proud of and don't do it on a regular basis. the treatment is in the third day and seems to be working well. there are less and less spots every day and the best thing is there are no new ones appearing. this was my experience. would love to hear anyone elses or tips and advice. knowledge is power.

 

[the_lock_man]

I've not long been on a week's holiday too. I fed my fish the evening before we left. I fed them when we got home. Nothing in between. No problems.
 
My best guess is that the feeder caused a minor ammonia spike, that the bacteria grew to cope with, but which caused enough of a dip in their immune systems to allow the whitespot to do its thing. Or it could be that it would have happened if you hadn't been away at all, ie it's "one of those things".

 

[bigcheed]

Im inclined to agree lock man. i know its nothing major in the grand scheme of things. ive encountered white spot before when i first started out. its just pissed on my chips a little.