Oscars Mum Is Going On Holiday

[glolite]

Hi guys
I have several tanks up and running and am planning a holiday for 10 days. I know that a well maintained tank is fine to leave for that amount of time and that adult fish can go without food for 10 days. However, my 2 oscars are juvenile leaning towards adult and are always hungry, waggling for food 3 times a day. My question is, should I just leave them without food for 10 days or get a neighbour to come in and feed them?

My main worry is that although these oscars have been together for life, if they get overly hungry, will they become aggressive and start attacking each other?

Perhaps Spishky, Minxy and Shelagh will know or anyone with experience in oscar keeping.
All suggestions gratefully accepted.

 

[glolite]

Bump

 

[indigoj]

Morning! I think I'd be worried too. A hungry Oscar can be quite formidable.

Obviously another concern with oscars is how messy they are, so I'm guessing you'll do a waterchange just before you go.

Do you have a very trustworthy neighbour/relative/LFS worker (prob need to pay the latter though) who could feed them a few times while you are away? Someone who would only do exactly as directed? Maybe just leave 3 or 4 meals to be spread over the 10 days and choose whatever is the least messy food you can. If you do this I'd also hide all the rest of the food to remove temptation!

Food wise they would be fine for 10 days but my fears would be the same as yours - if they get hungry they could get grouchy.

 

[Spishkey]

ive left my oscars twice with no one to feed them, first time was 7 days, second time was 14 days.

for the 7 day leave i put live feeder fish in the tank with the oscars so if they did get peckish, i hoped they would go for the feeder fish rather than each other!

for the 14 day absence i again added feeder fish that they could hunt and chase, but also hooked up an automatic feeder, which dropped floating pellets in once every 2 days
water stats were fine when i got back, fish were hungry but didnt fight i wouldnt ever leave 2 oscars together with no food, you just dont know what goes through there cheeky little minds!

if you have a neighbour you can trust to go in, (even just once on the 5th day to throw some food in), i would!!
perhaps if someone can come and feed them, you could before you leave put the required amount of food for each day in marked envelopes so they dont overfeed the fish (for example one envelope marked mondays food, one wednesday, one friday etc... not everyday as your away and will not be doing your water changes you want to keep the water as unpoluted as poss! even every three days feed may be better?)

 

[Geoff1991]

Even though they want food, theyll be alright for a week or two i think, so enjoy your holiday

 

[Spishkey]

Even though they want food, theyll be alright for a week or two i think, so enjoy your holiday

i dont think its the need for food she's worried about, its the fact oscars can be a bit...erm....grumpy when it comes to not being fed and may take it out on each other

 

[glolite]

Bless you for all your replies.
I think I'll get my trusted neighbour to feed them every few days as suggested.
Have to warn her they get a bit feisty at feeding time though, as I don't want to return from hols and find her fingerless

 

[Geoff1991]

Even though they want food, theyll be alright for a week or two i think, so enjoy your holiday

i dont think its the need for food she's worried about, its the fact oscars can be a bit...erm....grumpy when it comes to not being fed and may take it out on each other

Oh, fair enough. I dont keep oscars so i was trying to keep my advise pretty general, as i didnt want to give bad advise.

 

[glolite]

Even though they want food, theyll be alright for a week or two i think, so enjoy your holiday

i dont think its the need for food she's worried about, its the fact oscars can be a bit...erm....grumpy when it comes to not being fed and may take it out on each other

Oh, fair enough. I dont keep oscars so i was trying to keep my advise pretty general, as i didnt want to give bad advise.

No worries Geoff, it's good advice for the other tanks, and I've left the 'normal' fish before without food for two weeks. It's great, you come back to sparkling clean tanks with really friendly fish in them

 

[indigoj]

Wish you were nearer - I'd offer to feed em for you. Sure that a neighbour will do ok - get them to join here 'just in case' LOL - we'll have them setting up their own tank before you get back

 

[JoolsA2]

Have a good holiday!!!

 

[glolite]

Thanks everyone. Actually I'm leaving my neighbour to feed the 4 molly fry in an 8g tank aswell. Easier to take it round to her house, so you never know, she may well get hooked while I'm away