Vacation Time, Feeding Time!!

[LongNY]

How should I leave my tank while I am away for about 4 days....

Should I leave the light on?

Are my 12 Tiger Barbs and 2 Redtail Sharks alright w/o food? I know it's a stretch, but not sure what else I can do....

Thanks, John NYC

 

[rdd1952]

They should be fine without food for that long. If you're uncomfortable with leaving them for that long though, put the food for a normal feeding in a small cup and have someone come over and feed them on the second or third day. As for the lights, if you have live plants, you probably need to get a timer to put them on. The plants won't do well without light for 4 days. If no live plants, I'd just leave the lights off. Leaving them on for that long isn't really good for the fish as they need some dark time too and also could create a major algae problem.

 

[playfulalliecat]

If you don't have plants, I would turn the lights off and make sure all windows or other natural light sources are covered well. This makes the fish kind of go into hibernation, for a lack of better explanation. They kind of float around the tank, don't really swim. Then you can go without feeding and they won't attack each other looking for a food source.

We did that with our tank (listed in sig) for 10 days this spring. Had no problems! As soon as we got home, we turned on the lights for a bit and fed after they started swimming around looking at us. They come up to the top of the tank at us wanting food. LOL After feeding we did a water change and all was well!

Good luck! HTH!