Vacation Tips?

[mayzie101]

Hey all, I have a 8 gallon fluval tank with a breeding pair of fancy guppies (2 standard females, 1 cobra male) and a golden snail. I saved 6 fry (3 from each female's drop) in a mesh breeders box type thing in the tank and they have been growing beautifully! 

 
I'm an out-of-state college student so I have to leave my precious fish for breaks occasionally (no more than a week at a time) and the first big break (longer than 3 days) is coming up with Thanksgiving. I already bought a slow release feeder to put in the tank and did a 50% water change a day or so ago to hopefully counteract any variation in the water that the release feeder might introduce.
 
If anyone has any tips for me, I'd really appreciate it!

 

[hobby5]

If it is only a week. You need to do nothing. The fish can go without food for a week easily. What is your water temp? I would stop the heater and reduce it to room temp as long as this is not below 20°C.

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

As long as you have plants in the tank and mild growing algae they'll be fine. Fishes in the wild could go for 2 weeks without food. Just make sure you feed before you leave

 

[mike455555]

im at uni, and my tanks at home. iv got very minimal stock and fast growing plants in it, none of my fish have died yer, that i know of... and the tank hasent had anything added or taken out for about 5 months now. granted there are shrimp in there for the small stock of fish to eat and other animals like daphina and other inverts in there for the fish to eat. i will be doing a water change when i get back ofc and give it a sort out 

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Is that slow releasing feeder one of those clay type things? If so, I would take it out, most of them only add ammonia, with minimal food for the fish.
 
Would you be able to get someone in to feed the fish? Normally they would be fine without food for a week, but with you having fry means there could be a few fatalities if they're left without food.

 

[mayzie101]

Thanks for all the reassurance guys!
@hobby5: The tank's temp hovers around 75 F and I have a little (but surprisingly powerful) heater in there that will prevent it from dropping below 74 F. The heating to the dorms will be shut off for the break so the room temp is going to fluctuate like crazy (definitely below 20 C / 68 F)
 
@Tongue_Flicker: I have a few Amazon Swords in the tank and basically no algae, the snail is a busy little fellow! Yeah, I'm not worried about the big guys, they can forage just fine. I'm just concerned about the fry!
 
@mike: Ahh that's reassuring! I'm going to have to leave my tank with a friend for about a month and a half over winter break and was really worried about deaths so that makes me feel much better
 
@blondie: Unfortunately, the dorms close, so nobody will be here to feed them.
It's a gel-based feeder (called Tetra Weekend). Yeah, I don't trust the plaster based ones at all, which is why I went with the gel ones. My family has used them before in freshwater tank and they don't seem to result in any ammonia spikes. I wouldn't even be considering putting a feeder in there if the babies weren't so young still. (the newest batch are under a week old)

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Thats good! They work very well IME, the only weekend feeder I recommend to people!
 
I'd leave the heater on, the chances of it overheating the tank are minimal, especially if it hasn't done it before.