Goin on a trip..
- Thread starter Kay
- Start date
How long are you going to be gone?
A healthy fish can live well over a week with no food. If your only going to weekend or a short time, then I wouldn't worry about having anyone feeding them.
To make it easier on who ever is going to take care of your fish if gone for a longer time, you may want to setup some food in small baggies. Have enough food for one feeding in a single bag. This way all they have to do is dump one bag of food in the tank, and that's it! No fuss, no muss. I would just feed them the same thing as what you've normaly been giving them. And if it is going to be for a longer time, I would only recomend that they be feed every other day at most.
A healthy fish can live well over a week with no food. If your only going to weekend or a short time, then I wouldn't worry about having anyone feeding them.
To make it easier on who ever is going to take care of your fish if gone for a longer time, you may want to setup some food in small baggies. Have enough food for one feeding in a single bag. This way all they have to do is dump one bag of food in the tank, and that's it! No fuss, no muss. I would just feed them the same thing as what you've normaly been giving them. And if it is going to be for a longer time, I would only recomend that they be feed every other day at most.
I'm planning on being gone for about a month but we still have to go over plans and plan tickets. I'm so excited though, I'll get to stop in Utah and see a friend's graduation and then off to Cali to see my Mom-in-law and then I'm stopping in Washington and picking up my cousin to come stay in Alaska over the rest of his summer. I just dont want to burden my parents to much with the fish, but I'd rather agrivate them then have fish die.
I'd have them stop in 2-3 times a week, and I'd have pre-portioned foods like Orion mentioned. The most common situation in this instance is that whoever is taking care of the fish while you are away overfeeds the fish and causes illness/death. And you don't want to be overfeeding, especially when there'll be no maintenance on the tank. Or will there be?
Instead of using plastic bags to portion the food, though, you may want to try some of those cheapo 50 cent pill-a-day containers. When I've tried to use plastic with flake food, it all sticks (static) to the plastic and pretty much nothing comes out.
Or since food will be more scarce than usual, you may want to feed something more nutritious while you're gone, like frozen bloodworms. These can be precut into little pieces (or you can use the cubed kind) and that can be fed instead.
PS - Just don't use those "vacation feeder" tablets. They're pretty useless.
Instead of using plastic bags to portion the food, though, you may want to try some of those cheapo 50 cent pill-a-day containers. When I've tried to use plastic with flake food, it all sticks (static) to the plastic and pretty much nothing comes out.
Or since food will be more scarce than usual, you may want to feed something more nutritious while you're gone, like frozen bloodworms. These can be precut into little pieces (or you can use the cubed kind) and that can be fed instead.
PS - Just don't use those "vacation feeder" tablets. They're pretty useless.
No...I agree with Leopardess...most of the 'vacation feeders' are designed only to be used in specific water conditions (I looked one time and they dont even dissolve in a pH higher than 7 or something and my pH is naturally over 8!) The best thing I've found is also like Leopardess said, I have a pill box for each of my tanks (labeled with duct tape and a sharpie) and I measure out frozen food for each time they come by and say put one of each into this tank. I usually split them up and put flake in one, next time put frozen etc and make sure to tell them not to leave the boxes out that they need to stay in the freezer!
Its also very helpful if you are going to be able to be in touch with whoever is watching your fish. My roommate is trained to know that if anything seems wierd with one of my tanks when I'm on a business trip she calls me. (Even if its just a dead fish, she knows I'm going to want to know which fish it was) But the sheet of info on "what if's" is helpful too...depending on how involved your parents want to be.
They definitely dont have to come by twice a day, or even every day. Every other day or every three days would be plenty, and you could just measure out a little extra than you'd usually feed in one day the longer between visits that they're going to be.
Its also very helpful if you are going to be able to be in touch with whoever is watching your fish. My roommate is trained to know that if anything seems wierd with one of my tanks when I'm on a business trip she calls me. (Even if its just a dead fish, she knows I'm going to want to know which fish it was) But the sheet of info on "what if's" is helpful too...depending on how involved your parents want to be.
They definitely dont have to come by twice a day, or even every day. Every other day or every three days would be plenty, and you could just measure out a little extra than you'd usually feed in one day the longer between visits that they're going to be.
Its a little messy...but it can be done. What I did was kinda break them in chunks and add some water and then refreeze..but they were kind of a pain to get out of the pill containers (they're not like ice cube trays so twisting didn't help...I tried and broke one haha) SO some experimenting might be in order 
I suppose it would be best if you got frozen food that was already in blocks small enough to fit into one of the pill spots...or just trust that unthawing and re-freezing isn't going to hurt things too much. I didn't have any issues...but I also tried not to let it all completely un-thaw.
I figured being in the freezer isn't going to hurt the flake food or the bottom feeder tablets at all either, so I mixed up the days like I would have done with my food anyway
I suppose it would be best if you got frozen food that was already in blocks small enough to fit into one of the pill spots...or just trust that unthawing and re-freezing isn't going to hurt things too much. I didn't have any issues...but I also tried not to let it all completely un-thaw.I figured being in the freezer isn't going to hurt the flake food or the bottom feeder tablets at all either, so I mixed up the days like I would have done with my food anyway
helo..
great story...
i had try holiday food before on my hoiliday for 5 day...and nothing hapen to my fish, all stay hapy and healthy...i had wish to used it on my next trip...
seeing ur discussion, i m abit scare my fish won do well on my next trip...cos i won have any1 to help to feed my fish....
may i know wat is the disavantage of holiday food and any idea wat can i do if i m going off holiday more then 1 week?
thanks
Hee
great story...
i had try holiday food before on my hoiliday for 5 day...and nothing hapen to my fish, all stay hapy and healthy...i had wish to used it on my next trip...
seeing ur discussion, i m abit scare my fish won do well on my next trip...cos i won have any1 to help to feed my fish....
may i know wat is the disavantage of holiday food and any idea wat can i do if i m going off holiday more then 1 week?
thanks
Hee
If NO one can come feed your fish while you're gone they do sell automatic feeders (although you need to test it first to be sure you have a type of food and have it working correctly so it doesn't put ALL the food into the tank at once or something)...but I wouldn't suggest using those feeders that dissolve. They leave a mess in your tank IF they even do any dissolving at all...and I'd think most fish would go "what the heck is that" instead of eating it. If you're going to be gone longer than about 10 days...you should figure something out. If its 7 days...probably a toss up, they'll probably be ok. Any shorter than that and I wouldn't hesitate to just not feed them...although I'd probably feel bad
Well I'll look for one of those automatic feeders. My husband will be overseas and I'll be gone for at least a month. LoL when I went to my moms to grab her 10g that she didnt want anymore she was grossed out when I cleaned it out. So I guess she wont be cleaning my tank at all. I have other friends that will do that but I dont think it will get cleaned more then once a week I have been doing it about every other day because I dont know if it's done cycling and I wont have a test kit until friday.
I have been doing it about every other day because I dont know if it's done cycling and I wont have a test kit until friday.
