Hi all..
I have been asked several times how to deal with leaving the house and having a pet sitter look after the fish. Now, understand that I have two cats and two birds as well, so while my bird specialized pet sitter is well versed in feathers and fur, her fin knowledge was limited; here is what I did.
Buy some frozen fish food; I like the freshwater multi-pack by San Francisco Bay Brand. Take one or two plastic ice cube trays, figure 12 cubes of ice per tray. Using a knife, scrape a SMALL amount of the frozen food into the individual cube areas in the ice cube tray and fill the tray with distilled water. (Understand that I scrape a very small amount here; I don't cut into the food cube at all. ) Since I use the multipack, I scrape a little bit of two or three different food cubes so the fish have a variety.
Pop the trays in the freezer, however, make sure you can distinguish the fish food trays from your normal ice cube trays...my mother found out the hard way not to use cubes out of my blue trays
Have the pet sitter pop out one of the fish food filled ice cubes every other day and drop it in the tank. As the cube melts, the fish eat their fill. The small amount of added cold, distilled water will not modify your tank parameters and you don't have to worry about over feeding; I even did this when I had a saltwater tank. I prefer the frozen food just for convenience so have never tried this with flakes. I would think the flakes would absorb too much moisture and would get mushy (or enter the tank in clumps), although, while I can't stand something like mushy cereal, I guess the fish wouldn't really care.
12 cubes/1 ice cube tray, lasts my 75 gallon tank and 13 fish a full 24 days. As always, use only enough food for the size of tank and the number of fish. With 13 fish in the 75, I have a bit more leeway. For smaller tanks, you would simply scrape less food into the cube area. Research I have seen says fish can go as long as two weeks without feeding (although I would never test this theory myself) so a small amount every other day is just about right.
Since I did this, I have never had a problem with my tank even after being away for 3 weeks.
I have been asked several times how to deal with leaving the house and having a pet sitter look after the fish. Now, understand that I have two cats and two birds as well, so while my bird specialized pet sitter is well versed in feathers and fur, her fin knowledge was limited; here is what I did.
Buy some frozen fish food; I like the freshwater multi-pack by San Francisco Bay Brand. Take one or two plastic ice cube trays, figure 12 cubes of ice per tray. Using a knife, scrape a SMALL amount of the frozen food into the individual cube areas in the ice cube tray and fill the tray with distilled water. (Understand that I scrape a very small amount here; I don't cut into the food cube at all. ) Since I use the multipack, I scrape a little bit of two or three different food cubes so the fish have a variety
. Pop the trays in the freezer, however, make sure you can distinguish the fish food trays from your normal ice cube trays...my mother found out the hard way not to use cubes out of my blue trays
Have the pet sitter pop out one of the fish food filled ice cubes every other day and drop it in the tank. As the cube melts, the fish eat their fill. The small amount of added cold, distilled water will not modify your tank parameters and you don't have to worry about over feeding; I even did this when I had a saltwater tank. I prefer the frozen food just for convenience so have never tried this with flakes. I would think the flakes would absorb too much moisture and would get mushy (or enter the tank in clumps), although, while I can't stand something like mushy cereal, I guess the fish wouldn't really care.
12 cubes/1 ice cube tray, lasts my 75 gallon tank and 13 fish a full 24 days. As always, use only enough food for the size of tank and the number of fish. With 13 fish in the 75, I have a bit more leeway. For smaller tanks, you would simply scrape less food into the cube area. Research I have seen says fish can go as long as two weeks without feeding (although I would never test this theory myself) so a small amount every other day is just about right.
Since I did this, I have never had a problem with my tank even after being away for 3 weeks.
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