vacation and need advice

[Michaela521]

Hello everyone,

I am leaving for a vacation for 5-7 days and the lady who will be taking care of the house isn't to fish tank inclined. I usually do water changes every other day but sense she is here and can't really change the water out of the tank is there anything I can substitute for just 5-7 days that will get it by. Perhaps a chemical that will take the nitrate out or shield the fish from being harmed by it that can be used in emergency situations. Thanks*thumbsups

 

[Lotus]

They should be fine for a week without a water change. While nitrates are bad in high concentration, they're not usually fatal. If you feed less, nitrates will be lower, as the fish won't be putting out as much waste.

If she's feeding the fish for you, put each daily portion in a ziploc bag, or a pill container, so all she has to do is dump in the food at each feeding. A lot of people have come back to a tankfull of food because the person looking after the tank didn't know how much to feed.

 

[ishar]

Fish would be fine for 5-7 without any food wouldn't they? I mean they'll be hungry when you get back, but shouldn't they be ok? If you don't want to risk polluting the water I would just tell your housekeeper not to worry about the fish at all...

 

[kendakr]

I left my fish alone for a week over Thanksgiving and they were okay but did look stressed. There was a good deal of evaporation too which was bad. My levels didn't change so no real ill effects minus stress to the fish and evaporation.

 

[FroggyFox]

the easiest way I've found is to pre-measure food into a weekly pill box like Lotus suggested...but if you dont want to worry about it, your fish should be fine without any attention for a week. Generally if I'm going to be gone less than about 5 days I dont have anyone worry about them.