Weekend Feeders - Yes or No?

[GooGirl]

I'm going to be going on a weekend vacation with my family. We'll be leaving Friday morning, and returning Sunday afternoon. Would it be a good idea to buy some weekend feeders, or will the fish be fine without food for that time period?

Thanks!

 

[Thyra]

Your fish should be fine without food for that long easily. I have left mine for 5 - 6 days without food with no problems. When we go for nine days I have tossed in one of those week end feeders in each tank, but otherwise nothing.

 

[GooGirl]

OK, thanks!

I'm always paranoid about food now because I have rabbits. If you don't feed them right or enough, they can get sick so easily! And if they go without food for 12-24 hours, they could die!

 

[Thyra]

Over feeding fish tends to cause more problems than underfeeding them.

 

[GooGirl]

Ah, OK. Fish are strange compared to mammals...

 

[FreshyFresh]

You don't need to feed fish every day. I'd skip an auto feeder for anything less than a week w/out food.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

For that time frame in particular, they will be totally fine - they are really only skipping Saturday.

 

[FishDad]

Auto feeders run the risk of failing and bombing your tank with food, imo.

 

[exhumed07]

i agree. I've used the little plaster blocks with fish food in them for week long trips and that seems to do fine. but for a couple days it's not a big deal. only time i worry at all is if i have newborn fry. if the fish don't get fed they get ate lol.

 

[GooGirl]

Ya, I don't think I'll ever get an auto feeder, they sound glitchy, are kind of expensive, and if I'm too lazy to feed my own fish, I might as well not have them!

Ya, the weekend feeders I was talking about are those little feeder blocks that dissolve. I never understood how those actually fed the fish...

 

[exhumed07]

they are just plaster with fish food mixed into them. usually pellets. the water breaks down exposing the food for the fish to peck on. and the plaster don't hurt anything. it wont mess with water quality or anything like that. i just advise if using them to gravel vac where it was sitting when u get home as the particals are fine and will cloud the water if stirred up.

 

[GooGirl]

OK, I always got the idea that the block was made of food that dissolved into the water and somehow filled up the stomachs of the fish! XD

 

[exhumed07]

aquarium magic lol

 

[GooGirl]

I only wish there were the same thing, but with baby fish... Somehow magically going into the females... But, alas, such a thing has not been invented yet!