Vacation feeding

Hi guys,

I will be going on vacation for 2 weeks and I found someone that will look after my fish during that time.

I don't want the cause to much disruption for them so I thought of telling them to feed my fish once every 2 days. They will also do my weekly water change

Would the fish be OK with being fed like that?

 

hi ernst, once every two days should be fine, i would also specify how much food, like half a level teaspoon or whatever, i dont know what size tank you have or how many fish.. but i would personally rather not allow someone else to do the water changes over such a short period. With less feeding especially, your fish and water should be ok until you return. if someone doesnt know what they doing with a gravel vac they might cause an ammonia spike which could be disastrous, also they may forget to turn the heater or filter pump back on after doing the water change and that would be the end of your fish. When you come back, just do a slightly larger water change than you normally do, for example, if you normally do 10% water change make it a 15% change, or something like that.

i left my house in someone else's care for a few hours and they accidentally knocked the plug to my wife's malawi tank out. 5 hours with no heater and filter. i freaked out! imagine if that should happen for 2 weeks?

dead fish. recycle tank. the whole schlep.

cheers

 

I thought that I will do a gravel vac before I go so that they only have to siphon out some water.

They will come to my house and I will show them how much food and how to do the water change.

Luckily the people helping me is extremely trustworthy so I don't have to worry about them doing half a job.

 

Glad to see you have someone to trust. Im suppose to be going away for 4 weeks and the end of the year.
I have no one to look after my tanks....guess im not going!.

Is there no auto-feeder that runs on a month cycle?

 

absolutely

 

I would agree with mydummyname. Do a 50% W/C the day before you leave. Portion out the food into those pill boxes that have M/T/W/T/F/S/S on them with the correct amount of food... and do another good W/C when you get back. Your tank will be perfect... less food, so less problems. Just get your mate to make sure everything is running, and do the feeding.