Can fish survive a 1-month period?

[sofro friend]

Hi, I have a question: can fish survive a month with an auto feeder and no water changes?? Thanks in advance.

 

[hobby5]

Depends on tank and tank mates. Normally no.

 

[Mrscmurray]

I would imagine it would depend on the tank but I wouldn't recommend it. Are you planning on going away?

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[GobyMaster11276]

What is your tank size and what are its inhabitants? If you are going away, you could always ask a friend or family member to come past and feed them, and possibly do the odd water change (though you may need to pay them for the trouble).

 

[Purple Spotted Gudgeon]

I say yes if all else is in good shape. Do a water change before and, and feed well, if there is anything at all such as algae in the tank they will be ok. Just My Opinion

 

[StevenF]

My planted tank has gone 3 weeks without a water change no problem. I also verify everything including the fish feeder is working correctly before I go. The only problems I have had are with the filter pump and water evaporation. In one case too much water evaporated causing the pump to run dry and eventually fail. When I got home I had to make an emergency run to the LFS to get a new pump. I now have cover on my aquarium with only cutouts just big enough for the fish feeder and wire for the pump and heater. The most recent issue I had was the filter plugging up due to pond snails clogging the filter spray bar (a problem I though I had solved). When that happened I did loose my flower shrimp. They are filter feeders and probably starved with the loss of water flow.

So It can be done but you have to be confident that your heater, filter pump, fish feeder, are reliable and will last for a month without failure. You also have to be sure that your plants can keep the water parameters stable and water evaporation is minimized. My plants routinely absorb all nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia and typically keep my phosphate levels good. GH and KH can however shift. They can go up if you have a lot of water evaporation or overfeeding. Last december (the last time my tank went unattended the my GH and KH dropped due to the plants.

 

[Ch4rlie]

A month may be pushing things as far as fish going without food. I have never used an auto feeder as for some reason or another, have never trusted them.

But as other members says, if you do go this route, do make undoubtly sure teh feeder works correctly EVERY time as I have heard horor stories about food being stuck inside the feeder or the feeder dropping a weeks worth of food in one go and so on and so forth. Check and double check to be 100%.

Personally I have had folks go in my flat and feed my fish once a week for me, I use one of these weekly pill boxes that seals, and just the correct amount for each tank and ask the person to simply add the food content from each relevant box to the relevant tank (which is usually one box per tank and laid next to the tank). And I have a jug that I use strictly for the tanks and ask to top up the water level to the black trim on the tanks (my tanks are open top).

Thats it, never had trouble this way personally. But if am only going away for a week to 10 days, then I simply just do a large water change the day before or on the same day am leaving and ensure fish are fed for at elast 3 days prior to leaving them.

The water change for a month is not worrying me too much as this used to be the normal practice back in the day, yep even routine 2 months water changes was not unheard of! Not recommended now of course as we have learned a lot of things since then.

So a large water change as late as you practically can leave it before you go is good to do and either ensure the auto feeder works 100% each and every time or ask a trusted person to go and feed the fish and top up your tank once a week.

 

[sofro friend]

I have 1 male yellow lab (separated until out grows the female)(6-7
cm) 1 female yellow lab (10-11 cm)
1 male golden severum (it is smaller than the female) (6-7 cm)
1 flowerhorn ( 10-11 cm)
Tank size: 29 gallons
Yes, I'm going away.

 

[DianaWelch]

Hi, I have a question: can fish survive a month with an auto feeder and no water changes?? Thanks in advance.

Don't take any chances sofrofriend, my fish died a month ago because we weren’t able to replace the water for more than two weeks. What else if you won't feed it for a month.

 

[hobby5]

I have 1 male yellow lab (separated until out grows the female)(6-7
cm) 1 female yellow lab (10-11 cm)
1 male golden severum (it is smaller than the female) (6-7 cm)
1 flowerhorn ( 10-11 cm)
Tank size: 29 gallons
Yes, I'm going away.

Are you serious? Your stocking is totally improper for that tank. And I can assure you they will not survive for 1 month.

 

[luca1980]

Are you serious? Your stocking is totally improper for that tank. And I can assure you they will not survive for 1 month.

We have been through the inappropriate stocking here several times in the past, to no avail obviously.

 

[GobyMaster11276]

Ok sofro friend, I don't mean to be rude, but to answer your question simply, just no. That tank is overstocked. You add in no water changes for a month? The odds of survival in that kind of environment are very slim.