Do I Have Time?

[TallTony]

A quick and sensible question. Currently I have goldfish, but really aspire to a tropical aquarium. I have researched all the neccessary info in setting up and looking after such a tank, no problem there. Issue is that I work long hours and commute far, generally I leave the house at 7am and return around 8ish. Will the fish be able to survive not being fed for this period of time? My goldfish seemingly don't care, but I do realise the tropical are less hardy and more picky.

I was thinking along the lines of a 20gallon tank with rasboras, corys, gouramies and one larger feature fish (to be decided).

Or shall I stick with my faithful comet and fantail??

 

[Shedeivl]

[font="Arial Black"][/font]get hiding places if your feed them in the morn b4 you go they should b ok I feed my fish at 6 and get home at 6

just make sure ur tank heater is running proper and one segestion most ppl tell u to use tape water I say per boil the water alow to cool i uses tape water and all my fish died i flowed all the advice i read and went thought a step by step guid but u have to rember all tape water is diffrent depending where in the world u r so per boild it is just a good safty tip

 

[evilchild]

i don't see that being a problem, they should be fine. most fish can last a good few days with out being fed, so if you feed them in the morning and at night it should be ok, i think.

 

[Shedeivl]

get a hiding place use per boild water cuase not all tape waters the same and feed them b4 u go thats what i do + i test the ph and i leave at 6am and get back at 6pm and there always fine if ur still not confordent u might want to look in to a automitic fish food feeder timer you can find them on ebay also make sure u have a heater with temp control

 

[LakeyGal]

Tropicals can be easy enough to keep.....if you do your homework and start simple, just make sure to research the fish you are interested in to assess their adult size, compatibility and individual food/water/temp requirements...(but you may want to hold off on the gouramies as apparently they can be a bit prone to illness - theres a few topics on that in this forum)
Once you have a mature tank you can leave the fish to fend for themselves without feeds for a day or two and they should be fine, you'll need a weekly maintenance schedule (see pinned topics) but if you have healthy goldfish you must be doing the right things to start with so you should find Tropicals very rewarding - the effort is in the preparation...

 

[KhaosInc]

I work 65-70 hours a week as well, (fortunetly its a short commute) And as long as you can keep up on the basic maintence its not to hard to keep a fairly nice tank, with minimal time invested. Personally, I only feed once a day, usually about 45 mins after I get home so I can watch everyone eat, and if my brain is still working that well, try and do a fish count (somewhere around 70 fish in my tank). Its my relaxation in the morning and way less stressfull than watching the news.

A couple of thoughts. If it is within your budget and space available, bigger tanks are actually much easier to keep. Those little things that wipe out a 10 or 20 gallon tank, become minor annoyances in a 55-75 gallon tank.

Second, schedule in basic maintence. For me, sunday night is water change night, I can do it while watching a movie or whatever, but its just part of the plan. It can be way to easy when you have a busy life to 'put it off' for a week, and next thing you know, its been 6 months..

Third, and while many don't do this, I have found it keeps my 'crisis' issues to a minimum. I double up on everything. some of these won't apply to a smaller tank, and some are not as sightly, but in the long run, it makes what could be a 'right now' crisis' something that you can deal with on your day off. What I mean by this is say if you need 300W of heaters (I run a large tank.. so I'm using my #'s) having 3-4 100W heaters instead of 1 300W one means that if you have a heater failure.. its not a big deal for the moment. Running 2 smaller filters instead of one big one (or 2 big ones in my case) not only keeps the tank nicer, and cleaning easier, but if theres a failure... the tank will hold on for a bit.

In my line of work, 60+ hours a week are normal, and I've had this tank up and running for coming up on 11 years. I can count the fish I have lost in there on my fingers.

 

[GRJ]

I only feed my fish every other day and they are fine, so dont think you wil have any problems! GRJ

 

[TallTony]

Thats great, thanks for the advice!

 

[divisible by zero]

you could always get an auto feeder too, but i have no experience with them, but 12 hours between meals is not an issue.

and for the love of god, do not us TAPE water, it leaves quite the mess

 

[J4MES]

whats tape water?

 

[fishlette]

whats tape water?

i think tap water was meant

dont panic dont over think things too much. you can even make a routine of feeding them nightly and thats it dont stress, relax and enjoy your fish you will have no probs feeding wise having that schedule. no need for automatic feeders unless you are going away for a period longer than a few days

 

[backtotropical]

you can even make a routine of feeding them nightly and thats it dont stress, relax and enjoy your fish you will have no probs feeding wise having that schedule. no need for automatic feeders unless you are going away for a period longer than a few days

Agreed. The fish would have no problems fitting in with your schedule.