Holiday 'fish Monitoring'

[neo83]

Right, who has gone to the extent of trying to monitor your fish remotely while you are away from home. I'm considering a networked camera (IP camera). i wanted to ask if any of you already do something like this and if so, if you could suggest/advice on any kit.

Thanks

 

[FreedomFighter]

I've been considering the same thing. Was thinking high megapixel webcam hooked up to a direct link through Skype or something.

 

[neo83]

I've been considering the same thing. Was thinking high megapixel webcam hooked up to a direct link through Skype or something.

Thanks FF.
The last option would be to have the computer on all the time which means skype or any other messenger signed on. I would like to hear if any other methods are being used or if anyone is using IP cameras at all, obviously looking for the cheapest option

 

[KittyKat]

One can get webcams which can be connected directly to a network without a computer and accessed via the network a similar way to how one would access a home computer from work (for example). I will be trying that this year, I reckon.

 

[FreedomFighter]

http/www.camerahacker.com/myink/ViewPage.php?file=docs/Setting_Up_a_Remote_Web_Cam.html

remote webcams, like KK suggested.

 

[neo83]

Thanks FF and KK.

The night vision with the webcams can be useless with the added hassle of having the computer on/recording. However, it's the cheapest way to do it. I'm also looking at IP cams, something like IP Cam.

Let me know if anyone have any experience with something like this.

Cheers

 

[shroob]

A holiday is for relaxing not fretting over your fish tank .

 

[fishnovice]

What's the point? You will only end up getting stressed out for nothing, not to mention being antisocial and possibly upsetting your family and friends if you are glued to the laptop watching your tanks while you are away on holiday. If it's just a sick fish or bullying you can't do anything about it and if it's a real emergency like all fish gasping at the surface or tank leaking water all over the floor it will probably be too late by the time you get home, especially if you are 100s of miles away with snow blocked roads and cancelled trains.
Why not just leave an emergency tel number with whoever is feeding your fish while you are away? That's what I plan to do. Anyway at least it shows you care.
Happy CHristmas to you all and your fish!

 

[neo83]

haha, very true.

I always imagine the situation of teh tank flooding my lounge and making me bankrupt .

The problem i have is i dont have anyone who can feed the fish when i'm away unfortunately and i have to rely on an auto feeder. I have recently got the eheim auto feeder but havent used it yet and will be testing it soon. If i have a cam, i can at least check once in a while to see if nothing drastic has happened and if anything at all, then probably 'beg' a colleague to, well do something about it oh well

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Concerning fish feeding while away, i came up a fool proof holiday fish feeding solution (a neighbour has been feeding a lot of my fish now for 4months)...

...Pill dispensers!

You get these things for people who have to take medication on a regular twice daily basis. The compartments in the dispensers are labelled monday-sunday with morning & night compartments on each day. Except instead of putting pills i them i measured out precise quantities & types of fish food in each compartment. My old next door neighbour is looking after 3 of my fish tanks, so i labelled the tanks 1, 2 & 3 and labelled the 3 dispensers 1, 2 & 3 so she knows what food in which tanks.
I then hid the rest of the fish food so she can't be tempted to feed the fish extra food (but i did buy some emergency pill dispensers & filled them with fish food in case i can't make it down a certain weekend, what with the snowy weather we're experiencing an all etc).

I come back at the weekends to do waterchanges and put new food in the pill dispensers- my neighbour has been feeding my fish now for 4 months with absolutely no fish feeding issues whatsoever!

So if you have a trustworthy family member, friend or neighbour etc who can feed your fish once or twice daily while you are away, this is totally what i would recommend for holiday fish feeding. IMO much better than leaving it to your non-fish experienced friends to guess-measure out food for your fish or to using automatic fish feeders (which can sometimes jam and not feed your fish for days on end or dump all food in one go etc) !

As to the fish camera monitering, i kinda agree with fishnovice. Enjoy your holiday v ! If your fish are healthy and the tank has not suffered any issues the past few months, the fish are not all going to start dropping dead as soon as you go away for a week or so. How long are you going away on holiday for ?

 

[myrtle]

The pill dispenser is a great idea! We rarely go away for more than a day or two but when we do that'll be what I do!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

^ Cool ! It really works in my experience, no room for error no matter who you leave feeding the fish to, so works out very well v .

 

[Mikaila31]

Yep I use pill dispensers every time I leave the fish under someone elses care. If I only had fish and it was less then a week I wouldn't bother with having them checked up on. We have cats too though, so usually someone has to check them and get mail anyway. Fish are fed only every other day when I am gone. I use a similar method for adding fertilizers too. Premeasured amounts in containers labeled with the day the are to be added on. Keep it simple and light.

 

[neo83]

Thanks guys for your comments.

Pill dispenser is a great idea ofcourse when you have someone to feed the fish. I wish i can get someone. I'll try my neighbour but not too sure whether she'll be available or willing. I'm just going away for 6 days during christmas, so probably not going to be an issue. I'm planning to do a 50% water change the day before. I have already purchased an Eheim 3581 automatic feeder, so i'll be putting it to test. Even if i dont feed the fish for these 6 days, would they be ok? I only feed them once a day currently and not that much as well. This is approx how much i feed once a day fish feed. Is that good enough or should i give them a bit more. Also shall i feed them a bit more if i leave them without food for 6 days?

I'm not really that worried about the 6 days though, but my main worry is when i go away for 3 weeks in April next year. I would still love that IP cam in a geeky sort of way but probably many of you would rather spend that £60 on fish.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

6 days, I would not even worry about it.

You can up the feeding a little bit beforehand, but 6 days without food is nothing for fish. The have a very different metabolic rate to humans. They do not regulate their own temperature as one example (like we do) so use energy very sparingly.

I would be fairly confident of leaving fish unfed for a month before any issues would arise. I would speculate that a couple of months could be fine for larger fish.