Holiday For 2 Weeks?

[mikeyy_lol]

Hi, I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks on saturday and was initially going to defrost some frozen food and put them in those little pill box things which have the days of the week on them for people on medication, however I've read that you're not supposed to refrost the frozen food.

My parents have agreed to look after my fish while I'm away but I'm not sure what I should do with regard to feeding, I'm going to buy 2 of those timed plug things for the lights so they aren't on too much and do a 50% WC the night before I go. Even I have quite a hard time feeding them as I have a bunch of rummy nosed tetra that are the greediest things in the world, and tend to get the food faster than my apistos/rams.

Any help would be very much appreciated

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Why not just ration out some flake food, they wont need food everyday, they woild probably last the two weeks. A tip would be to put some flake in at one side of the tank, to distract the rummys and then put some flake the other side for the rams, apistos etc

 

[KittyKat]

Why can't your parents feed dry foods which you've prepacked into small zip-lock bags? One bag per day should do it, you probably want to put half of what you normally feed into each bag. I get the neighbours 3 yro to feed my fish that way and she's never messed it up, so I'm sure your parents can manage it too

Be careful with the timed feeders, they're usually no good for small quantities!

 

[B C M]

Don't think he's using the timers for feeding just for lighting, pretty sure the fish will be fine with no lights for the full time. the fish don't need the lights, they are just for us.

 

[mikeyy_lol]

Thanks for the quick replys and sorry I forgot to mention that my Apistos/Rams won't touch flake food for some reason. Never have ever since I got them from being young (Which is why I actually started using frozen food) I have about 5-8 differant types of dried food and they wont touch any of them! That's currently the technique I use though dropping some flakes for the rummys / killes at one side then dropping some bloodworms/brineshrimp/daphnia on the other side.

 

[vanhireunitedk]

I think, these tips will be very helpful for you. I am agree with that. Think for it.

 

[KittyKat]

Be careful with the timed feeders, they're usually no good for small quantities!

Don't think he's using the timers for feeding just for lighting, pretty sure the fish will be fine with no lights for the full time. the fish don't need the lights, they are just for us.

Sorry, misread! Yes, light timers are great things and there's no reason to not use them, and I respectfully disagree about fish not needing lights.. how would you like to live in the dark?

 

[This Old Spouse]

Why not put the frozen food in the pill boxes and just keep them in the freezer? Then just instruct your parents to get it from the freezer, swirl around in a bit of tank water and feed. Easy peasy.

 

[mikeyy_lol]

Why not put the frozen food in the pill boxes and just keep them in the freezer? Then just instruct your parents to get it from the freezer, swirl around in a bit of tank water and feed. Easy peasy.

Because apparently I'm not clever enough to think of that haha!
Fish are so stressful!

 

[This Old Spouse]

If they're stressful to you, yer doin' it wrong!

 

[B C M]

Sorry, misread! Yes, light timers are great things and there's no reason to not use them, and I respectfully disagree about fish not needing lights.. how would you like to live in the dark?

I wasn't meaning just keep them in the dark, I was meaning the ambient light in the room from the window, especially in the summer days and nights would be enough.

 

[Gilli]

Your fish will survive very well even if only fed once a week. Get your parents to just feed them twice a week. This way it will not only keep the tank cleaner and the nitrates down but it will also make sure they are not overfed which is worse for them.

 

[This Old Spouse]

When I leave for several days, I usually don't feed at all or have the lights on a timer. I agree with Gilli that if your parents only came in twice a week everybody would do fine.

 

[mikeyy_lol]

Hi, sorry for the shameless plug but something is happening with my apisto at the worst time! I made a thread a while back about finrot/splits even though the tank is 0 0 <25 every single time I test it, anyway I updated it and was just wondering if someone could give me some advice!

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/363854-apistogramma-cacatuoides-losing-his-tail/page__st__20

Thanks alot