Keeping fish alive during a four-week long vacation

[joelfernandes]

Hello all.

We're going to be out for four weeks and will not be able to have someone perform water changes during this time. I have two tanks:

- 29-gallon with a small angelfish, two neons, two mollys, three swordtails and five endlers.
- 10-gallon with a ton of small cherry shrimps (if I had to guess, maybe between 20 to 30, though they're all less than a month old), and ten endlers.

The 10-gallon tank is heavily planted and produces zero nitrates. I had a time when I didn't change water for a bit more than two weeks, and nitrates were reading zero (more about it on this thread). During that same period, the 29-gallon also ready extremely low levels of nitrate (10 to 20 ppm), even though it's not planted, but I have an Oase 350 biomaster with tons of matrix on it, maybe that helped.

I plan to have someone feed the fish maybe twice a week to avoid tons of waste. Should I plan something different?

Thank you

 

[emeraldking]

They'll survive when fed twice a week. Even if you wouldn't feed them over a week, they'll still be fine.
I don't do water changes every week for that's not needed in my case. Fishes and water parameters are still doing fine overhere.

 

[seangee]

Enjoy the holiday. I am about to go for 3 weeks and have every confidence my fish and shrimp can look after themselves while I am away - don't trust anyone else to feed them. For 4 weeks I would probably do as you have done - maybe measure out the feedings, the most common problem is "I gave them a bit more because they looked so hungry" - unless of course it is a fishkeeper you trust

 

[joelfernandes]

I plan to have a pill box or similar with individual dosages if I can get someone to come.

I'm actually looking at automatic feeders, but I never had one of those, and I don't know if I can set these only to feed every three days or so to avoid waste. Any recommendations?

 

[Endlersendlers]

The auto feeders I have are feeding at least daily. I don’t know of any that feed twice a week but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There is one that has daily pockets though, you could leave some pockets empty to skip days, but you would need someone to come in weekly to set it up again. As for regulating the amount per feeding, I tape the opening closed further because even at the smallest gap it still dumps way too much in the water. I tested it over a paper plate and adjusted until it was the amount I wanted. Most can give 1 to 3 portions up to 3 times a day so if you make the portions small enough, you can tweak it further from there. I use them routinely so I can monitor how my set up is working out before I’m gone, and also give them a little more by hand some days to make sure they’re still hungry and eating, and watch their bellies that they are not over or under fed. This way I know the amount it is dispensing is ok long before I go on vacation. I just have to top up the charge on the batteries or put in new ones before going. It’s better to be a little under than over feeding. I also give them some “extra” here and there before a vacation to get a little extra weight on them as a buffer.

 

[Colin_T]

Feed the fish 3-5 times a day for a few weeks before you go. This will let them build up some fat reserves to live off while you're away.
Do more frequent water changes and gravel cleans when feeding more often to keep the tank clean.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add some live plants asap if you don't have many. They will help keep the water cleaner and provide the fish with something to graze on. Try to get the plants into the tank a few weeks before you go away so you can make sure they are free of pests and don't rot.

Increase the lighting time up to a maximum of 16 hours a day. The extra light will encourage algae and the fish can graze on it and it will help keep the water cleaner. Have the lights on timers.

Clean the filters 1 or 2 days before you go. This means they will be clean while you are away and there should be less issues with them blocking up or stopping when you aren't there.

Feed the fish before you walk out the door and have a nice holiday.

If you want to get someone in once or twice a week, that is fine but make sure they know how much to feed the fish, and make sure they don't overfeed them. Get them to come around for a week or two before you go and get them to feed the fish so you can say more food or less food. Alternatively, measure the food out into little containers and get them to add one container each week.

 

[Mikeyboy123]

I found this to be good. 14 individual slots so you can precisely measure how much in each slot and use different foods if necessary. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BRCWP16K?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Seems better than the rotating barrel types.

I would echo seangee's comments about not getting someone else to do it. If they are knowledgeable about fish then fair enough but I got my neighbour to do it once and they put a huge amount of algae wafers in my tank despite me leaving detailed notes and walking them through the process and showing them exactly what needed to be done. When I got back and saw the mess in the tank I was amazed anything was still living.

 

[Essjay]

I've always used those pill boxes with several containers - and hidden the food tubs so the person coming in can't find them to add more food.

 

[Endlersendlers]

Here’s the US version of the pillbox. It can be set for every other day.