Vacation Feeding

[Saitama Sachie]

Hi! I'm new to this forum. I'm planning a trip in December with my husband and my friends to the mountains for snowboarding before our hubbies get deployed. I am thinking ahead of time about my fishies because they are my responsibility and it is my duty to keep them alive and happy. So far I've got automatic timers for the lights to go on and off during the day and a fishsitter that will come every 2-3 days to feed my fish. But I've been researching and can't seem to find any information on how long my little peppered corys can go without food. For my other tanks I was planning to buy some plants ahead of time and quarantine them, then place them in the tanks and then have my fishsitter come every 2-3 days because I don't want excessive poop since I won't be there to do water changes and gravel vacuums (my other tanks are goldfish the big poopers and they will also survive without food for a few days the little stinkers). Would the corys eat anacharis? That was the plant I have picked out for the goldfish. Is there a plant that they like that is easy to come by? Will they survive 2-3 days between feedings?

Thanks a bunch in advance
saitama sachie

 

[lilfishie]

i feed mine everyother day so i can't see an extra day hurting, i have left other fish a week with no food before and they were perfectly healthy when i returned, only recently got my cories but they don't go longer than 2 days without food

 

[Colin_T]

Hi & welcome to the forum

Cories won't eat Anarchis or any other plants.

How long are you going away for? If you are only going for a week I wouldn't bother with the fish sitter unless you have baby fish. In which case they should be fed several times a day. But any fish that is half grown or adult will be fine for a few days or even a week without food.
Unlike mammals that use most of the food they eat to keep warm, fish take their body temperature from the surrounding water. This means any food they eat goes straight into building muscle tissue and for swimming. This means fish can go for weeks or even months without any food.

 

[SharonCC]

I've left mine for up to seven days, even the Cories. I feed them well, a few days prior to my absense, do a water change the day before I leave, and all is well!

 

[Saitama Sachie]

Everyone is an adult or close to being one. I'm afraid I might come home to eggs, lol. That always seems to happen to me, they get busy when I leave. So they will be fine for a week at max? I am having a fishsitter coming anyway for my goldies so they might as well feed the cories if they are coming over . I am also going to buy the weekly pill holders and put preset amounts of food in it so they don't overfeed my fish I am also planning a trip in January, which will be two weeks at most. So I will definitely need a fishsitter then for the cories, right?

 

[OldMan47]

If you are only going to be gone a week and you have someone to feed them twice while you are gone the only problem will be the fish sitter overfeeding. I have never had a person yet who could resist all the begging my fish will do. They are always overfed when I get home and the most pressing matter is water changes, not food. Even with no food, adult fish will have no problems in a week to 10 days.

 

[Tolak]

Healthy adult fish can easily go for two weeks without eating. I've had adult angels go for three weeks. Here's an article on conditioning more difficult to breed species, you will see how long they go on how little food; http/www.aquarticles.com/articles/breedi...%20seasons.html

 

[Colin_T]

I had a fish sitter underfeed my fish. It was my sister and she was meant to put a bit of food into each tank every few days. Anyway she forgot about it and 3 months later when I returned, most of the fish were still alive and well. Although they did eat all the plants. A couple of the smaller fish and more unusual species that required live food had died but most of the general community stuff was fine. I thought they did pretty well considering they didn't get much if anything to eat, or any water changes during that time.
But as OldMan said, fish will have no problems if you are away for a week to 10 days, even 2 weeks won't be an issue for healthy fish. And as long as the fish are well fed leading up to your vacation, and the water quality is good, they should be alive and well when you return.
I once had a tank of small rainbowfish that weren’t fed for a really long time. There were no plants in the tank and the fish simply lived off their body reserves. Most of them died between 4-6months but some of them survived for 8 months. The fish had TB and were going to die anyway, so I figured why not experiment on them.
Having the food in special containers (pill poppers) is a good way to go. Just tell the person to only use one container each time they visit. Then all they have to do is come in and pour the contents of one container into the tank and walk away.
On a side note, coldwater fish require less food than warm water fish due to the cooler water slowing down the fish's metabolism.