What Do You All Do?

[Elisabeth83]

So that's the question...what do you all do with your fish when you want to take a long vacation? My boyfriend and I would like to visit my family in Australia (it's been 2 1/2 years) but we've got no one to take care of our fish. We'd like to visit for at least a month and well if it was maybe one tank we could get his parents to "maybe" take care of it although I don't even think they could manage water changes and what not.

So what options are there? I would love it if there was some kind of service that you could pay to come in and take care of your fish while your away...but I don't think there are places like that and especially not in Sweden.

The only other option I can think of is to get a really good shop I know to take them and keep them until we get back. But what about my tanks at home...they are all cycled and 3 of them are very well established with all live plants and wood. Would I have to tear them all down and leave them empty while we were gone? Could I leave them running? Timers for the lights? Would snails keep the tanks cycled? Would the tanks be ok for a month or so running like that or would I come home to a disaster??

Ah please give me some suggestions!!

 

[corbypete]

ive seen a lot of tanks with "not for sale, customers fish" at my LFS, on investigation they have been kept in tanks while they are away for long periods of time.

me having piranhas, i can happily go for two weeks without a feed, in the wild they dont eat for months.

i do worry after one week though, because their mentality is "well if theres no food dropping in my tank, i'll look for other things to eat" which can be a fellow piranha!

if your local shop wont take house them for a fee, you'll have to get a house sitter arranged to come feed them, or buy one of those auto feed machines (£15 or so)

 

[Bloo]

I've always been in the same situation each year when I go for a month's holiday to Africa.
It's always been really easy with a friend popping in every couple of days to drop in a bit of food.
Do you have absolutely no one to even do that ? Or just twice a week ?
Just give the tank a good clean a day or so before you go on hols and it should be absolutely fine.
But they can't really go for a whole month without feeding.

Finding a really good shop to take care of them is the other option.
But not sure what would happen to your filter during this time. If you remove the fish, the nitrogen cycle will cease and you'll have to cycle your tank again when you return. Or else, if it's an option, see if the shop will run your filter in the same tank - though really not sure if this is even an option as their tanks run on huge sumps.

 

[annka5]

Could you advertise it as a job for a responsible school kid? Move the tank to their house, tell them what they need to do, pay them small amount.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I could probably get my boyfriends parents to come over once or twice a week to feed them. Thing that worries me though is water changes..I don't think some of my tanks could go that long without there being some water quality issues In my 3 tanks with wood, plants and snails (fish of course too) there is a lot of waste (leaves, poo etc) on the bottom of the tank after a week. I think if I went a whole month without a water change I'd come home to dead or dieng fish.

The place I was thinking of asking runs their tanks all seperately so giving them my filters could work although then my tanks at home would have no chance of "surviving". Seems like a lot of work to empty all my tanks out and then begin again when I got home

Shouldn't there be some kind of service that takes care of your fish at your house when you go away? It makes perfect sense to me seeing as there are places that will come to your house and take care of your other types of pets like cats, dogs rabbits etc. It would make things 100 times easier..and I wouldn't have to stay home every year because I'm too worried about leaving my fish.

 

[catxx]

well there's a hole in the market! fill it!

my lfs does care for tanks in peoples houses, they charge for the service though.

 

[chishnfips]

what about these automatic feeders that you get, can you set them to a timer for feeding?

 

[kat and james]

maybe you could try gradually cutting down on your feeding, say a month before you go, then once you are gone the fish will be able to cope with one maybe two feeds a week, and there will be less waste so you won't need to worry about a water change until you get back..
like bloo said if you give the tank a really thorough clean before you go, and then another as soon as you get back they should be alright. and less feeding = less pooing..

good luck!

kat

 

[morgan]

I was thinking about this very thing today! What about advertising in a local paper? I saw an advert in my local paper a few months ago, it was an elderly person wanting weekly help (paid) to maintain her tank. I suppose she was too frail to carry the buckets for water changes. Wouldn't work for me as I am in a rural area, it wouldn't be worth their petrol costs to get out here. Hope you work something out. Actually in some respects fish are more of a tie than a cat or dog, aren't they?

 

[Durbkat]

If I'm the only one going away I have my grandmother feed them because my mom feeds them to much. But If everyones going out of town for more than 3 days I put a vacation feeder in it and when I get back I give it a good vacum cleaning. But for my bettas if we are going to be gone for more than a week I'll take the bettas over to a friend of the family.

 

[littleimp]

So that's the question...what do you all do with your fish when you want to take a long vacation? My boyfriend and I would like to visit my family in Australia (it's been 2 1/2 years) but we've got no one to take care of our fish. We'd like to visit for at least a month and well if it was maybe one tank we could get his parents to "maybe" take care of it although I don't even think they could manage water changes and what not.

So what options are there? I would love it if there was some kind of service that you could pay to come in and take care of your fish while your away...but I don't think there are places like that and especially not in Sweden.

The only other option I can think of is to get a really good shop I know to take them and keep them until we get back. But what about my tanks at home...they are all cycled and 3 of them are very well established with all live plants and wood. Would I have to tear them all down and leave them empty while we were gone? Could I leave them running? Timers for the lights? Would snails keep the tanks cycled? Would the tanks be ok for a month or so running like that or would I come home to a disaster??

Ah please give me some suggestions!!

Check out websites for professional installers. These people normally offer a fish sitting service too although it ain't cheap.

Have you not seen american gigaglo?? (dodgy spelling alert!!)

 

[littleimp]

So that's the question...what do you all do with your fish when you want to take a long vacation? My boyfriend and I would like to visit my family in Australia (it's been 2 1/2 years) but we've got no one to take care of our fish. We'd like to visit for at least a month and well if it was maybe one tank we could get his parents to "maybe" take care of it although I don't even think they could manage water changes and what not.

So what options are there? I would love it if there was some kind of service that you could pay to come in and take care of your fish while your away...but I don't think there are places like that and especially not in Sweden.

The only other option I can think of is to get a really good shop I know to take them and keep them until we get back. But what about my tanks at home...they are all cycled and 3 of them are very well established with all live plants and wood. Would I have to tear them all down and leave them empty while we were gone? Could I leave them running? Timers for the lights? Would snails keep the tanks cycled? Would the tanks be ok for a month or so running like that or would I come home to a disaster??

Ah please give me some suggestions!!

Check out websites for professional installers. These people normally offer a fish sitting service too although it ain't cheap.

Have you not seen american gigaglo?? (dodgy spelling alert!!)

 

[kat and james]

in the uk it is called deuce bigalo: male gigolo!
very funny movie though!! rob sneider kicks butt!!

 

[Elisabeth83]

So that's the question...what do you all do with your fish when you want to take a long vacation? My boyfriend and I would like to visit my family in Australia (it's been 2 1/2 years) but we've got no one to take care of our fish. We'd like to visit for at least a month and well if it was maybe one tank we could get his parents to "maybe" take care of it although I don't even think they could manage water changes and what not.

So what options are there? I would love it if there was some kind of service that you could pay to come in and take care of your fish while your away...but I don't think there are places like that and especially not in Sweden.

The only other option I can think of is to get a really good shop I know to take them and keep them until we get back. But what about my tanks at home...they are all cycled and 3 of them are very well established with all live plants and wood. Would I have to tear them all down and leave them empty while we were gone? Could I leave them running? Timers for the lights? Would snails keep the tanks cycled? Would the tanks be ok for a month or so running like that or would I come home to a disaster??

Ah please give me some suggestions!!

Check out websites for professional installers. These people normally offer a fish sitting service too although it ain't cheap.

Have you not seen american gigaglo?? (dodgy spelling alert!!)

I got in touch with a place like that yesterday and they come out 2 times a month for a fee of about $130 US dollars. I'm not sure if that's for only one tank though I've got 7! Also how do you know if they arn't going to just rob your house while your away...kinda scary if you ask me.

I really don't know how I am going to be able to go on vacation ever!! I just remembered my 3 male bettas in 2.2 gallon tanks...their water would would have to be changed more than 2 times a month...more like 2 times a week

I've got to figure something out though...I'm not going to not ever go on vacation just because I have fish!!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Elisabeth83

You might want to join a local aquarium society and get to know some of the members. Perhaps one might like to take care of your tanks while you are away in exchange for you returning the favor when their vacation time comes.

The advantage here is that they would be cared for be someone who is already a skilled fish keeper and who would know what to do if a problem came up.