For the first time in about 8 years I've got the problem of no one being able to feed my fish over the holidays. I'm heading out of town for around two weeks over xmas/new year, and so is pretty much everyone I know/trust in auckland.

I've got a 4' tank with a 7" tiger dat, 8" marbled bichir and 5" leopard ctenopoma (+ a few loaches and catfish), and theyre mostly fed on meaty foods like beefheart and prawns (+ shrimp pellets for the bottom feeders). They are only fed once a day, and regularly get periods of fasting for up to 3 days. I usually do weekly water changes, but with the decreased amount of food going in I'm guessing there would be less waste and they'd be fine without a water change for two weeks.

I'm wondering how long they could go with out food for. I could probably arrange for someone to feed them once or twice over the two-week period, but its quite a drive for them and they have no idea about how much to give them etc. Does anyone have any experience with fasting preaditory fish??

Sorry, like you I have not been away for a long period of time either.

There is though --

Would you rather come home to starving fish or dead ones???

I don't know how many time I've heard this happen.

IMHO 2 weeks is not to long.

If I was in your shoes I would feed the fish up - start now

clean your tank well lots of gravel vac's ( in rotation if you use an under gravel filter ) - water changes.

Hopefully your fish will be in really good condition and the tank as will, your water should be crystal clear if it's not aready

I have heard NOT to full the fish up prior to leaving but instead your normal feeding. Most fish easily can fast for about two weeks. It might do them some good :lol:

I don't think I would worry too much, unless you find someone to feed them who is local. I'm sure they will be fine. Might be best to check with others though, I could be wrong :-?

Feeding them up is also called conditioning the for spawning :lol:

Don't want to upset your holiday plans, but I'd go along with all of what Stu said BUT the big problem is if your filter fails or worse still, heater jambs on, or even worse than that, the tank cracks.

Maybe you could get in touch with a local school and see if a kid would like to earn some pocket money??

Of course you would have to do some qik training.

Turn the heater off, you won't need it over Xmas. If it locks on you are going to loose your fish, if it burns out, you'd be in the same position as if it was off.

But I'd say go and have a happy holiday, the fish should be fine, if you do as Stu says.

A bonus of that is that the fish will really appreciate your return.

Alan 104

Gee i'm a dingbat :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

Sorry caserole :oops: :roll: :-? :lol: :lol:

Go with what the others have said, I have left my tanks for a few weeks on holiday and came back for them to be all fine.

Just have a good holiday 8)

double post :oops: who's the dingbat :oops: :lol:

IOU1

there is nothing to be sorry for, everyone has there opinions and all have merit.

What you said is not incorrect.

Which everway David R chooses is up to him,

- having a clean tank is important, it's like insurance - there is more room in the water parameters to move if something should go wrong.

Hi David, I am in Whangarei, I may be off over Xmas week, but I am not going far, if I can help please PM me, I might be able to check on your fish and feed them if you are not too far away!!!

I'm actually in auckland now (havent changed my loaction) and [no offence or anything] I'm not too keen on giving a random person off the internet the key and alarm code for our place when we're not going to be there for two weeks.

Thanks for the advice all, I should be able to make it back to auckland at least once during the two weeks to feed and check everything is running. Alan the tank has two good sized canister filters, so if one blows out then hopefully the other one will be enough to see them through. I'm a little concerned about turning the heater off as loaches + decreases in temp usually = whitespot, and I think the chances of that happening are much higher than the heater failing and cooking the fish.

what about fry? how long will they be ok for?

thats the problem with me. i am also away for 2 weeks. feeding fry is a crucial thing in the first few weeks for growth development. i had recently a decent albino kois swordtail fry batch, with no feeding of bbs for 2 weeks, i think this may stunt their growth or affect them somehow, i know this is this true to guppies for sure.

what about fry?

I suppose I could release a bunch of fry for the dat, bichir and ctenopoma to eat while I'm gone, good idea.....

Well I don't know... I left my tank for 2 nights to return to 4 less fish and the tail of one of the large kribs hanging out the mouth of my GT. Lights on timers, and they have had 3 days of fasting before with no fatalities./ I think GT knew I was away and just decided to reak(sp?) havoc... she just didn't expect me to come home when I did.

I reckon find a local school kid and get them to keep an eye on things...whyat about your neighbours?

glad i though of it! :roll:

becc- thats just the way GT's are, most are pretty fiesty and will go for fish that are smaller than them

The GT and kribs have grown up togehter from 2cm, they about 5years old. The GT hasn't really grown much, female whose mate died after their first spawning which bummed me out. Have heaps of hiding place and cover for kribs that GT can't get into, but somehow she managed it. Naughty GT, she's a real character.