How long without food?

[Snorkel]

I'm going away for 7-10 days next week and I'm wondering if it would be ok to leave my fish unfed for this long. I have 8 suspected crans bullies and 1 giant bully in a 300liter tank. I got these fish from the wild and have just managed to get the white spot that they were infected with when I got 'em, under control. I've been feeding them up and they are fat as pigs and looking good. They have become super friendly and the wife just loves the little fellas to bits.... I would be confident to leave 'em unfed for a week, but 10 days? What does everyone on here think? What is the longest time you have left fish unfed for? Tank temperature is around 15*C.

[MarkLB]

I have no idea about the natives....but I've heard that tropicals can go without food for 2 weeks and be OK.

[supasi]

The metabolism of coldwater fish is much slower than tropical, I wouldnt worry to much myself. Think off the times when rivers and streams are in flood(in my area, thats lots and long time at a time) and food is scarce for them.

JMO but HTH

[Caryl]

I agree with supasi. I have left my tropicals unfed for 2 weeks with no problems.

[Stella]

They would probably be fine. Though you will probably feel like a cruel, cruel mother leaving them so long

The excellent thing with this time of year is the water quality will be a lot more stable, the cold inhibits bacterial growth to some extent. It also slows down the metabolisms of the fish so technically they don't need as much food (though it would be even colder in the wild).

Probably the most important thing is to make sure the waterchanges are very up to date before you leave.

Cool that they are doing so well! Bullies can become really tame and eat from your hand with enough encouragement. Especially good that you wife loves them, decidedly handy!

How did the whitespot go? Any new spots after taking them to captivity or did they just fall off and come to nothing? What did you treat with? (all handy information).

[Snorkel]

Sweet. I won't worry too much then. I treated the white spot with 150 mls of brooklands aquarium "wonder tonic". Its a mix of methlene blue, malachite green, acriflavine and quinine. I didnt follow the dosing instructions at all! Just squirted the stuff in till the water went blue/green and have kept on squirtin it in every day as the water cleared up. Apparently 150ml bottle is enough for 3000liters. Mabee this is so in a bare tank, but I,ve got pumice based sand in the bottom of mine and it just sucks up the chemical, so does the filter material. So far I've used half a bottle, enuf for 1500 liters! Anyway, there is still one little skinny bulliy which was in a real bad way when I got him, that has a few still left on him. The other seven are all clear now. I,ll keep squirtin it in untill Sunday when I go away, do a half water change, squirt some more in, and feed 'em compost worms till they full up and go. Scuba diving holiday up north. Thanks for the input people.

[Stella]

Sounds chaotic....! At least it is working.

Remember these meds are actually TOXIC to the fish at the right level, and this is a long-term treatment so they are exposed for a long time...

If you can get the sick ones out of that tank and into a hospital tank. The spots do NOT die when they fall off. They fall to the ground, mature and release thousands of baby whitespots who go looking for a host. It is ONLY at the free-swimming point that they can be killed, not any other time.

That is why it is CRUCIAL that you keep treating for one week after all the spots are gone off the fish (it is a much slower cycle in cold water).

(Not sure how much of this you know, but the cycle is often misunderstood which leads to re-infections, especially for coldwater fish)

By filter media, if you mean carbon it will be taking the meds out of the water. Always take carbon out when using meds.