lisamommy

I left a gel feeding disk in the tank before I left for vacation for a week. When I got back every fish was almost entirely colorless and not moving very much (nearly dead). They hadn't eaten a bite out of the disk. I fed them that night and they all came back to life by the next day except for 1 glowlight tetra who died a few days later.

I had someone check the tank twice to make sure there weren't any casualties and that it looked ok. She said the fish always looked fine to her but the last day she saw them was day 5.

I have the light on a timer and that stayed the same so it wasn't like it was dark in there the whole time.

Why didn't the fish eat the disk? You'd think if they were starving they would look everywhere for food. The really odd thing was that even the ottos were near death and there was plenty of brown algae on the plants. Any ideas? Where they really sad that they didn't see my smiling face everyday LOL?

What should I do next time I have to leave them?

zeebo

Hi,

I have not tried the gel feeding disk.
I use a 24 hour Automatic Feeder. U can set the time to feed & the quantity.

Use more automatic feeders if u will be away a long time and set the qty to the minimum for all yr automatic feeders.

That way, the fishes still get fed & u will not risk overfeeding or run out of food in your feeder.

Its still better to get your friend to check on the fishes and the automatic feeder every now and then in case the feeder runs out of food or battery life.

Thanks.

susitna-flower

How long were you gone?

I would not leave ANY automatic feeder if I was going to be gone a week or less. The BIG problem with a feeder going is that if it mal functions you can have a huge spike in ammonia from an overload....

The fish would have been healthier if they had just grazed algae for a week, they would poo less, thus lower nitrates.

The best thing to do is to do a big water change, feed normally just before you leave, have lights off, and when you come home feed normally again.....

So now you should test your water and do a 50% water change. I would say you have high test readings from having uneaten food in your tank.....

COBettaCouple

What's the water chemistry numbers? The water temp? Did the tank have aeration?

lisamommy

We were gone for 7 days.
Yes there is aeration bubble bar.
The temp is constant at 26C.
I don't have a testing kit so I don't know the numbers but after feeding the fish when I returned they all came back to their normal color and activity (except the 1 glowlight that passed away).
The gel disk was still intact and never disintegrated at all.
I think the problem is that the fish all eat food only as it's falling and once it's on the bottom only the cory's eat it. Occassionaly I see a serpae pick something off the bottom but not very often. Maybe I should have hung the disk somehow and then they would have eaten it?

zeebo

Hi lisamommy,

U can still hang it now and observe what happens.

Thanks.