Red1313

Haha, this may sound like a bit of an odd question but I was wondernig about leaving fish home alone. There's (finally) a long weekend coming up so I'm heading out of the city back home (YAY!!!! ) but I'm curious what the best solution is for my babies while I'm gone. Do I get those holiday feeder things or what? Suggestions?

Butterfly

They will be fine for three or four days without being fed. Do a large water change before going. they will be pert and happy to see you when you get back.
the holiday feeders are made of plaster of paris with fish food embeded in it . I don't like the idea of plaster of Paris dissolving in a tank.
Carol

TFA101

I get a automatic freeze dried feeder sold in 3, 7, and 10 day increments. I'm not sure if they make ones for longer periods of time, but they should be good about fasting for a couple days. Also, you should have good filtration, otherwise the things could pollute the water. Otherwise, I would ask a loyal neighbor to feed them while you're gone.

peacemaker92

You COULD use TFA's idea by asking a neighbour. It's actually better than buying the automatic feeder, you save money! Good luck and have a good weekend!

MissMTS

I would follow Carol's advice. Fish can go 2 weeks without food and still be okay (not that I would do that on a regular basis). If you are planning a vacation, do what Carol said and do a large water change before you go. Automatic feeders can release to much food and polute the tank. Unless you have a neighbor that keeps fish, I wouldn't trust them to feed your fish. People who don't know about fish, tend to overfeed. I am sure you would hate to come home and have your fish dead or constipated from being overfed.

David C

Leave them without food, don't trust anyone who doesn't keep fish themselves. I had my brother-in-law feed my fish for me when I left town for 7 days and I came home to a tank of dead fish (he fed them about 6mos worth of food even though I showed him EXACTLY how much to feed daily), a trashed house, and all my booze gone in addition he (or one of his friends over for the party) found the keys to my safe and stole my emergency cash. Luckily there was only $500 (arggh... so much money) because I had taken $3000 out to pay for the trip. (I dont trust banks)... all this and he was only 14.

So... if they don't keep fish themselves they will likely overfeed because you know how your babies keep begging even though they had enough. An unexperienced fishkeeper can't resist adding just a little more IMO

Red1313

alright thanks everyone it sounds like my boys will simply be very happy to see me when I get back. (It's the simplest solution all around.)

Lucy

Oh geez, David, I'm so sorry!

I went camping for 3 days and left the fish and frog in my husband's care.
I took little paper cups.....like the kind you find at fast food places for ketchup and stuff and measured 1 feeding in each cup. All he had to do was dump a cup in the morning and 1 in the evening.
He knew to feed the betta 1 pellet at a time.

David C

That was a good idea Lucy, I thought showing the exact number of flakes for each feeding would be good enough, but I assumed he would follow instructions and you know what assuming does, lol. It was a terrible lesson learned, and one that I will never repeat. I have a couple of friends that are into fish keeping, but I thought I could trust my brother-in-law, boy was I wrong. You could trust your hubby, lucky you

Lucy

lol, yeah, I tried showing my husband but doing the little cup thing gave us both peace of mind.

HatchetHaven

The holiday feeding blocks acctualy degrade the water quality so I'm told. I never dared to find out!

David I'm sorry about your incident!

Devon

Some people here have had problems with autofeeders causing ammonia spikes (from overfeeding) and also swim bladder issues (again, overfeeding.) I wouldn't dare trust one.

If there was someone you know and could trust, even if they weren't a fish keeper, you could put pre-measured doses in one of those Monday-Friday pill boxes... doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Butterfly

When I went on an extended vacation I took snack bags(plastic resealable bags) and put the amount of food I wanted them to have, put the day on it and taped them to each tank, skipped two days in between feedings. Everything I wanted them to have was taped to their tanks. Then my son who had a tank fed them for me.
But for a few days I let them fast and be glad to see me when I got home That large water change before you go is so important(just in case the power goes out, somebody(fish) dies, etc)
Carol

HatchetHaven

Wait, if it's only 3 day they should be fine with nothing! They can hapily fast for 2 weeks.