dahly

I am back from vacation and lost just one diamond neon tetra in my absence. A 12 year old neighbor feed my fish while I was gone. I bought a pill box (1.99), with compartments for each day of the week and put a premeasured amount of food in each. He'd open one per day and dump it in. My clown pleco feasted on the algae that had accumulated prior to buying him/her. The tank seems algae free now! The pleco's waste was quite the sight however. I did a gravel vac of 20% two nights in a row to clean it all up. The water chemistry was fine with only a slight spike from the dead neon. The fish weren't feed for two days while my neighbor visited his grandparents, which may have lead to the death, or not, who knows. The tank has be up for 12 weeks now and I am much more confident of my abilities. It is amazing how now that the tank has "matured" chemistry problems are not much of a problem at all. Frequent water changes (20-30% every 4 days) and filter cleanings every 6 weeks seem to work well. Maybe I should clean the filter every 4 weeks however. I will be adding 5 more fish, most likely serpaes, in the next few days. Thanks for all the help and advice along the away!

Dino

2 days without food should not kill any healthy fish over the age of a month.

dahly

Dino, I know they should be fine going 3 days without food. He probably missed me! As I told my "sitter" before he accepted the job, "don't worry if a fish dies, they sometimes do that. And if they all die, it's not your fault either." I have one neon now, larger than the others, who keeps himself separate from all others much of the time. In my brief experience in this hobby he's either stressed , dying , or just wants to be alone . I keep the water fresh, gravel vac'ed, filter up to speed. The rest is in Neptune's hands. Where can I get some mermaids?

Butterfly

Sometimes fish die for unknown reasons. Glad everything else was in good shape. Yes I know of people who have gone on vacation for a week and not fed their fish and fish were ok.
Like your idea of the pill box for feedings. thats using the old noggin
Carol

dano569

the pill box is a great idea 8)

Jason

hehe noggin! reminds me of Mr Potatoe Head