the_dukeman

I will be going on vacation for 10 days and have nobody available to "fish sit". I was hoping to save on utilities while I'm gone by turning off the A/C unit in my condo for 7 days, then have a neighbor turn the A/C back on for the last 3 days I'll be gone. They will add a new 7 day fish feeder block and add some bloodworms to each tank. That's the best I can hope for as far as maintenance goes.

My two tanks are a 2 gallon with 2 Cherry Barbs and a 5 gallon with a Betta. I'm in Texas where the outside temperature will be close to 100 degrees for most of the time I'll be gone. I plan to turn off the tank heaters and turn them back on when I get back.

My question is am I risking the fish getting seriously too hot and keeling over for that week or should they be able to handle the higher temperature for a week? There is a condo above mine so that should keep the temperature down to a bearable level. My idea is to have the A/C turned on to a medium temperature like 85 degrees for the last 3 days so the cool down will be more gradual.

What do y'all think I wouldn't even ask about this if the power rates weren't so incredibly high here.

The Dukeman

lilsoccakid

what i would suggest is take 10 plastic bags of water, freeze them all, and have a person let one float on top of the tank each day.

or turn your ac down to like 90 they should be ok with 90* water

the_dukeman

Unfortunately I can only get my friend to come by on one day while I am gone, so the ice thing is out. If everyone thinks it will be too dangerous to turn the A/C off then I'll try setting it at 90 for the 7 days, then have it turned down to the low 80's for the last 3 days.

sgould

If it were me, I wouldn't do it. I think you could end up with some boiled fish.

Kevin

i would leave the a/c on mid 80s...fish can stand that for a few days, but if your condo gets too hot while your gone...your fish will probably die

Dino

The fish would be able to stand a temp in the mid 80's.

Feed well before you leave and unless you can portion out what the neighbor is going to feed, ie what amount each day, I would think your fish would be better off waiting until your return to be fed.

COBettaCouple

i'd probably set the AC at 84-86. We live in Florida and I find that even if we leave the tank lights off during the day and have the overhead fan going all day that the water temp. will be the same as the thermostat temp. you'll want to increase the amount of air bubbles in the tanks if you can since they'll have less oxygen in the water from the higher temp. and fill the tanks as full as possible to allow for 10 days of evaporation in those temps.