12 days away...advice?

Later this summer we'll be away on vacation for 12-13 days and I'd love some advice on what I should do (or not) for the fish while we are away. One of the things I'm worried about is the temp, we usually don't keep the AC on when we go on vacation but I guess we'll have to this time. Do I do a couple big meals before we leave and then not worry about food while we are gone? Timed feeder?

20g, fully cycled, a few live plants but mostly fake and other decor.
Two filters (normal HOB and a small sponge)
Usually do 20% water changes weekly
7 skirt tetras, 6 glotetras, 1 honey gourami, 2 peacock gudgeon, 2 hillstream loaches

 

I say 50% wc the day before (Or if possible the day) you go. If you can, get someone to feed your fish, put the amount of food for each day in a pill container or in throw away plastic cups. But if you can't it's fine. But by all means don't get a vacation feeding block. But if you can get a auto feeder you can use that. But it really isn't that necessary to always feed your fish, unless it's fry as they are more sensitive.

 

I say 50% wc the day before (Or if possible the day) you go. If you can, get someone to feed your fish, put the amount of food for each day in a pill container or in throw away plastic cups. But if you can't it's fine. But by all means don't get a vacation feeding block. But if you can get a auto feeder you can use that. But it really isn't that necessary to always feed your fish, unless it's fry as they are more sensitive.

Just wondering, what's wrong with a vacation feeding block?

 

Just wondering, what's wrong with a vacation feeding block?

It's okay, here are a couple posts from a thread I started after a death from one of them, also, I say a week, but fish go up to 3 weeks in the wild w/out food, but up to 2 weeks is healthy:

Ok, y'all know those feeding blocks that are sold everywhere and are meant for vacation. DON'T USE THEM. If you are going to be gone for a week or less, your fish will be fine anyway. But I put one in my 55g tank with 4 angels, some tetras, a ton of guppies, and a pleco. And when I got back, ammonia was at like .25 ppm. (Really high) And it killed one of my angels. So just a warning to people, even if you just have one sitting around, don't use it. This was like Nov. but I thought I might be useful to some people on here.

I used one of those just over a year ago. Messed up my water pretty badly.

 

The feeder blocks are made up of junky food and a junkyy substance to cause the slow dissolve. The fish are going to gorge themselves on the junk food, peck at the junk substance all day and all night, then they are going to poo junk substance, your water chemistry can go to dangerouse levels.

You can leave then without food. they will likely be ok. I personally do not like the idea of leaving my fish with no food for more than a couple days, If i ever didnt have someone to ask to feed my fish, I would purchase an automatic feeder that you can load the sections with portioned food. I will post a linc.

Your fish are tropical fish, they need the heater on in the tank, they don't need the air conditioner in the house.

It is a good idea to do a good cleaning before you leave. But you do not want to feed them extra before you leave. Just like if you had a big meal one day, they will still be just as hungry the next. But the problem with extra feeding, is extra pooping. you don't want extra waste in the tank when you cant clean it.
automatic fish feeder=
https://www.amazon.com/Fish-Mate-F1...s=automatic+fish+feeder&qid=1621827930&sr=8-5

 

Thanks. I try to keep the tank 76-77 but without AC running it will go up to 80+ after a few days.

I'll probably get an automatic feeder and put a small amount of food in each day to try to cut down in the waste.

 

I once used a feeder block (10 years ago before I knew better) and came home to my albino rainbow shark dead. His lips were raw and bloody- I guess he tried to eat the block the entire week and it was like sandpaper. Never again!

 

Thanks. I try to keep the tank 76-77 but without AC running it will go up to 80+ after a few days.

I'll probably get an automatic feeder and put a small amount of food in each day to try to cut down in the waste.

80 degrees is a good tropical temperature. Do you have a heater whith at least 5 watts per gallons? I suggest you try to keep the temp stable at 78.

 

Thanks. I try to keep the tank 76-77 but without AC running it will go up to 80+ after a few days.

I'll probably get an automatic feeder and put a small amount of food in each day to try to cut down in the waste.

I normally keep my tanks at 76 but during the summer months it is often up to 80 or maybe even a bit higher. My fish don't seem to be affected by the higher temps. I don't think it will be a problem if yours goes up that high for a few days. If you are overly concerned maybe you can leave a fan blowing across it while you are gone. The main problem with doing that is the water is going to evaporate faster. Leave the light on the tank off. That too should help keep the temp down.

 

Later this summer we'll be away on vacation for 12-13 days and I'd love some advice on what I should do (or not) for the fish while we are away. One of the things I'm worried about is the temp, we usually don't keep the AC on when we go on vacation but I guess we'll have to this time. Do I do a couple big meals before we leave and then not worry about food while we are gone? Timed feeder?

Test out the feeder for a couple days before you leave. My .02...

20g, fully cycled, a few live plants but mostly fake and other decor.
Two filters (normal HOB and a small sponge)
Usually do 20% water changes weekly
7 skirt tetras, 6 glotetras, 1 honey gourami, 2 peacock gudgeon, 2 hillstream loaches

Did you go on your vacation yet? Definitely get a timed feeder. We just went on vacation and bought the Fish Mate F14 from Amazon. It worked perfectly with pellets and crumbled up brine.

Most of the auto-feeders rotate a drum of food and usually drop too much into the tank. This one only drops what you put in each compartment.

I wouldn't worry about leaving the AC off unless you live in the desert or something. We left ours off for our two week vacation and the fish were all just fine when we got back.

 

We just had a week away and used the Eheim every day fish feeder with a pretty fine flake ( LoveFish). Its a bit pricy but very well made and worked perfectly. We could control the amount of food drop very well, even for our small number of fish and if you have a big tank of various species then you can program it to dispense each meal in two batches a minute apart to let the little guys have a chance.