Food for Plecos while on Vacation????

[Plecolover4477]

Hey Fishlore I've got a 40 breeder with quite of number of tetras and I also have one BN pleco and a clown pleco.I feed them very well so I'm concerned while I'm away how I should keep them fed.I have an automatic fish feeder set for the other fishes feedings.So I've checked out this Zoo Med pleco banquet block ..its some time released thing.It also states that it doesn't cloud or foul the water.Im a little skeptical about it as I'm very strict with my water parameters.Ill post a pic of the pleco block for anyone who is not familiar.I can sure use some suggestions or will they be ok for only week?My tank has some algae but not alot.

 

[TropicalFlow]

uhm how long are you going for?

 

[Plecolover4477]

uhm how long are you going for?

only a week

 

[Demeter]

When I take my yearly week long vacation I simply do not feed them at all. They will be fine, I’ve never once lost a fish while on vacation and I own all sorts of species including BN plecos.

 

[Plecolover4477]

When I take my yearly week long vacation I simply do not feed them at all. They will be fine, I’ve never once lost a fish while on vacation and I own all sorts of species including BN plecos.

ok but can still use the automatic fish feeder for the other fish if I still choose to ??

When I take my yearly week long vacation I simply do not feed them at all. They will be fine, I’ve never once lost a fish while on vacation and I own all sorts of species including BN plecos.

Thanks I appreciate it

 

[TropicalFlow]

yes you can stiil use the fish feeder

 

[KrissyBunnie]

Perhaps you can put broken up chunks of algae wafer mixed in with the automatic fish feeder you have?

 

[Flyfisha]

I would strongly suggest you try the “holiday block “ for a week before you are away. Watch and measure what it does to the water . Is it plaster of Paris based?

I would not use the holiday block in a million years.

I have gone ten nights without feeding and lost no fry ,shrimp, juveniles or adults. I have enough auto feeders for one tanks but no longer consider them necessary. Once a tank is 3 months old and you don’t have newly hatched egg scatters fry.

 

[Plecolover4477]

Perhaps you can put broken up chunks of algae wafer mixed in with the automatic fish feeder you have?

Great idea

Great idea

My BN pleco is greedy and very aggressive with her food...on the flipside my clown pleco can be a little bad ass also..lol

 

[DoubleDutch]

I wouldn't worry about a week.

 

[WagglePets]

I’ve tried this product many times and have found at least in my tank after a couple days it grows gross stuff on it and starts to smell

 

[SparkyJones]

I get hurricanes occasionally and the power has been out for two weeks a couple times, I expect this, Most all fish can go a week without food before kicking over to starvation mode and slowing down/getting lethargic, after that they will take it easy and can go another week, two, three even, really depends on how well fed they were before the fast began.

I have a chronic overfeeder in the house, all my fish are well fed and on the tanks I had fish in at those times in the past, I was doing very regular water changes to remove uneaten food and low nitrates.
Before the hurricane and possible outage I'd start the fast 48 hours before no food. When the power goes out I do nothing, and the fish do nothing, nothing to pee or poop really so low waste to foul the water. then I monitor and let it ride. A week -10 days isn't any problem with a filter in play. it's fine without a filter for that long, it's pushing it at day 14 to where they have settle into not eating, and they have to be slowly fed small meals more often, until they get back to normal.

So for a week vacation, as long as they have been well fed and in robust health beforehand and tank is clean clean, , going 7-10 days without eating will not starve them to death, they will switch to starvation mode by day 7 and move as little as they can and burn fat reserve calories after that, waiting for an easy meal to come along, like they would in lean times in the wild, fish will graze on algae also in the lean times. the killer is water fouling like when a pond dries up and polutants and nutrients consolidate TDS goes up, and eutrophication occurs. if the fish aren't eating, they aren't producing much waste either.
Remember in the wild, they have to find and catch what they eat or they don't eat, they are designed to do this which is why lots of people have fat fish.

I'm not saying to starve your fish for long periods of time, just saying they have natural mechanisms for lean times or droughts and various other conditions to get over the hump. they really don't need to eat one two or three times a day every day. A week is no problem for a well kept fish to endure.

All of those vacation feeder gimmicks are just that, a gimmick to get into your pocket for the relief of feeling guilty about not feeding the fish for a few days while you are gone. the auto fish feeders are great for grow out of baby fish and juveniles, to add in extra feedings when you can't be there to maximize growth.
but I wouldn't recommend it running and dumping food unmonitored for a week. Sometimes they don't dump, or they dump too much at one time. if it doesn't dump you are no worse off.
But if it dumps too much, it runs empty early anyways and you are coming back to a very foul tank.