Going away for a few weeks. What do i do with my fish?

Towards the end of december I'll be out of town for about 3 weeks. I was curious what people would recommend I do to ensure my fish stay healthy. I'm thinking I could try to find an automatic feeder and get a timed power bar for their lights?

 

Get a neighbour, family member or close friend you trust to do your W/C
Otherwise the feeder and power bar sound good

Remember to do a large water change before you leave too

 

Sounds good, thanks!

 

When I left for two weeks, I took a few those 7-day pill containers and filled each pocket with their food for that corresponding day, along with strict instructions that no matter how little it seems, don't give them any more food than that. The biggest problem in this situation is finding someone who doesn't know how easy it is to overfeed a tank.

As far as the water change went, I just did a very large one the day before I left and a very large one the day I got back. I only asked her to do a small water change on my tiny shrimp tank, which was expecting babies to arrive in the time I was gone.

And yes, I put my lights onto a timer.

 

You could easily feed the fish about once a week, and they would still be fine for you when you return. 2x a week if you're concerned about their starving. This limited feeding will help in the case of keeping the water less dirty, too.

Unless you can find someone who knows about the fish and will do the water changes for you around once a week, then just reducing the feedings would be OK.

You can buy a timer for the electrical outlet or the lights, don't need to buy a specialized timer bar. As an example, an entire power strip could be plugged into the timer, and everything on that power strip then works on the timer's schedule.

 

So, you don't have to necessarily by a timed power cord, you could just by a timer! As for food an automatic feeder will be pretty good! If possible could you set it for it to release food every 2 days? If not then just do 1 feeding per day. Don't put a lot of food since if you feed them a lot then they will produce more waste. However if possible finding a trusted family member or friend will be good! Stress on the trusted part, since some people on here have told their story of how their friend got to into feeding and overfed the fish which led to water problems and death .

Water change as mentioned you should probably do an 80% water change before you leave. Is this a planted tank? If so then the fish will be able to survive longer! Also in a planted tank normally the fish can survive 7-10 days without food, this is due to the fact that the fish will eat any algae and biofilm. However this will depend on you stocking! What size tank is this and what is your stocking?

 

Yeah the last time I got someone to watch my tank I came home to piles of old fish food at the bottom of my tank. I trust technology more lol

 

It's a 10 gallon, no live plants, with 3 wag platys anda silver molly (I have learned 10 gallon is small for a molly). I usually feed just under a pinch a day and once a week give them brine shrimp, and once a week substitute their feeding with peas to help ensure they get their nutrients. Otherwise they eat flakes

 

I think the pill-container and stressing NOT to arbitrarily add more food is the way to go. I also ask my fish sitter to just feed every other or every third day. I think that helps the over-feed and over-waste situation as well. If too daunting for your fish sitter, I would think your fish could skip the brine shrimp and the peas for a couple of weeks. (Also, I always leave a contact number, encourage a call or text or email, if my sitter has any problems. Also, you could give them this forum link. Have a great trip!

P.S. I meant to mention that you may advise your sitter to do several "dip" water changes - we have a 1/2 gallon plastic container to use; if she is not going to do a vac & change, I have her just do a 3-gallon "dip it and throw it" change. I always keep dechlorinated gallons of water for her as well and she knows to either warm or cool the water to match the tank temperature. Good luck.

 

Yeah you might want to have your sitter do the water changes because of the molly! Or if possible can you rehome the molly so that the tank will be lessed stress

 

Thanks everyone! I'll see what I can manage