Nervous because I am going away and dont have a good option to feed my 5 ember tetras and one assassin snail in my small planted low tech 2 gall tank (heated and filtered). Normally I only feed once every 2 days to keep the water from fouling too quickly. I have read a lot lately that I should be OK to leave them for a week provided I do a decent water change the day before leaving. But I'm nervous. Can anyone (with experience keeping embers) reassure me that they will not be dead of starvation after a week? They are so little! This is my first fish tank and first time away so I'm a bit nervous.
Welcome to the forum! They should be ok without eating for a week. I just came back from a week-long vacation without feeding my fish and they were all fine. That said, a 2 gal tank is pretty small to keep any fish in so I would be concerned with water parameters while you're away. Is the tank cycled? What is the pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrates? How long has the tank been set up?
I know the tank is small..my preference would have been to do a 30 gall. But my son was given this tank and we decided to do the little embers instead of 1 betta. They seem happy ..though of course i know bigger would be better but it is what it is at the moment. Tank has been set up for a few months now..I set it up/planted it (with cling on pond snails) in Feb and added fish in March. then assassin to sort out the overrun of pond snails went in there in May I think? Haven't tested in the last little while-Ive been getting very consistent results whenever I have tested (API kit)-zero nitrite and zero nitrate and zero ammonia. Ph is 6.8. Partial water changes once in a while. .but the stability i think is due to the fact that it's fairly heavily planted for its size. Only issue has been keeping the tank cool in hot weather (plan to move it downstairs while we're gone and cannot monitor temps) and I have a bit of a brown algae (diatomes) issue. So i have to wipe the tank walls off once in a while ..However I've been reading this is common in new tanks and will hopefully sort itself out in time...however I have never left the fish unfed for more than about3 days before..so despite what I've read online I've been nervous just because they are such a tiny fish! Hoping to connect with other ember keepers who have dealt with this!
You could have a small fan blowing across the surface of the water to keep the tank cool. An air stone would also provide extra oxygen to your fish since warmer temps deplete it. I don't think you need to be nervous. Just do the large water change before you leave. They should be fine.
