Holiday Feeding - Suggestions?

Hello I am currently holding 3 honey dwarf gouramis and 3 japanese rice fishes in 30 liter tank. I know it is too much, but the japanese fishes were dying because they kept chasing each other until they hurt each other. Gouramis are happy, even making bubble nests. They have heavily planted tank with lots of coconut hiding places and driftwood.

But my question is: In couple of weeks I am going for 5-6 days vacation and I don't have anyone to feed them in that time. I usually feed them tropical flakes in the morning, or artificial warms (this is because some fishes were swelling up after eating regular food and I was told it could be bacteria causing it) and in the evening they get frozen mosquito larvae. I think they might even be getting a bit fat lol. I have seen the holiday food blocks in shops, is that something you guys use? Or do you have any other suggestions? How long can my fishes go without food? They get all excited when the feeding time comes, they expect to be fed

 

I wouldn't use the food blocks. What I've found (accidentally) to work is to take a large chunk out of a potato, or several chuncks. Then you get some ordinary white sewing thread and a needle and sew through the middle of each potato chunk before attaching the two ends of the thread to create a loop around something in the tank.

Cheap, safe and nutritious natural food block

 

I wouldn't use the food blocks. What I've found (accidentally) to work is to take a large chunk out of a potato, or several chuncks. Then you get some ordinary white sewing thread and a needle and sew through the middle of each potato chunk before attaching the two ends of the thread to create a loop around something in the tank.

Cheap, safe and nutritious natural food block

I am so going to try this I also heard about people feeding fish garlic .... but I did not know how to go around it, so I just dropped a small piece of it in tank. At first nobody noticed but after while one of the gouramis started snacking on it and he was snacking on it for days until I vacuumed so maybe I will try a piece of potato and a piece of garlic Thank you! I would have never thought of potato

 

I am so going to try this I also heard about people feeding fish garlic .... but I did not know how to go around it, so I just dropped a small piece of it in tank. At first nobody noticed but after while one of the gouramis started snacking on it and he was snacking on it for days until I vacuumed so maybe I will try a piece of potato and a piece of garlic Thank you! I would have never thought of potato

I didn't think of it either until I tried growing a potato eye in my tank and noticed my fish loves snacking on the potato's soft inside which lasted a good week or so with just three small chunks and made minimal mess!

 

Here is a recent example of a feeder block failure...I hope the OP of the post doesn’t mind me sharing it:
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfi...-food-tablet-that-isnt-for-betta-fish.336949/
Mary765 thanks for the homemade feeder idea. Will have to test it out before leaving on vacation next time.

 

You could also try other veg for a variety like pepper and tomato shells (no tomato seeds) to them on some string, but I've only tried potato

 

Here is a recent example of a feeder block failure...I hope the OP of the post doesn’t mind me sharing it:
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfi...-food-tablet-that-isnt-for-betta-fish.336949/

Mary765 thanks for the homemade feeder idea. Will have to test it out before leaving on vacation next time.

Wow ok, yes this is exactly what I was wondering about the feeder blocks. They firstly seem too big for the size of my tank, and also I was afraid they would just desolve quickly and cause problems with water Thank you for the link!

 

I would actually probably get a feeder with a timer that releases food at a preset time. You could probably get by with only one or two feedings while you are gone. (they could probably go without eating that whole time, but I don't usually do that myself).

 

They will be fine without food for 5-6 days, my fish have gone without food for 2 weeks and they are fine.

 

I’ve mostly read that for one up to two weeks, it’s best to not feed them at all while you’re gone. We just came back from two back to back trips. The first trip were gone for 9 days. I did a 50% water change the night before we left. We did use the Eheim Everday auto feeder. Our tank is 12 gallons, I don’t think I’d recommend this feeder for anyone with a smaller tank. We used the lowest opening possible to feed the fish, and that was ok for us, but I can imagine that it would dump too much food for a smaller tank. Anyways, we came back for 24 hours. Everyone was fine and we did another 50% water change. We then left for another week and just got back a couple of days ago. The fish came through great.