Vacation Feeding Strategies

I am going to pay for my MTS very soon. I am probably overthinking this some but humor me please since you people made me buy all they tanks with your enthusiastic fish keeper posts. This post will be a mini-novel most likely lol.

Over the course of 25 days I am going to be out of town for ten days twice. I realize fish don't die quick, but starving my fish out for 20 days is not OK with me. I have 11 tanks and tub ponds so auto feeders would get a little spendy, though I wouldn't mind trying one on a few larger tanks since an overfeed isn't going to cause an immediate tragedy. So I guess my first question is which feeders to absolutely avoid? I know they have a bad REP. Here is the rest of my strategy.....

-Very large WCs before I leave, WCs are not going to happen in my absence. I'll power feed the fish the day before WC.

-I can get my daughter to come sometime near the middle of the ten day runs. Long trip so maybe day four, maybe day six. She can power feed (within reason), and dose my plants once.

-75% of my fish are guppies, but they are expensive strains I have considerable time invested in. I will spread them out to minimize risk of a catastrophic loss. I will ensure all the guppy tanks are full of hornwort and guppy grass. Might leave the lights on 24-7. I know they will eat plants and algae. They could probably live a month without food if they had to but that is not responsible fish keeping IMO.

-My 60G community tank is probably OK. It contains a large school of Lemon Tetras, a medium angel, half dozen cory cats, and some adolescent guppies. Other than the guppies I don't see them eating plants but maybe it is because they don't have to when I am feeding them regularly? I don't like the corys chances of getting any food at all, with such aggressive feeders. I think they are only going to eat algae wafers once when my daughter drops by. Perhaps I could just drop a cory in six different tanks?

-My 10G GBR and Cardinal tank concerns me most. Their eventual home is a 20G I am getting some age on with Koi Swords and guppies. The GBR tank is so healthy now, even breeding. I hate to mess with something that isn't broke before two vacations. I think I will have my daughter scoop out a couple gallons of water and do a minI WC. It stays pretty clean but 10 days is pushing it.

-5G guppy and swordtail fry tanks are a problem. Who knows how many fry will be in them but it is usually a lot and I do two 50%+ WCs per week to keep the water clean. I think they are going to my daughters house so I worry less. I don't like the thought of starving fry out and no WCs. Or I set up more planted temp tub ponds but it's starting to get stupid.

I'm sure some of you travel so your ideas are welcomed.

 

I travel, and have many tanks with similar fish. I fear friends feeding.

I bought cheap dollar store ice cube trays, cut them and put each cube on my fry tanks with measured amounts of food. That keeps the well meaning people who help from killing the young fish with kindness.

 

If you have people feeding them for you, you can pre measure the food and put each days' food in these




They're usually a dollar.

 

I don't trust people to not over feed so each year we go away for 3 weeks I feed up my fish on good live foods and veg so they are super conditioned even to the point of almost over feeding I will give the tank a 75-80% water change 3 days before going away the morning I leave I throw in 1-2 zucchinI each sliced down the middle to make 3 bits from each and feed that I then organise for someone to come feed them in the middle of the second week about day 10 and then I feed when I get home.

I have been doing this method for 6 or 7 years every year and never lost a single fish you may not be comfortable doing that but starvation is a regular part of most animals lives in nature it's feast or famine your fish are tougher than you think

 

I don't trust people to not over feed so each year we go away for 3 weeks I feed up my fish on good live foods and veg so they are super conditioned even to the point of almost over feeding I will give the tank a 75-80% water change 3 days before going away the morning I leave I throw in 1-2 zucchinI each sliced down the middle to make 3 bits from each and feed that I then organise for someone to come feed them in the middle of the second week about day 10 and then I feed when I get home.

I have been doing this method for 6 or 7 years every year and never lost a single fish you may not be comfortable doing that but starvation is a regular part of most animals lives in nature it's feast or famine your fish are tougher than you think

Thanks. My daughter can be trusted to feed once mid week so it sounds like that will be OK. Other than the fry I guess I can be comfortable with that. I know for certain the guppies will just nibble plants all week.

 

All the post are good ways of feeding. If your daughter is only coming in once a week I would have prearranged cups ready with food.

I would hide all the other food just in case she decides to dump more than you want in there.

 

All the post are good ways of feeding. If your daughter is only coming in once a week I would have prearranged cups ready with food.

I would hide all the other food just in case she decides to dump more than you want in there.

Thanks, I'll bring her over for a practice feeding run. She is crazy for animals and gets the whole nutrition and proper quantity thing. If I tape a few twenty dollar bills to the tanks she'll show up a day early lol.

 

To be honest, you are only gone for 10 days. I wouldnt even worry about feeding g them for the 10 days. Just feed them the day before you leave, then on the day you are leaving, do a large water change, go on vacation, have a good time. Come home do a water change, then feed them. Its not like you will be gone for 20 consecutive days.
I don't trust anyone to feed my fish, or do anything with my tanks.

 

To be honest, you are only gone for 10 days. I wouldnt even worry about feeding g them for the 10 days. Just feed them the day before you leave, then on the day you are leaving, do a large water change, go on vacation, have a good time. Come home do a water change, then feed them. Its not like you will be gone for 20 consecutive days.
I don't trust anyone to feed my fish, or do anything with my tanks.

I know the OP is too long, but as stated it's actually two 10 day runs with only a couple days home in between. I am going to be doing huges WCs, power feeding and back out the door. Second trip is a ten day run into the Alaskan bush flyfishing. Literally three hours by jetboat into the wild. Something mechanical breaks and both I and my fish are going to get hungry and wishing there were CELL towers. Seriously though it is just too long to do nothing for my fish. Especially if the last trip gets extended.