Clam tragedy during vacation- things to really go over with house sitters.

[Stevenliu9]

Tragedy at my tank: last week I went on vacation for a week so I had a friend who works at a local fish store to come over house sit for me. despite leaving detailed instruction on taking care of all animals and tanks, tragedy: I left the house with seven clams in my tank including 2 10" squamosa clams, 10" derasa, 2 3" derasa, a 3" squamosa, and a 2" maxima. on the 3rd day of vacation my friend text me about one of my big clams really gaping. the next day she sent me a photo of the clam completely receded into the shell. On the photo, I also noticed other small clams that are already dead with empty skeleton that she didn't tell me of. and then the next day she told me both of the 10" squamosa clams are dead. Without more information I could only ask her to make a water change. so at that time I thought only three clams have died. When I came home, I saw that all but my 10" derasa had perished along with several other LPS while I was away.:headwalls:
I observed the volume of frozen food left in the freezer, as well as the level of skimmer collection cup (she had to empty it once already while I was away) and I came home to a full cup I know that she has been overfeeding the tank the whole time.
I think this has been a repeating theme here on RC that when people have others care for their tank while away the number one cause of tank problem is overfeed as the tank/house sitters just keeps feeding without knowing when to stop because the fish keep begging.
So the lesson here is to really demonstrate the feeding in front of whoever looking after your tank while away, not just writing instructions.

 

[hart24601]

I'm so sorry to hear. Terrible experience.

 

[Coelli]

I'm really sorry about your clams.

Maybe this will make you laugh...

A couple of years ago before starting my own tank I house-sat for some friends with a reef tank. Before they left, one of the clams wasn't looking good and it bailed while they were gone. I called and my friend said just throw it in a bucket. So I did.

A week or two later, they opened the bucket...

He meant use a bucket to carry it to the toilet. I, not knowing then how fast things melt and get foul, thought he wanted to look at it when he got home or something.

From what I hear he nearly threw up at the stench and I still haven't lived it down!

 

[Breadman03]

Prepack all feedings in labeled containers. Let the sitter know to feed only the food marked for that day.

I'm really sorry about your clams.

Maybe this will make you laugh...

A couple of years ago before starting my own tank I house-sat for some friends with a reef tank. Before they left, one of the clams wasn't looking good and it bailed while they were gone. I called and my friend said just throw it in a bucket. So I did.

A week or two later, they opened the bucket...

He meant use a bucket to carry it to the toilet. I, not knowing then how fast things melt and get foul, thought he wanted to look at it when he got home or something.

From what I hear he nearly threw up at the stench and I still haven't lived it down!

I would have probably thrown that bucket out. Nasty!

 

[Nina51]

i'm so sorry to hear about all of your losses. did you ask your house sitter exactly what/how much he/she fed while you were gone?

recently, my son came out to the farm to take care of one of my dogs and the oinkers while my other dog was in the e.r. since i knew i wouldn't be away from home for more than a couple of days at the most, i told him he didn't need to feed the fish anything.

 

[joshky]

Healthy tanks can go without being fed for a week, might want to consider that as well as prepared containers next time.

Sorry for your losses, that would be a terrible thing to return home to.

 

[Stevenliu9]

Thanks guys! Actually a good suggestion about fasting the tank for a week the next time I'm away. All the bigger fish I have are tangs anyways and they can always pick on rocks.
Also I didn't think of prefacing food and label them by day either. That's a great suggestion! maybe I'll just get one of those weekly pill container and put just flake/pellets in there for the week of vacation without bothering to feed frozen food for my next getaway.
And yeah, at least my sitter didn't leave all the clam "corpses" for me to inspect. I an no stranger to fishing village smell but still won't enjoy it up close in the face lol.

 

[rgulrich]

Sorry you lost all those clams - they must have been quite the collection.

For my housesitter, I went to a local party store (the ones that sell costumes, decorations, and the like) and picked up a few hundred condiment containers with lids. Got the size for the amount of frozen food I fed the reef everyday. I then prepped 5 months' worth of frozen food for my housesitter to use, leaving it in the chest freezer, with a bag for empties next to it. Also prepped the dry food for the freshwater aquariums I had at the time. That along with detailed instructions (yep, with pictures pointing out plugs, outlets, and how to clean a protein skimmer and such - pretty easy to do in today's word processing packages) worked out pretty well.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Ray

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

I used to leave small containers on a shelf with instructions to feed every other day.

 

[Stevenliu9]

Thanks guys, the condiment container is a great idea!

 

[MondoBongo]

sorry for your losses. whenever i am away i preportion food in to pill containers (i put my nori sheets in individual zip lock bags labeled by day) like these:

 

[mafia]

and she work at a fish store...........

 

[m0nkie]

sorry for your losses. whenever i am away i preportion food in to pill containers (i put my nori sheets in individual zip lock bags labeled by day) like these:

this! sorry to hear for your loss man.. but don't trust anyone on your tank unless you see them work on a tank. I portion the food into different bags and let them open 1 bag a day.. if you have an auto feeder, if will be a lot easier

I use this to pre-mix some frozen food for short vacations