How long have you gone w/o feeding your fish?

[rlschne]

Spring break is coming up next week and there won't be anyone around to feed my fish... looks like it will be about 7 days without food - I'm sure it will be fine assuming some piece of equip doesn't fail while im gone... - put my mind at ease.... I've got some softies and as far as fish I have 2 ocellaris clowns,starry blenny, longnose hawk and yellowtail damsel - how long have your fish gone without food? any trip horror stories?

 

[fish are life]

although its not good for them they can go around a month and a half with out eating. just make shure they get plenty before you leave

 

[All Delight]

When I first got my tank going I didn't have any fish for 2 months. Then I got a Flame and a 12 line wrasse. I actually was in a habit of not feeding anything, and it dawned on me that 6 days went by and I never fed them.

When I fed them they were really hungry. Especially the wrasse.

 

[tangerine]

i've gone a week without feeding. IMO,if you are not regularly feeding a lot to your fishes daily,they can withstand longer periods without feeding.

 

[GP]

You can go 1 week easily! Like tangerine says, start "conditioning" the fish by going a day or so without feeding. Then when the actual time comes, they will have no problem.

 

[Sports Girl]

Why not get an automatic feeder? I have one by Hydor and I'm planning on using it when my husband and I go to So. Cal this Thursday-Monday. It works great: first feeding @ 8:00 am and second @ 4:00 pm. And it can be set for one or three feddings. Very easy use.

 

[JotaDe]

Yeah I'd agree with the others, you should ok without feeding for a week.
However, what about topoff? Do you have a plan for that?

 

[rlschne]

thanks for the replies - I would get an auto feeder, but I've had one screw up before and dump the whole load into a fw tank - not going to risk that - and as far as topoff - I'm thinking I will just leave with my spg. at about 1.024 and let it rise, in a given week, assuming I turn my skimmer off almost I only loose about an inch or two of water which translates to about 1.026 from 1.024.. not too worried about that

 

[JotaDe]

Sounds like you're fine then.
I bought an eheim feeder which can't drop the whole load from batt. failure, but since I usually only leave for a week or less at a time I hardly every use it.

 

[Sports Girl]

Any quality auto. feeder has a regulator that won't allow too much to be fed. Mine dumps about two pinches worth. If you don't feed your fish on a schedule, you'll probably be fine, but my fish are fed at specific intervals and would probably be pretty peeved @ mom if I didn't feed them!

 

[ACBlinky]

One thing you could do is get some bottled 'pods and drop some in the tank before you go; that way the fish can hunt for snacks over the week and won't be completely without food

You asked for horror stories, I've got one though it's not exactly the same situation. There was a student in my university dorm who kept a 20g tank with about 10 African cichlids. Christmas break was a month long, and he didn't want to tear the tank down to take it home (10 hour car ride). The resident don, who lived in our dorm year round, offered to look after the fish. So the day came, the student fed his fish one last time, left the food and instructions along with his phone number beside the tank and left knowing they would be well cared for. He returned four weeks later to find the tank half full, the HOB filter's motor burned out from running dry and the skinniest fish I've ever seen; I remember my jaw hitting the ground when I heard the don say that feeding the fish had just slipped her mind! Amazingly, with a water change, a new filter and lots of feeding over the next few weeks, most of the fish recovered. The student's relationship with the don, however, never did.