Tangs without feeding

elder luis

elder luis

New member
How long can I keep my tangs (7 tangs) without feeding? They are very healthy, strong and fat. I am going to travel next week and probably they will be alone with no feeding for only 4 or 5 days. Is it ok? This week I doing a heavy feeding procedure to keep and eventually increase their health.

I have an automatic feeder, but I don´t trust it.
 
In my opinion you will be ok without feeding for 5 days. I leave routinely for weekend trips and don't feed my fish for three days. I've read of other reefers with more experience than me that said they have left for a week and the fish were fine without being fed.
 
louie310 said:
I would suggest an auto feeder
Click to expand...

I have one, I tested and I didn´t like what I saw, very imprecise, so, I am considering the worst: no feeding. What will happen?

Before leave, I´ll give them some Nori sheets enough for 1 ou 2 days to reduce the no feeding time.
 
how much rock do you have in the tank? If you have enough live rock for them to graze...shouldn't be any issue at all
 
Without seeing your tank, it's difficult to say but you will probably be fine. That said, if you have a lot of live rock and algae, you could be fine much longer. I actually went without feeding my tank for a year and all my fish (tangs, clowns, cardinals, etc) were fat and happy. So much so that my aquarium buddy didn't believe me when I told him I don't feed the tank. Granted, I have several hundred pounds of live rock in my systems with all kinds of life in them and on them. Even today, I only feed a few times a week and when I travel, I don't worry about leaving them for a week without feeding.

Every system is different and as such, without seeing your tank, it's really difficult to say how well your fish will do without food let alone for how long.
 
slief said:
Without seeing your tank, it's difficult to say but you will probably be fine. That said, if you have a lot of live rock and algae, you could be fine much longer. I actually went without feeding my tank for a year and all my fish (tangs, clowns, cardinals, etc) were fat and happy. So much so that my aquarium buddy didn't believe me when I told him I don't feed the tank. Granted, I have several hundred pounds of live rock in my systems with all kinds of life in them and on them. Even today, I only feed a few times a week and when I travel, I don't worry about leaving them for a week without feeding.

Every system is different and as such, without seeing your tank, it's really difficult to say how well your fish will do without food let alone for how long.
Click to expand...

slief, take a look how they are healthy and fat, and my rocks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F15ldJKX9Y4

I don´t have several rocks but what I have is really full of life in and on it, but I am just like their father, so I am really worried about 4 or 5 days... heheheh
 
As long as it isn't a regular occurrence, any fish can easily go 4-5 days without feeding. Especially tangs that can graze. All fish go at least this long during their trip from the reef to your tank. I've left my fish for a week or so many, many times without incident. FWIW, I don't like auto-feeders either. An ATO is almost a must, though. Most tanks can lose enough water in that time to possibly create a problem---but that is an individual tank thing . Fish sitters are one of the most dangerous things in the hobby, especially when they bring the kiddies along. "Please Daddy, can I feed them some more? Whoops, that food bottle had a loose top"!.
 
I travelled out of town for memorial day and we were on a road trip for 4x days. Fish was not fed until I returned on the 5th day. All survived and were doing well - just really hungry! Leading up to my trip, I progressively fed more and more often for 3x days. The day we left, I fed them 5x times as apposed to the normal 2x. Figured that they would have a little reserve built up for the fast that weekend.
 
One more voice for "They'll be fine". My 4 tangs are routinely left alone a week at a time when the family goes on vacation several times a year. The longest period was about 10 days. I've tried auto feeders, and have found none that work well. During that absence, algae grows on the tank walls, which the tangs will also eat. I do have a predator tank, meat eaters, and those I worry about more. So far, fingers crossed, even the meat eating predators do fine without food for 7-10 days.
 
MrTuskfish said something really interesting:

MrTuskfish said:
All fish go at least this long during their trip from the reef to your tank.
Click to expand...

I didn´t think about it before, so now I am not worried anymore. My all my fishes are very well, so I think there´s nothing to worry now.
 
elder luis said:
slief, take a look how they are healthy and fat, and my rocks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F15ldJKX9Y4

I don´t have several rocks but what I have is really full of life in and on it, but I am just like their father, so I am really worried about 4 or 5 days... heheheh
Click to expand...

Your fish appear to be very well fed and healthy.. That said, your tank looks like it's pretty clean and not a lot of algae in there for them to forage on. That said, I think they will be fine for 4-5 days and will probably resort to finding anything edible on the rocks that they can. Just feed them well before you leave.

If you are really concerned, why not have a neighbor stop by every day or every other day and drop some prepared food in? There have been times where I've setup prepard food in bags for a neighbor to feed my fish. While I don't worry about that anymore, it worked out well for the fish when I did.

Eitherway, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Still, it's nice to have somebody come by and check on things for piece of mind if you don't have a controller to update you on the tanks operation.
 
I feed my fishes 3X a day. I will be really worry about not feeding my fishes for 4 days. When I go away I have a guy from my LFS that goes home every day for feeding and check that everything is under control. I know is an extra expense but I will lose more if something bad happen while and out of town.
 
MrTuskfish said:
As long as it isn't a regular occurrence, any fish can easily go 4-5 days without feeding. Especially tangs that can graze. All fish go at least this long during their trip from the reef to your tank. I've left my fish for a week or so many, many times without incident. FWIW, I don't like auto-feeders either. An ATO is almost a must, though. Most tanks can lose enough water in that time to possibly create a problem---but that is an individual tank thing . Fish sitters are one of the most dangerous things in the hobby, especially when they bring the kiddies along. "Please Daddy, can I feed them some more? Whoops, that food bottle had a loose top"!.
Click to expand...

I pre-portion my pellet food in to the daily pill containers that you can find at any pharmacy and portion nor I sheets in zip lock bags marked with the day.

That way there is no way a tank sitter can screw anything up while feeding.

I also paid my LFS to stop by a few times and make sure nothing had blown up or caught fire. Since my tank sitter had no experience prior the extra peace of mind of having some pros get eyes on it was well worth a few extra bucks.

In addition to that I made instructional videos, each about two minutes long and created a fish binder with basic tank information and contact numbers.

Finally, I obsessively label all of my power cords so even someone who has never seen my setup before can plug or unplug something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

beckya
purple tang
Replies
1
Views
199
OrionN
OrionN
H
25 year old yellow tang dying :(
Replies
10
Views
2K
sallypur
S
9
Help with Biota Yellow Tangs' eroding fins
Replies
15
Views
2K
92reefer
9
R
some random questions
Replies
1
Views
222
SantaMonica
S
StickMaster18
3 Gem Tangs
Replies
10
Views
932
teaktoc
T
Back
Top