Preparing your Fish for a Vacation

[FrozenFins]

With the summer holidays here everyones going away on vacation and leaving their fish behind. I just came back camping from monday morning to this evening (thursday). I wanted to share how I sucessfully prepared for my fish to stay alone for the few days when I was gone.

The day before I left I did a waterchange on all my aquariums. Making sure there wasn't any dead plant matter, a dead snail or anything that would cause amonia. After the waterchange I didn't do any feedings.

During my trip my fish were left alone. Nobody came to feed them, they were left alone. All of the lights were on timers so they still had the light turning on for the plants.

If your trip is just a few days, your fish will be fine without any food. However when I start preparing for my two week trip in August I will have someone come and feed my fish. I often don't like a petsitter to come and look after my fish as I have bad experiance with that and also heard of many bad stories. To prevent overfeeding when this pet sitter comes I simply lay out plastic shot glasses (I got mine from the dollar store. But I embedded a link from amazon so you know what I mean) and put enough food for one feeding into each glass. I tell the sitter "one shot glass = one feeding". I often have them feed the fish every other day, this will help prevent any amonia or nitrites to build up. I often have the pet sitter feed one kind of food. By this I mean I wont have each day be a different food. Having the same flake food every day makes it easier on the fish sitter. The easier it is the less of the chance of them screwing up.  Remember the point is to make it easier on the petsitter. 

If you do have a petsitter always stay within regular contact with them. Ask them how things are going, and remind them that your just a text/ phone call away. This way if something minor happeneds you can catch it with the help of the petsitter before it become a major problem that needs your presence.

A tip I always like to reccemend is to have this pet sitter be a fellow fish keeper. This makes it easier on everyone. This way if something goes wrong the fishkeeper looking after your fish will know exactly what to do. You may even be able to ask them to do a waterchange and they could do it sucessfully. All though I understand this isn't an option for everyone but its an option to consider if you have a fish keeping freind who is local to you.

[Fish Folk]

On 7/16/2021 at 12:26 AM, James Black said:

With the summer holidays here everyones going away on vacation and leaving their fish behind. I just came back camping from monday morning to this evening (thursday). I wanted to share how I sucessfully prepared for my fish to stay alone for the few days when I was gone.

The day before I left I did a waterchange on all my aquariums. Making sure there wasn't any dead plant matter, a dead snail or anything that would cause amonia. After the waterchange I didn't do any feedings.

During my trip my fish were left alone. Nobody came to feed them, they were left alone. All of the lights were on timers so they still had the light turning on for the plants.

If your trip is just a few days, your fish will be fine without any food. However when I start preparing for my two week trip in August I will have someone come and feed my fish. I often don't like a petsitter to come and look after my fish as I have bad experiance with that and also heard of many bad stories. To prevent overfeeding when this pet sitter comes I simply lay out plastic shot glasses (I got mine from the dollar store. But I embedded a link from amazon so you know what I mean) and put enough food for one feeding into each glass. I tell the sitter "one shot glass = one feeding". I often have them feed the fish every other day, this will help prevent any amonia or nitrites to build up. I often have the pet sitter feed one kind of food. By this I mean I wont have each day be a different food. Having the same flake food every day makes it easier on the fish sitter. The easier it is the less of the chance of them screwing up.  Remember the point is to make it easier on the petsitter. 

If you do have a petsitter always stay within regular contact with them. Ask them how things are going, and remind them that your just a text/ phone call away. This way if something minor happeneds you can catch it with the help of the petsitter before it become a major problem that needs your presence.

A tip I always like to reccemend is to have this pet sitter be a fellow fish keeper. This makes it easier on everyone. This way if something goes wrong the fishkeeper looking after your fish will know exactly what to do. You may even be able to ask them to do a waterchange and they could do it sucessfully. All though I understand this isn't an option for everyone but its an option to consider if you have a fish keeping freind who is local to you.

Good thoughts here! I like the shot glass idea. I use pill boxes that have each day of the week indicated - one per tank. This allows me to prepare the entire week ahead for the specific species. With live food eaters, I blast the substrate with live black worms the week before so that they can snack non-stop, and will not need to be fed. I also recommend slightly muting / dimming your tank lighting. Lower lights typically calms fish. Agreed with this post that timers are essential. 

[H.K.Luterman]

I'm currently away from home for two weeks, and I have a friend checking in every few days and feeding my tanks. Here's what I did:

The tanks that can just get dry food, I filled up a pill organizer for each tank, each pocket getting a day's worth of flakes, pellets and/or algae wafers, and then I labeled the side of the organizer for each tank (29, 40, Betta, Snails).

The tanks that need frozen food, I put the food in a very visible spot (the freezer door shelf) which I labeled, as well as putting the food packs inside a ziplock labeled for each tank (75, Pea Puffer). The food for the 75 could still stay in the blister packs, but the food for the puffer I had to chop up into little pieces. 

Next, I labeled each tank with a Post It note - Betta, Pea Puffer, Snails, 29, 40 and 75. This tank is my newly set up dirted tank, which has nothing in it, but I still labeled it just to make it clear. It says, "Ignore Me."

 

 

After that I wrote out instructions as a guide, to ensure she would know which tank gets what.

 

 

I had her come over the weekend before we left, so I could go over everything with her, and showed her how to feed (even though it's just dumping food into each tank, she still wanted to see me do it). 

And that's it! She's been going over every 3 days or so and sending me texts on how everyone is doing. She's excited that my catfish is getting used to her, and she's been trying to hand feed her. 😄 

She's also been sending me pics, which I love. 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2021 by H.K.Luterman
I have a 75 not a 70.

[ErinV]

@H.K.Luterman, I love your little fish name and personality chart for your fish sitter.

[Fish Folk]

^agreed^ and anyone who names their e-blue acara TESLA is a rock star!

[Just a Pygmy Corydora]

Great advice! I'm going to Utah on the 21st of July, and I think I'll combine @H.K.Luterman 's note idea and @James Black's shot glass idea.

[H.K.Luterman]

On 7/16/2021 at 11:38 AM, Fish Folk said:

^agreed^ and anyone who names their e-blue acara TESLA is a rock star!

My hubby named him! He takes such little interest in my fish, I was thrilled he came up with that! 😄