Angelfish fry during absence question

[Mirek]

I've got an angelfish pair that raised about dozen and half babies to ~1/4 in size (~4 weeks?) in a bare bottom 29 gal with just a few floating plants. I do water changes about 2x a week there as I am feeding the adults 1-2x and the babies 3x daily.

However, I am leaving for 3 weeks soon and don't want my house-sitter to have to do any, or only minimal water changes, so I am planning on having all adult fish tanks (which are mostly planted and established) be fed only every other day or less, which is not an option for the babies. I am thinking that separating the babies to their own 20 gal now, so that they could be fed more often than the adults, would be safer than leaving them with the parents during lesser feeding. Can I also slow down feeding the babies to say 1x daily without affecting their well-being in the long run now, or do they still need 2-3x daily feeding regimen? Would you do anything differently about this whole situation? It's my first time leaving for so long, so I thought better to ask beforehand.

 

[Odd Duck]

I have no angelfish specific experience so hope others will add their experience.  I would not want to feed fry only once daily.  I would try to set up an automatic feeder to feed the smallest amount possible but still at least twice daily.  Set it up over a dish on a table first.  Personal experience says don’t set it up over the tank first.  🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😆

Depending on the style of feeder you pick, the rotating cylinder style will need the small feeder door adjusted as narrow as possible and still let any food out, then some tape applied over most of the opening to decrease the total released at each feeding even further for that size fry.  At least that’s what I would expect from my experience with rotating cylinder feeders.

[Mirek]

Thank you! An autofeeder is a great idea! And I know exactly what do you mean by testing it beforehand 🙂

I was considering minimizing the fry feeding mainly for reasons of keeping water quality up. But I still have a week to test things beforehand.