A couple of feeding questions...

[Martin]

Hey guys,

I have a planned vacation coming up in about a month and wanted to get ideas on what you guys do to feed the fish/inverts while you are gone.  I've seen some tablet-like things in the local PetSmart, etc., but wasn't sure if that was the best way to go.  What do you guys do?

Also, while I'm on the subject of feeding, I recently started a (cherry) shrimp tank for the purposes of breeding, but I'm never really sure if I am feeding them enough or too much.  It's always easier to tell with fish because you see them come and pick off the food, but the inverts always have to hunt it down after it hits the ground and I'm never really sure if they are getting the right amount.  Any insight?

As usual, thanks in advance to this fantastic community!

[PineSong]

How long will you be away, and do you have anyone coming in to check on other pets or water plants or anything? The fish can easily go a few days without eating if they are not fry. 

I think deciding how long you can leave them would involve: the kinds of fish, whether the tank is planted/has stuff with algae/biofilm on it if your fish eat those things, etc.

My guppies, platies and mollies could probably live for a week on algae and plants and not look any different when I came back. A carnivorous fish left alone for that amount of time might go hungry or be hangry with tankmates, so it might be more important to feed them, depending on the species.

Another option is an autofeeder. The Co-Op sells one, in fact, for about the same cost as having a petsitter come once, where I live.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/equipment/products/fish-food-autofeeder

So it would be a good investment if a paid sitter was your only option during a longer absence, or you want your fish to eat every day even if someone can only check on them every now and then.

 

Came back to say I'm new to shrimp so not going to speak to that part of your question bc IDK!

[Martin]

I'll be away about 5 days.  I've got two tanks, the 10g with the cherry shrimp above and a 20g long that is currently only housing 2 mystery snails and 5 neon tetra (had a mysterious, mass die-off a month ago).  The 20g is pretty well established in terms of plant life, the 10g is roughly 2 weeks old.  Don't know that an auto-feeder is needed just yet, but I'll poke around for quality extended-release foods.

[Odd Duck]

I would far rather not feed anything than use any of the extended release foods.  You don’t have enough fish in the tank for them to be able to eat the entire block of extended release anything and it will just foul your tank.  They do make some rotating feeders that can handle small amounts of food if you decide you need to feed.  The feeders ACO sells are better at higher capacity than delivering very small amounts like you need.  It’s by far safer to not feed than to over feed.

Your shrimp tank should be completely fine.  If you have something like Bacter AE, you could do a 1/4 dose the day you leave and they will be fine.  If your shrimp population hasn’t reached the point where they are congregating on the food within a few minutes, I wouldn’t do anything other than a very small dose of Bacter AE or a similar product.  You could add a single pellet of food and that should be enough unless they are swarming the food and acting very hungry for each feeding.

[Widgets]

I have seen automatic feeders that have individual compartments that you can load up. I have no experience with them, but they may work better for controlled doses. I don't know what schedule can be programmed. You can find many different branded clones on Amazon.