Over feeding live food , leaving daphnia in whilst on holiday ?

[Minifish]

Hi , 

I am just wondering if you can over feed live foods ? Normally when we go away fish get feed by a relation . However, we are going away with the relation for 5days . My issues is all the house fish will be fine but the person who’s doing them is older and can’t get to the “patio ponds “ in the sunroom as it has loads of steps at the far end of the garden . My larger pond will be okay they have a timer feeding thing. However my smaller pond with a breeding colony would get over feed by the automatic system.  They can nibble on algae but I was thinking when I put daphnia in they some hids in plants you can see them the day after feeding . Could I add a load in before I go so they have live food whilst I am away ? 

[Guppysnail]

I personally would not. You risk die offs of daphnia causing ammonia spikes and even consumed daphnia will cause nitrate increase. 
If you are feeding daphnia chances are there are more surviving in an outdoor setup than you realize along with a ton of other microorganisms to eat. 
Also with outdoor setups bugs continually enter the water as a food source. 
Adult Fish in indoor tanks are fine for 7 days without food. In an outdoor setup I venture to say even longer. 
Here are some great videos on prepping indoor tanks for vacation. The same will apply to outdoor setups. 
I hope you have a good time on your trip and that these videos set your mind at ease. 

 

 

[Andy's Fish Den]

I would do nothing as far as putting foods in ahead of time. Whenever I go away on vacation, my fish room does not get fed while I am gone. The only time that I have fed any outdoor fish is when I had a goldfish and koi pond several years ago. Now, with the tub ponds and more natural outdoor ponds, there is so much life living in there, fish will be fine. I know many people, including myself that keep outdoor ponds and tub ponds that never feed the fish out in them the whole time that they are outside. they get plenty of food from the micro-organisms growing all over underwater, as well as the bugs and stuff that land on the surface. 

[Odd Duck]

You can safely overfeed live foods like Daphnia, Ceriodaphnia, or vinegar eels a little bit but don’t get carried away or you can cause FAR more problems than you would solve.  Nearly all fish will be fine without food for 5 days.  Far better off without food than having an ammonia or nitrite spike while away.  If you are worried about young fry, then you might have real issues, but adult fish are far better off hungry than having ammonia or nitrite spikes from overfeeding.

[Torrey]

On 6/2/2023 at 3:04 AM, Minifish said:

Hi , 

I am just wondering if you can over feed live foods ? Normally when we go away fish get feed by a relation . However, we are going away with the relation for 5days . My issues is all the house fish will be fine but the person who’s doing them is older and can’t get to the “patio ponds “ in the sunroom as it has loads of steps at the far end of the garden . My larger pond will be okay they have a timer feeding thing. However my smaller pond with a breeding colony would get over feed by the automatic system.  They can nibble on algae but I was thinking when I put daphnia in they some hids in plants you can see them the day after feeding . Could I add a load in before I go so they have live food whilst I am away ? 

If you use the magnifying option on your phone, do you already have copepods and other microfauna in your tanks and ponds?

If you have live plants, there should already be thriving colonies of microfauna in your water columns, unless you have recently used meds or done really big water changes.

I don't recommend anyone follow my example, but I set my tanks up with microfauna before fish.

That way if I end up in the hospital unexpectedly, or go on a month long trip, my fish have a salad bar and full microfauna buffet while I am gone.

Even people who don't do that have enough microfauna in the average tank for fish to do well for 7 to 10 days without being fed, unless fry are being hatched from eggs in sterile hatching and grow tanks.

Ponds?

Well planted indoor tanks?

They should be good while you are gone.

 

Have fun!!!

(Full disclosure, I came home to a much denser cover of duckweed. I'm still not feeding heavy, so plant growth has slowed)

A friend topped off tanks once a week while we were gone.