What to feed tiny tetras while away...

[Amy P]

Hi Everyone! I haven't had to travel since getting my tank established, but will need to be away from my sweet school of Glowlight Tetras (and a snail) for a weekend soon and a full week down the road. These little cuties LOVE meal time (micro pellets and crushed flakes usually)! It is a true feeding frenzy twice daily, however once the food hits bottom they will not touch it. Good news for my mystery snail, bad news for the tetras.

What do you do for travel? Unfortunately a pet sitter is not an option. Any of the timed release foods I have seen appear to sink to the bottom, and I am afraid they will starve!

[FLFishChik]

For a weekend, they’ll be ok without food. In general, tetras can go 7-10 days without food as long as they are being well fed leading up to that. 

[Biotope Biologist]

Yeah just feed before you leave and call it good they will be fine without food for a weekend.

[Little Guys]

They will be fine however it you just can't let them go without, you can try the auto feed now and see how it goes.  That way you will have confidence when you leave.  I doubt they will starve themselves, even if the food is on the bottom.

[Odd Duck]

You can try finding some vinegar eels since they can live in fresh water for at least a week.  They tend to stay near the surface of the water.  Over a weekend is no big deal and honestly, if they’re healthy, a week or more is tolerated well by most fish.  If you’re super worried, you could start a vinegar eel culture and feed a good bit before you leave and they would be completely fine.  Especially if you have floating plants for the fish to hunt through so they don’t gorge too much at once.  Vinegar eel cultures are quite easy to maintain, so they can be a regular supplement to your other feedings.

There are a couple ways to grow vinegar eels, in a mix of half apple cider vinegar and half water with an apple slice or 2, or grow them like microworms in potato flakes, or rice cereal or oatmeal, etc, that’s been made with half vinegar and half water - AKA a “high density” culture.  The high density culture will need more tending but is MUCH easier to harvest the vinegar eels along with producing more eels.

Here’s a discussion about high density culture for vinegar eels.

 

[khongor]

Deleted

 

 

Edited April 30 by khongor
off topic

[Odd Duck]

On 4/30/2024 at 4:32 PM, khongor said:

Hello.

Apologies for adding unrelated topic. Betta i got eats so much that stomach seems to double in size. Ok to contain him in a small cup he came with while corys eat some?

 

 

You should probably make a new post since your post should have a very different title than this one does.  Best not to hijack posts, either.  If you make a new post you will have a chance to go more in depth on YOUR question since this post is about a completely different question.

[Schuyler]

On 4/30/2024 at 2:32 PM, Odd Duck said:

Here’s a discussion about high density culture for vinegar eels

"I think the cat killed something and left it in the garage" - My wife a few months after I made that post

If you're constantly cranking out fry then maintaining a vinegar eel culture like that. If not, it may be more work than you want to maintain. Then if you didn't maintain it, then the culture will punish you by creating one of the worst smells ever that can best be described as death.

[Odd Duck]

I do high density culture but I use very well-ventilated containers and haven’t had them go foul.  Mine mostly get too dry when very badly neglected.  😝 

Or they lose their vinegar smell so I top them off with vinegar.

[Amy P]

Thank you all, this gives me hope that I can have fish AND take some trips 🙂