Away foods

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Andyroo

Andyroo

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Apr 17, 2011
1,212
512
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MoBay, Jamaica
www.seascapecarib.com
Hi AroFolks,
Are live-breeders problematic like goldfish?

I'm going away for a month, leaving little pots of prawn & fish bits in the freezer for my assistant to feed, including likely not quite often enough over Xmas specifically. I'm not totally sure how nutritious the prawns I'm feeding have been, while getting a good supply of roaches has been surprisingly tough...

As such, I'm thinking to add 20~50 sword-tails & guppies (mix) that I got today from my neighbour's pond for "snacking"
I'm pretty sure they're relatively parasite & disease-free, and readily gut-loadable for nutrition.

There's no way I'd be able to get the assistant to deal with roaches regardless...
 
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Adding more lIve specimens will likely alter your bio load balance. This is NOT what you want to do right before you go away on an extensive trip.
For the time away, don't worry about nutritional value of the food source(s). Have your helper, come and do a feeding just one a week, will be absolutely fine.
Personally, I would just let the fish fasts since this is much less likely to foul water parameters/conditions.
Foul water will significantly increase the chance of killing your fish than hunger.
 
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What size is the aro? If still in its juvenile growth stage I would have your assistant feed at least once or twice while you are gone, with prawn & fish bits.
 
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I have found from experience that who ever is watching my fish they will generally over feed them and water quality will go down. I agree it’s better to feed a small amount once a week rather then daily. I would also recommend you get a WiFi camera to put in front of the tank that way you can check on your fish daily and when your fish sitter is there to make sure they do everything correctly.
 
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andyroo said:
Tank's over-filtered & understocked, but don't disagree - minimize risk.
Click to expand...
You can have 3 FX canisters running in a goldfish bowl, but that doesn't mean you have a surplus of biofiltration. It takes time for bb to populate. So, "minimal risk" would be very inaccurate.
 
Aro is a ~20cm silver (yes, juvenile). She seems to be growing alright, but it's an office tank & I'm feeling like she's not keeping belly-weight even with every-second-day feeding. Really need to find a better roach/bug supply...

The risk to be minimized was not introducing novel fish (feed) variable. Tank is my 6'x2'x15" 100 that's only been back up&running for a week, but its filtering through a 2gal pond canister that's been running for 3months. Substrate is the 3year old oats sand from the previous set-up of this same tank and has never been dry. BB, MTS, pond snail, tubifex(?), ostracod etc. established, plus plants. I am a little worried that the pump moving water through the filter is a little weak, but I've set a wave-maker for current/motion incl. over the sand. The wave-maker's making a proper racket, though... something's amiss.

And yes, the 100 is being rapidly outgrown. Her 250gal will be ready in Feb.
 
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