caring for fish while on vacation?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
R

rdlkgliders

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2009
78
0
0
so.cal
i am going on vacation for 3 plus weeks and would like tips on lowering maintnance for family, that is going to help me while gone.
i have so and central american cichlids,my help will only be weekly.
 
Prepackage the food in the appropriate amounts in zip locks or something for whoever is taking care of the fish. Personally I wouldn't have anybody else do my water changes and they should be fine for that time. Set them up with a trusted and knowledgable person in the area in case something seems wrong. You could set the lights on timers if you wish, but I wouldn't, having less light might help keep the agro down.
 
the overflow pipe will help a lot in doing waterchanges,auto-feeder for the pellets
 
just as this could b an option, i book mine in to my lfs when i go away. most of my friends are too scared to look after my fish incase they die lol plus they cant keep up the w/cs etc. so for £10 a week they go to the fish shop fpr them to look after.
 
I was away for three weeks in February, what I did was left extremely specific instructions for a friend of mine who was watching my pets.

I put all the food on top of the tank with instructions on how much to give. In my freezer I places all the tablets into a bag so she would know exactly what to give and how much and when.

I did a massive water change before leaving for the trip and also cleaned out my filters so that wouldn't be too massive a problem. I cleaned one filter two weeks before leaving, the other the week before and then did the water change the day before I left.

I came back three weeks later, no dead fish, no cloudy water, everything ran smoothly.

Good luck!
 
keep the fish on the pellets only and measure out the daily feeds. thats what i do, i leave the portions in egg cups and tell them to put one egg cupful in per day and no more even if it looks like too little. i also tell them to make sure the filter is working by looking at the spraybar and to check the thermometer is in the green zone. 3 simple things.
also do a water change before you go and make sure they understand to stick to your rules and call you (if possible) if any of the rules throw up problems, so no trying to save the fish by themselves.
 
Lol... when I go out of town. I have 5,000 duct tape signs. Hundreds of bags of food. And a million more signs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom