Filtration for holiday (2 weeks leaving fish)

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Twicksisted

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 13, 2007
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London, UK
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Can I get away with no feeding while im on holiday for 2 weeks?

I am going on a 2 week holiday to Cape Town, and will have to leave the fish on their own. Its a bit worrying, but the tank and filters are quite mature.
I will put a timer on the lights so that they get a steady day / night routine

Tank & Filters:

-Tank 55Gallon
-Fluval FX5
-Tetratec EX1200
-Airpump (large airstone, for pumping fresh air into the hood and circulation)

Livestock in tank:

- Two 8" oscars
- Three 3.5" Pimelodius Pictus Cats
- 18" Fire-Eel
- 4" Royal Plecostimus
- 7" Polypterus Delhezi
- 8" Common Plec
- 7" Synodontis (leopard spotted)
- Two 2" Keyhole Cichlids

I know in the wild towards the end of the rainy seasons, food is scarce and fish often have to go weeks without anything to eat.
I also think that it would be very healthy for the tank & filters to not feed them while im away.

My filters can go for 3 weeks without any maintenance or waterchanges, but I usually do a 50% water change every 2 weeks even though the ammonia levels are still very safe.

Any ideas... I dont really have anyone to feed them, and im worried if i get someone theyll overfeed them and mess up the filters / kill the fish.
 
the oscar could go probly the fire eel too and mabye the pleco but i doudt anything eles.
 
do a very large power feeding then a large water change and you should be ok
 
what would you suggest then as a food source i could put in the tank that wouldnt spoil the water and the little fish could snack on for a while?

I was thinking of some amazon sword plants for the plecos... (as they probably eat them)...
 
Nic;1540016; said:
do a very large power feeding then a large water change and you should be ok
Click to expand...


I been overfeeding them for the last week... will carry on till just before i go on the 9th march....

I know the fire-eel iddnt eat for 6 weeks when i first got him... now he eats well so im sure he'll be able to do it... my oscars are very fat and so is the polypterus... they should be fine...
 
i had my 250 go over a week without food thanks to my GF "forgetting" to feed my fish. only thing that dident make it thru was a small firemouth. he was most likely eaten anyway, and dident belong in that tank anyway.

if you can get hold of them, why not dump a bunch of live ghost shrimp in the tank?? may not be much, but it will be something for them to eat if their hungry. my LFS sells ghost shrimp for $8 per 50, not sure of the rate where you are. if not bad, dump 100-150 in there a few days before you go, do a WC to handle any small spikes the shrimp may produce, and thats it.

at the very least, ghost shrmp are great at eating the bits of food that tend to come out of a messy eating fish like an oscar
 
you have a very large filter set up for your tank

fish can go without food for long time.
 
Well i just did a 2 week test run to see if the filters were up to the 2 week period...
Tanks spot on... nitrogen levels are perfect... almost zero ammonia!!! cant believe it :)

Ok there a bit of algae, sand everywhere and the oscars have redecorated by moving all the logs and uprooting the furniture, but still, im amazed at how clean it is...

Also worth mentioning is that I was seriously powerfeeding them... like 3 times a day!!!

If you have a 55G tank, and loads of big fish with big appetites... like to feed your fish a lot... and you want to not have to bother waterchanging for 2-3 weeks... then get yourself a tectratec EX1200 & Fluval FX5 ;)

i can definately go on my holiday and not worry about them... only other thing im going to do is invest in a serious UPS (like a 2000W model with large battery incase of power outs (not that ive had a single one since i moved in here).
 
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