How does everyone deal with traveling (leaving fish alone)

skjl47

Goliath Tigerfish
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May 16, 2011
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lobster tanks in your supermarket, they are likely taken care of by contract professionals.
Hello; I have seen the lobster tanks in stores although not in my local area. Somehow this does not seem the type of professional I had imagined. As I do not have any personal knowledge of these professionals, nor their limits of operations, I will defer to your actual experience.
 

DN328

Potamotrygon
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Aug 14, 2014
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If that were me being gone for 3 months, id at least want some onen to top off tge tank from evaporation and light feeding once every 3-4 weeks. This is where my Nest camera comes in handy to at least get a visual if things are going south.
 

skjl47

Goliath Tigerfish
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May 16, 2011
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onen to top off tge tank from evaporation and light feeding once every 3-4 weeks.
Hello; Feeding can be dealt with. A few years ago I had reason to be away five days each week for ten months two different times. I bought one of the timer feeders that runs on a AA battery. After getting the feeder set up I found it would run for a few months on a battery. Once the dry flake food was adjusted to a proper volume it would also last much more than a month. I left it running once I was home for good and best I recall it ran for more than two months before I added any food.

Topping off the tank to compensate for evaporation seems of little benefit. Regular WC is needed. We most often think of WC with regard to nitrates but there are other benefits. During evaporation the salts, minerals, nitrates and other things dissolved in the water becomes concentrated. Simply adding more water may dilute the nitrates for a time but will add more of whatever happens to be in the tap water. As more evaporation occurs these things become more concentrated. My general take is that a WC needs to be somewhat more than whatever amount of water is lost to evaporation. A tight fitting cover might help.

The more I think of this proposal the less realistic it seems as proposed. The OP apparently cannot afford to hire professional fish sitters even if some are available. Also the cost off maintaining a place in Miami and another place overseas is going to be high. The accommodating roommate seems unlikely for several reasons. Interesting idea to toss around but perhaps wishful thinking without a considerable bankroll.
 

DN328

Potamotrygon
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Aug 14, 2014
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Although not ideal to say the least and perhaps I should have been more elaborate; I was operating under the premise no one around Id trust to do WC. Because of that, I would not use my eheim auto feeder.

Depending on tank size, topping off would help keep water level at a reasonable level and isn't suggested as an alternative to water change. We're talking less than ideal situation here given not much to work with and if I needed to be gone 3 months lol.

Sad but true, I know folks that feed there marine fish very little, dont change water for 6+ months. Fish are fine for the short term. And we're all more than aware WC is beyond just reducing nitrates.
 

viejafish

Plecostomus
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Jan 31, 2013
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Hello; I have seen the lobster tanks in stores although not in my local area. Somehow this does not seem the type of professional I had imagined. As I do not have any personal knowledge of these professionals, nor their limits of operations, I will defer to your actual experience.
Professionals that service aquariums also service lobster tanks in restaurants and supermarket. They are the same type of professionals.
 

skjl47

Goliath Tigerfish
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May 16, 2011
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hello; Did a search. Found a service listed in Tennessee around Nashville which is around 3 to 4 hours from my location. There were about four others listed much farther away and near as I can tell in bigger cities. Looks like limited availability for such service fro ma quick search.
Here is a link to the one in TN.

http://aquariummaintenanceservice.com/index.html
 

jamntoast

Plecostomus
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Jul 8, 2014
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i would check with lfs around you, i know around me there are a couple shops that do tank cleaning and maintenance as well, if they dont they can prob point you in the right direction. i'm sure they could feed them weekly and the fish would be fine. like someone said, get references or go to a shop you trust.
 
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Yuki Rihwa

Redtail Catfish
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Jan 22, 2015
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I didn't read through all the pages but I'm assume that money is not an issue to you so I would say we are living in a modern world fill with technologies. You can setup a wifi door lock, camera watch in/out side of the house. You hire a proffesional pet service come to your house as specific time of the week and unlock/lock the door from your smart phone, everything can be record and store in cloud so you can check what's going on anytime, anywhere...I'm very high tech guy lol :p
 

Deadliestviper7

The Necromancer
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Aug 6, 2016
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good idea. we'll see. i dont have place yet))) i would like to live in south florida during winter and in europe during warmer months. so i am trying to figure out how it would work out with having fish (living without an aquarium is impossible for me)
If u can get a big pond in Florida u might be able to leave them in the pond year round if there is sufficient live foods in your pond year round.
 
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