Leaving fry alone for the weekend.

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Dispatch273

Dispatch273

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 22, 2011
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My husband and I are going to VT for a little get away this weekend. My concern is that I've got some young fry and I won't be home to feed them multiple times a day. I could have someone feed them but you know how that usually ends up being a disaster! Will they be ok until we get back late Sunday night? We are leaving tonight. Water changes were done lastnight so they have a freshly cleaned tank. They are still with their parents if that makes any difference.
 
Hello; Fry feeding is more critical than for adults. Adults can go for many days unfed. I guess this is why you asked the question.
Being with the adults complicates things a bit as the adults may well eat anything extra left for the fry.

It is too late to grow an infusoria culture in time.

Some poor suggestions come to mind.
Crush some pellet foods into a powder fine enough to be too small for the adults to take well. I cleaned out an old coffee grinder and have used it to reduce dry foods to finer bits. Pliers or such may do the job to some degree.

If you happen to have a very mature sponge filter on hand, it may help. I have seen fry grazing on a sponge filter.

Mush some uncooked canned peas between your fingers and drop them in the water along with the pea skins. The adults will eat much of it but maybe the small stuff will persist a while to get the fry thru the weekend. It takes a couple of days for the skins to soften enough to be nibbled on by fry. I have also seen kribensis fry grazing on the surface of pea shells and I suspect that some infusoria like critters were feeding on the skins.

I have raised fry in labs and left them over weekends with good results using a dose of infusoria, powdered food or peas on a Friday. The catch is that I did not have a filter that filtered out debris in operation. I usually ran bubblers and sponge filters in fry tanks which allowed the finer foods to persist in the water.

There is a fair chance that the regular feedings you have been doing have generated a decent population of infusoria like critters in the tank and that there is already a food source available for the fry to seek out.
Good luck
 
when ever i leave and someone needs to feed my fish i just put the right amount of food in one of those M T W T F pill reminder containers then all they have to do is open the container and dump the food out for that day
 
rwellbaum said:
when ever i leave and someone needs to feed my fish i just put the right amount of food in one of those M T W T F pill reminder containers then all they have to do is open the container and dump the food out for that day
Click to expand...

Thank you! That is actually what I ended up doing. They should be just fine :)

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I wouldn't do a automatic feeder. First what kind of fish how old are they. Is there gravel in the tank or bare bottom and what size is the tank there in. You could get one them feeder blocks. But I think if there in a tank with there parents and the tank has gravel they'll feed on bacteria slim that is all around the tank. I think they'd be ok if you didn't do anything for couple days. If the lights have to go on manually maybe setup a timer so for the lights.
 
Tetra sells some gel-formed weekend feeders. basically flake food mixed into gelatin shapes. my local walmart has them. They smell horrible, and I really don't like using them, but I have never lost a fish <.75" over a 3 or 4 day trip. Just get them the hell out of the tank asap once you get home, and do some serious water changes.
 
if the fry are not fed regularly then they canibalise the smaller ones. get one of those electric fish feeders, any LFS will sell them.
 
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