# Vacation feeding questions



## Dulcie (Jul 10, 2011)

We are planning on a week out of town in January and I am now beginning to think of the fish and who will take care of our 3 tanks. The Beta and Mystery Snail in the 2.5 gallon tank will probably get by with one of those 7-day feeding blocks tossed in, although I am concerned about the snail.
The 5 gallon with 3 (or 4 - not sure) ghost shrimp and two African Clawed Frogs I am not sure what to do with. FIL will be coming over to feed and care for our cats and might be able to handle tossing some food in there.
I am considering one of those automatic feeders for my 75 gallon tank, but that only takes care of the tropical fish. I still need to worry about my 2 ADF's, Pleco and 3 Khuli loach in there. I'm not sure FIL can handle the two types of food and how much for that tank.
Any thoughts on how you handle feedings while you are out of town. Does anyone have any experience with those automatic feeders?


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

well how long are you gonna be gone?


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## jbrown5217 (Nov 9, 2011)

Yea, depending on how long you will be gone will determine what you need to put in there.

The feeding blocks are a solid start imo. Your snail will be fine I only feed mine every 2 - 3 days and when I do feed him I usually end up having to take out most of the algae wafer anyway.


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

use the auto feeder and have him drop a few algea wafers in ever 3 days and i think everything should be fine. fish can live w/o food for a while anyway.


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

yea exactly, if its no more than a few days they'll be fine really, if its a week or two i would go with the blocks but they will cloud your water a bit untill your back to take it out and you need to make sure you have enough for each of your fish, i tend to stay away from auto-feeders because i've heard to many stories of them dumping everything at once or not anything at all and everything in between, but thats my opinion, there might be some better ones out there now


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Although not positive on the frogs, everything else should be able to go without a week. I know people that have left their fish for over 2wks with no problem. The vacation feeders can muck up your tank. I have left several times for one week and most recently for 10 days and no problems. There have been so many stories on here about how someone's tank was left to the care of another while only gone one week, only to come home and find their tank is a mess, clouded up from a bacterial bloom, reading ammonia, etc.. If you must...get one of the week-long pill cases they sell at the drug stores and you put the amount of food to feed and they can just dump it in. That would be the most I would do.


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## Dulcie (Jul 10, 2011)

Thank you everyone for all the feedback! jrman83 - I love the pill box idea for the frogs, especially. No worries about them trying to escape the tank to find food.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Hello Dulcie...

No need to be concerned about your tank while you're gone. Fish can easily go a week or longer without food. Actually, it's best not to have someone who's not familiar with your routine do anything with your tank. Maybe you could have them come in and make sure the filter is running and possibly check the thermometer, but they shouldn't do any feeding.

I'd suggest feeding the tank well up to three or four days before you leave and then do a large water change a couple of days prior. By not feeding the tank while you're gone, you'll come home to a very clean tank.

B


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