I'm going on vacation for a week and I'm not sure what to do with my fish. We'll be using a pet sitter who is knowledgeable enough for our cats and dogs, but she can only "follow instructions" for fish. I'm planning to give her the most basic instructions possible...but my cats/dogs will likely be 3 sentences and my fish about 3 pages. LOL
Anyway, I've heard that some people don't feed their fish while they're gone, or even have someone come in and check temp or filters, sometimes for weeks. I'm not that comfortable, and besides, the pet sitter will be here everyday anyway. Should I use one of those vacation feeders and not rely on her to do that part? Anyone experienced with going on vacation and leaving other people in charge of the wet pets? I already hate to leave cats/dogs, and they're more self-sufficient than fish. At least mine are.
Never use those vacation feeders. They are awful and will jack up your tank. Also you need to be very careful about having someone watch your fish. You are used to them, but many people are not. I have heard of hundreds of instances where people leave and their sitter ends up washing filter pads to "help out" or feeding a ton because they didn't know any better. If you do end up with a sitter, then have him/her come over and show them how much to feed (or you could put the amount of food for each feeding in separate ziploc bags) and explain not to touch anything else. Trust me - I have heard some horror stories from people who had well-intended sitters.
If you don't go the sitter route then they should be fine for a week. If I am going to be gone for a week or less then I generally put the lights on a timer and don't feed. They are fine and it is good for them to have fasting periods anyways. If I am gone for longer than that then I use my automatic feeder. I bought the one from Eheim (around $40) that you can program to feed up to five times a day and can adjust how much is fed at each time. This is a much better option than those vacation feeders.
My friend is a truck driver and I go with him sometimes and will be gone a week or sometimes 2 weeks at a time. Usually once or twice a year I will go to get a break. I put an automatic fish feeder on each tank, do a water change the day before I go and haven't had any problems. As far as the cat, I took it once, but it didn't seem to like the ride, but tolerated it. I left it home the last time, and I put a huge pot of dry food down and set up 2 litter boxes and had a huge pot of water. I also put down 2 cans of wet food the day that we left and had no problems. I didn't like the idea of the unknown while gone like what you are going to find when we get back, etc. so I try to stay here all of the time now or will take the cat next time. As far as the fish, clean water, automatic fish feeder, 1 or 2 weeks should be fine.
i ask someone from the fish club to come over when i'm gone... also the neighbors are pretty fish savy thanks to me... another thing about the neighbor kid is that he will feed everything that i have... even the cobras and rattlesnakes...
Wow, that would be nice but I don't know a single person who has an ounce of fish experience. I'm going to roll with the pet sitter since I have hardy fish, relatively simple stable tanks, and I'm really good at writing technical documents so the instructions will be CLEAR. Oh...but my fish.....augh! In the hands of a stranger.
If you are going to ration food, I would literally make ziplock bags labeled for each day with the already portioned food in it, so there is no way the sitter can screw it up. If your lights are on timer u will be fine in that area, if not go get one its worth it even if ure not on vacation. The sitter should only have to drop food in once a day, and straight out of that bag labeled for that day. And with these famous words, "what could go wrong?"
I don't have my lights on timer. I've read about it but it hasn't been a priority topic yet. I don't have real sensitive fish so I was assuming (newbie) that lighting wasn't critical, but maybe for more difficult or specific fish. No?
My lights are on, usually, 6-8 hours a day just with my regular schedule.
you could go to wal-mart and pick up a automatic feeder... i've seen them for ~$10... just let the person know how to fill it up and it devides the portions out for you...
also pick up a couple of timers... they're ~$5 for some decent ones...
lol... i ran more cables to other setups yesterday... now every tank, terrarium, rack, and setup is controlled by one major timer... lol... i'm insane...
at 12 in the afternoon EVERYTHING turns on... and at midnight everything turns off... pretty cool... the entire house lights up... except the ponds... the pond lights are solar powered/charged so they turn on when the sun goes down...
Ya i have done this got some one to feed my fish and her frind let her chilid feed my fish., well she dumped the hole bottal of flake food in my 10 gallon all my fish died besides my angel fish wen he still was littel, so wen i go now i clean the tank bevore i go and feed them the night bevore., i also put lettus in my tank they love it and i get some one to check on that also has a fish tank.
Oh and my lights are on a timer its nice couse i leave the house by the time i come back its on and at 430 pm it shuts off its on from 1030 to 430 i cut it back bevore i hade it from 1 pm to 9 pm but then got to mutch algy so this works.
I have a community tank with typical fish. 12 hours?
I have two Betta tanks. They come from such shallow water I'm assuming 12 hours would be good?
I have a Q tank with just a few guppies and since they could survive a supernova I'm assuming 12 hours is also good.
My African Dwarf Frog is in his own 3 gallon and I wonder if he should have less light? He's nocturnal....but maybe 12 hours because I assume they are still naturally exposed to 12 hours a day?
I like the idea of the house lighting up on its own. :) We have a good sized property with tons of different lights including up-lights for trees, path lights, dawn to dusk ones attached to the house near several entrances and it's all really pretty when it all starts to light up as it gets dark. Hmmm, maybe I can warm up to this light timer thing.
