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i'm going on holiday in june for a week and i havent got anyone to come and feed the fish. last year i got my girlfriends mother to feed them daily but this year she is coming with us. i've seen the large feeding 7 day tablet things but not sure if they are any good. what i was planning on doing was doing a good few water changes to get rid of as much nitrates as i can just before i go so they dont build up while i'm away. also my mate says you can get things that release food gradually over the week?
whats the best thing i can do? has anyone else left their fish for a week before? thanks.

i was maybe thinking of one of these. what do you think?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BNIB-Vivo-Fish-Au ... 7C294%3A50

do a wter change before you leave and don't worry about them. I've left mine for well over a week without issue.

what about feeding them?
should i get the auto feeder?

Dont worry about feeding them - they will be fine for a week

Just a big wc and no feeding, they will be fine.
Have a nice holiday

nice thanks alot.

As above thats what I do

As long as there are no new to fairly new fry present, not feeding will be fine for a week.

Hi, sorry to jump on this thread, but have a very similar question.

Instead, I'm looking at going away for 2 weeks - have 3 zebras, which should be circa 8 months old at the time (they vary in size between 1"-2").

Will they be ok? I have a Eheim autofeeder - should I use it (it's a 200 litre community tank, and it worked well for a 1 week holiday before I got my zebras)?

Thanks

If you can set it to feed the tank once between week one and two it should be ok. The biggest issue when one must leave a tank unattended is the potential build up of undesireble stuff. This could be TDS type stuff, nitrates or potentially ammonia from a spike in waste. Uneaten food and fish poop are two big culprits.

In the wild fish eat a lot les often than we feed them in tanks and as noted above can do fine w/o food for some time. Dont worry about no food as much as you worry about the water quality.

Thanks twotankamin

So in both cases less food is best

i had someone come round mid week and fed them blood worm. other than that no feeding. the tank looked immaculate when i got back as i let the algae build up to see if they would eat it and they did they stripped every surface. they were fine when i got back from holiday. i did a big water change before i left for holiday and one when i got back. i've been trying to do less water changes for a while to try and get ready to induce a spawn by dropping the hardness with an ro / tap water mix water change. at the beginning of this week when i woke for work and doing my usual daily hoovering i notice one if my zebs had died. i checked the water levels and they were ok no ammonia no nitrite and nitrates around 20. i did a 40% water change when i got back from work. all other zebs seem fine. i'm just wondering what has caused him/her to perish. its so gutting to find them dead this is my third to die since keeping them just over a year ago. i have 11 left in my tank. do you think i should wait a while before trying to induce a spawn after recent events?

Yes wait a little longer before doing anything I am sorry to hear you have lost a zeb its not nice and quite worrying at the same time