Feeding while out of town question

[thebookshark]

Hey y’all, I have a question about my feeding plan for an upcoming trip. I will be away from my 20G AIO reef for a week and I am debating how often to have my housesitting friend feed the tank. I have a small (2”) ocellaris clown, a large YWG/tiger pistol pair, and a possum wrasse that mostly eats pods and other tiny inverts in the system. I also have a handful of sexy shrimp, a fire shrimp, a Pederson shrimp, and a few crabs (porcelain, pompom, emerald).

I usually feed a mix of frozen and pellets daily; I have extremely low nutrients (phosphates 0.1, nitrates 0.6) so I have no reason to think I’m over-feeding and a good CUC that quickly takes care of any leftovers. However, given that I will be away from the tank and that it is such a small tank with no wiggle room for ammonia spikes, should I have my house sitter only feed every other day? It’s only a week, would this be okay for these fish? Or am I risking stress and aggression by reducing feedings?

Thanks!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

it seems like people have more grief with someone else feeding the tank than the fish just going without for a couple of days. i would just have your friend come maybe twice if you're going to be gone for a week. fish can go a couple of days without being fed. thats just my personal opinion. when you have someone else feed, you risk them WAY overfeeding and causing problems

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would get an automatic feeder, an eheim feeder is about $40, and mine have lasted me years so far and are very dependable. Lots of horror stories here about fish sitters that accidentally feed too much and cause issue's.

 

[Hunna’s Stunnas]

If you have someone else feed the tank, buy one of the weekly pill containers with days of the week labeled on it and put in whatever amount of food you want the person to feed each day.

I’ve been doing it for the school aquarium I set up and have been doing weekly maintenance on for a few months now, and it’s been working out fine. They just have to only feed what is in that day’s spot.

It’s always better to under feed than over feed. I would only have whoever it is feed them once daily and not worry about multiple feedings each day while you’re gone.

You’re a member of ARC if I’m not mistaken. May be worth it to post and see if anyone local can be on-call in case something happens while you’re gone. Seems to always been when things decide to go wrong.

 

[thebookshark]

If you have someone else feed the tank, buy one of the weekly pill containers with days of the week labeled on it and put in whatever amount of food you want the person to feed each day.

I’ve been doing it for the school aquarium I set up and have been doing weekly maintenance on for a few months now, and it’s been working out fine. They just have to only feed what is in that day’s spot.

It’s always better to under feed than over feed. I would only have whoever it is feed them once daily and not worry about multiple feedings each day while you’re gone.

You’re a member of ARC if I’m not mistaken. May be worth it to post and see if anyone local can be on-call in case something happens while you’re gone. Seems to always been when things decide to go wrong.

Hi yes I am an ARC member and I do have an ARC friend nearby to come assist in the event of a problem.

I was planning to pre-portion daily feedings into an ice cube tray with RODI and have the sitter add one cube to the tank in the morning to avoid the risks of over-feeding.

 

[KrisReef]

Make sure to warn the sitter to not use these cubes for cooling their beverages.
(Sounds like a great plan for portion control! )

Will they be adding RODI for top off? My wife was using premix instead of RODI when I was away for work once.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

+1 on the auto feeder. Ive used one twice while gone for a week. I set it up a week before I leave to make sure everyone is used to it.

 

[Damage12]

I would have your house sitter feed the fish 1x every other day at most and show them the small portion they can feed.

Auto Fish feeder’s are great and I use them too but on a much bigger tank so I have room for error when it dumps too much in. Since you have a 20g, I would not recommend using an auto feeder.

 

[Kooma]

I would get an automatic feeder, an eheim feeder is about $40, and mine have lasted me years so far and are very dependable. Lots of horror stories here about fish sitters that accidentally feed too much and cause issue's.

Auto feeder for sure. Run it for a week before you go so you know it’s going to perform as expected.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

I would have your house sitter feed the fish 1x every other day at most and show them the small portion they can feed.

Auto Fish feeder’s are great and I use them too but on a much bigger tank so I have room for error when it dumps too much in. Since you have a 20g, I would not recommend using an auto feeder.

This one you can preportion each feeding.



I have a lid so this just sits on top of the feed hole. But it does come with a rim mount