Going out of town for vacation will fish last a week without food?

[Dav2996]

As other have mentioned I think it depends on your inhabitants. For instance I wouldn't leave my mandarin for a week without food but wouldn't be as concerned if I had a huge pod population for her however I would still buy an autofeeder. Also, given we try to make our tanks biodiverse, it's possible some inhabitants will become meals for other inhabitants (just like in the wild) if they're not fed. If you get an autofeeder then be sure to buy it well in advance of your trip so you can test it to make sure it's working as expected and you have time to make adjustments if needed.

I have 2 clown fish, 1 file fish for aptasia temporarily, 1 Benghai cardinal fish, and a 1 cleaner shrimp, and royal gamma. I have one cleaner shrimp. My corals are on AB+

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I have. That is always my go-to pellet, but sadly, they spit that out just as quickly as every other pellet.
I've tried a bunch of pellets, and they taste them all and then spit them out and then completely ignore them.

I've tried:
TDO
Nyos Gogi
NLS Thera-A
NLS Ultra-Red
PE mysis pellets

all ignored. I tried a bunch of pellets while the anthias were in a QT tank. i've gone as long as three days offering nothing but pellets but they refuse to eat them. At that point, I've always relented and gone back to feeding them frozen foods. Since then, they completed QT and have been transferred to my DT where they are now feeding on frozen foods with the rest of the fishes every day... but when I'm out of town, the whole tank is fed via pellet feeder daily. All my other fish will readily eat pellets.... these new anthias haven't taken to any pellets yet.

I'm thinking they will start eating the pellets when they get hungry enough.

I fill my pellet feeder with a mix of all the above pellets so that all the fishes get a little choice. They all get dumped into a feeding ring. Some fish will feed right from the ring, others wait below it for the pellets to sink. the mix of pellets seems to do a good job dispersing them to all the fish. Hoping my new anthias get with the program sooner rather than later!

I added a dispar and lyretail anthias and they eat the ocean nutrition #1 & #2. Try those, mine are picky as I fill the auto feeder with a mix of pellets, its all they will eat pellet wise.

 

[Derrick0580]

I know this isn’t the cheapest option, but maybe you could go buy 7-8 bottles of copepods and dump them in the tank just before you leave and hopefully that will be enough to last until you get back.

 

[LeftyReefer]

9.9 out of every 10 people I meet, I would NOT want in my house while I was away.

My fish will have to live or die by the autofeeder.

I added a dispar and lyretail anthias and they eat the ocean nutrition #1 & #2. Try those, mine are picky as I fill the auto feeder with a mix of pellets, its all they will eat pellet wise.

thanks, my LFS carries Ocean Nutrition, will give them a try.

 

[Dav2996]

I know this isn’t the cheapest option, but maybe you could go buy 7-8 bottles of copepods and dump them in the tank just before you leave and hopefully that will be enough to last until you get back.

I run Uv they would all die really fast

 

[Derrick0580]

I run Uv they would all die really fast

No they wouldn’t unless you run 100% of your sump water through the uv which you aren’t supposed to do. If you put them directly into the display with lights out and give them time to establish into the rock they would be fine.

 

[Dav2996]

No they wouldn’t unless you run 100% of your sump water through the uv which you aren’t supposed to do. If you put them directly into the display with lights out and give them time to establish into the rock they would be fine.

I never see them and I think they are dead. I added them 3+ times.

 

[Derrick0580]

How is your uv plumbed into your system? Remember pods are tiny and mostly nocturnal. Have you tried shining a flashlight on your rock or sand after lights out?

 

[Dav2996]

How is your uv plumbed into your system? Remember pods are tiny and mostly nocturnal. Have you tried shining a flashlight on your rock or sand after lights out?

My uv is at the return gate in the nuvo 20 gallon. All the water flows through it.

 

[Dav2996]

How is your uv plumbed into your system? Remember pods are tiny and mostly nocturnal. Have you tried shining a flashlight on your rock or sand after lights out?

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It looks like this

 

[Derrick0580]

You could always take the uv out while you are gone….

 

[vetteguy53081]

If i do, I have a reliable person to feed frozen once a day for me. If he's Unavailable, I utilize auto feeder from 4 feedings to 2 feedings daily

 

[Tiki_Reef]

I have an Avast Plank that works good.

I second this love mine as well

 

[Dav2996]

I second this love mine as well

Is it worth 200$?

 

[Aquavaj]

I use an autofeeder everyday at 11a and frozen later in the evening. Never had a problem. It's rechargeable and can last over a month on a charge.

 

[c4sxm5]

+1 on a auto feeder. They will more than likely be ok without food for a week by it's so easy and cheap to set something up so they can be fed

 

[mmw64]

I used an eheim auto feeder when I was gone for a week
EHEIM Everyday Fish Feeder Programmable Automatic Food Dispenser https://a.co/d/cMwSJJB

Me too.

 

[Double monti 61]

I do not believe that your fish will die in a week in a well established system if you observe them picking about the the rocks and feeding in the water column when they are not fed then it may be possible that your system can sustain them for a week and possibly a bit longer.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I second this love mine as well

They look cool but I cant justify 200 bucks for one

To the OP, I"ll go through 8 of these before I pay for one avast. Does the job just fine. IIRC I paid 24 bucks a few years ago, I just buy two at a time. 1st one lasted about 20 months, fed 3 x a day 7 days a week until a few weeks ago.

If you have time before you leave go for it and test it. If not go with it after you return.

 

[FortyFour44]

They’ll likely survive but you’d be putting them in a compromising position. Hungry fish are more prone to aggression and disease. Why risk it over a cheap device?

I keep my auto feeder on and running pellets every other day, and feed other stuff manually. If I ever forget to feed or head out of town, they still get a consistent feeding. Interesting behavior too as they seem to know what time of day it is before the thing even goes off. Fun to watch.