What to do about feeding during short vacations?

zdrc

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I'm about at the point where I'm going to start stocking a 12 gallon aquapod. The thing is, I take frequent short vacations (like 5-7 days), which is a problem for daily feedings. For my freshwater fish it's not problem for them to skip feedings for that long (I've had zero losses doing this for years). I've tried automatic feeders in the past, but I was always dissatisfied. I usually have small tanks, and I found it really hard to get them to feed small amounts consistently. I would usually come home to fouled tank, and I decided I would have a healthier tank if I actually just skipped feedings. If I'm gone for a longer time period I would usually find someone to feed the fish.

My planned stocking is gobies and/or a tailspot blenny. How often will these fish need to be fed? Can they make it a week without food? Are there any high quality autofeeders that would work on a tank this small? Could I get away with adding a bunch of pods and phyto the day before I leave? Could I culture algae on a rock in a separate tank which would then be put in the tank for the blenny? Will the tailspot blenny eat macro algae?
 

dwest

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I'm about at the point where I'm going to start stocking a 12 gallon aquapod. The thing is, I take frequent short vacations (like 5-7 days), which is a problem for daily feedings. For my freshwater fish it's not problem for them to skip feedings for that long (I've had zero losses doing this for years). I've tried automatic feeders in the past, but I was always dissatisfied. I usually have small tanks, and I found it really hard to get them to feed small amounts consistently. I would usually come home to fouled tank, and I decided I would have a healthier tank if I actually just skipped feedings. If I'm gone for a longer time period I would usually find someone to feed the fish.

My planned stocking is gobies and/or a tailspot blenny. How often will these fish need to be fed? Can they make it a week without food? Are there any high quality autofeeders that would work on a tank this small? Could I get away with adding a bunch of pods and phyto the day before I leave? Could I culture algae on a rock in a separate tank which would then be put in the tank for the blenny? Will the tailspot blenny eat macro algae?
I think they would be fine without feeding. I used to be gone longer without feeding. However, now I use an eheim automatic feeder with pellets. You can put tape over the outlet slot and very finely control the amount given.
 

ukgeoff

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My theory is when the fish are caught, they’re put Into a bucket on the beach, transported to the local distributor, put in to a holding tank, then bagged up and shipped to whatever country they’re going to, delivered to the wholesaler of that country, placed in holding tank again and finally delivered to the LFS. I reckon that process must take at least a minimum of 5 days with no food and then who knows what happens in the LFS. I’ve also had fish take over a week to start feeding when I’ve introduced them. With all this in mind, I’d say they could go at least 7-days without feeding but never tried it, so it’s all just theory. I hope all goes well for you, please let us know how you get on as I’ve got my holiday planned as well lol.
 

BanjoBandito

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For my nano I would order copepods and hatch brine shrimp and the day before I left storm em with brine then add the copepods day of. Depends on the fish but most can handle foraging for a couple days.
 

gbroadbridge

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I'm about at the point where I'm going to start stocking a 12 gallon aquapod. The thing is, I take frequent short vacations (like 5-7 days), which is a problem for daily feedings. For my freshwater fish it's not problem for them to skip feedings for that long (I've had zero losses doing this for years). I've tried automatic feeders in the past, but I was always dissatisfied. I usually have small tanks, and I found it really hard to get them to feed small amounts consistently. I would usually come home to fouled tank, and I decided I would have a healthier tank if I actually just skipped feedings. If I'm gone for a longer time period I would usually find someone to feed the fish.

My planned stocking is gobies and/or a tailspot blenny. How often will these fish need to be fed? Can they make it a week without food? Are there any high quality autofeeders that would work on a tank this small? Could I get away with adding a bunch of pods and phyto the day before I leave? Could I culture algae on a rock in a separate tank which would then be put in the tank for the blenny? Will the tailspot blenny eat macro algae?
For less than a week most fish will do okay without feeding. I'm assuming you won't have problem fish like CBB's or Mandarins. Even Anthias wont starve to death but will get aggressive so are somewhat problematic.

Autofeeders can cause huge problems unless you have them perfectly dialed in and lots of CUC to cleanup unintentional overfeedings. I've heard good things about the Avast feeder but haven't tried one. I trust the Eheim feeder, but I can turn it off remotely if I need to.
 

YOYOYOReefer

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i woiuld just pay a neighbor to feed my fish once in the middle if its only for 5 days .
im more worried bout neighbor overfeeding my predator tank than my reef tanks.
 

sergifed91

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If I'm gone from Friday to Sunday afternoon I don't worry about feeding. But any longer than I entrust my sister to feed my fish nothing bmore than that.
 

vetteguy53081

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I have someone top check on my tanks in my absence but in the past I utilized auto feeder and when it went empty, so be it. In turn, my tank was crystal clear and fish were hungry but healthy
 

snorklr

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well the girl that was supposed to feed mine forgot so i can tell you a royal gramma can go 5 days ....
 

Gareth elliott

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5-7 days most fish, except things like seahorses are fine. Caveat is on a new tank. There is a lot of life to graze on from Amphipods to algae to make that 5-7 days a lot shorter.

Main concern during a vacation is power loss and aeration.
 

BitReef

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I think they would be fine without feeding. I used to be gone longer without feeding. However, now I use an eheim automatic feeder with pellets. You can put tape over the outlet slot and very finely control the amount given.
Same here. I use an Eheim auto feeder on my 29g. I feed pellets. I hotglued the door to make a smaller hole and then adjusted the number of turns until I got the right amount of food (4 turns a day). I set this up for vacations, but it has worked so well I now use it for my daily feeding. I do have to keep an eye on it though. The batteries died once and I think my fish went 2 or 3 days without feeding.
 

Sebastiancrab

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I set up dual Eheim autofeeders set for different times. This way if one doesn't work, the other should. I set them up days ahead of vacation to make sure they are working properly.
 

dmsc2fs

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I peak at my plank feeder to make sure I filled it recently and go. Just got back from an 11 day trip.
 

Beau_B

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Same answer, have left for 7 days without issues other than a little aggression. I wouldn't do it regularly though.

I leave for 48 hrs just about every week though and have no problems. Wrasses, CBB, tang, blenny/gobies, mandarin, etc.
 
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