Feeding/water Changes

[Artee]

how long can fish survive or stay healthy w/out feeding and water changes.

would 2-3 weeks be alright for adults and juvies ?

how about :

adult frontosas at 6"

young tropheus at 2-2.5"

 

[ltrepeter2000]

Probably depend on the fish and sizes for the water changes. Might also stunt some growth of your juveniles.

 

[longstocking]

I misunderstood the question, so I'll take a re-do please

The longest I have gone without feeding adults is 2 weeks. No negative side affects. Depending on how large the juvies are you can go a pretty long time. Your tropheus would be fine for 2 weeks.

The most I am comfortable with is 10 days to be gone. After that point I start freakn out and not enjoying my vacation. So... we try to limit our vacations to 10 days IF I only had 2 tanks with the fish you mentioned. I'd leave for 2 weeks all the time... I might even do a bit more than that.

I very rarely have a sitter come in... I just leave and go have fun and the fish are fine. Very rarely do I come back to dead fish.. unless they are fry. ( thats why you see me put up fry at stupid prices ... I feel bad and don't want to kill them). I have had 2 sitters come in over all these years. 1 was a disaster... the second was Donna. DOnna did a great job. Fish spawned while I has gone and I came back to happy healthy fish. SHe knew I was going to be gone for 10 days... so she fed lightly and didn't turn the water into nitrate muck !

 

[maddog10]

You can skip water changes for that long and it shouldn't be a problem as long as you have a well established filter.

Feedings are a different story. 1 week wouldn't be a problem for most adult fish, 2 weeks would probably be OK for most as well. Any longer than that will probably weaken the fish enough that they would be susceptible to other problems (disease, etc...).

Juvies would more than likely be stunted if not feed for more than a week. Fry would probably die.

 

[Artee]

thanks Robert , Sarah and Mike.

if i feed once or twice a week, would the tank perimeters stay within tolerable limits without any water change for 3 weeks(I can add a few more sponge filter for good measure(e.g. 40 2" tropheus in a 180 and 8 5" frontosas on a 125 ).

I don't want to freak out when on vacation, I know most everyone has left their tanks and wondering if the fish will still be alive while vacationing.

 

[ltrepeter2000]

I dont foresee you having any problems but I would make sure someone had access just in case of a power outtage or something to make sure that everything kicked back on afterwards. Thats the only time I lost a significant amount of fish was after it had happened I didnt check and the power strip the tank was plugged into had popped its circuit protector and so the heater lights and filter for the tank stopped working.

 

[longstocking]

The only ones I would be worried about is the trophues. As you know they hate high nitrates. You should be fine if you have enough filtration though. I seem to remember you having sumps. Is that still the case? If so, I wouldn't worry about it... they'll be fine. Remember the less you feed them the less nitrates are produced. So, before you leave do 2 large water changes within a couple days before you leave and you should be good to go. The real part I worry about is the aggression levels with tropheus when I'm gone. They get MEAN when they are hungry. If you have timers use them so that some algea is produced in your tank while you are gone.

 

[DeeCee]

I've never gone longer than 10 days either. Funny we all seem to have the same "safety zone" on that!
I always dropped extra filtration into the tanks before I left too. I always fed heavy for a week before I left, then did some big water changes and fed lightly right before leaving. Just my system for feeling less guilty I guess? Anything longer than 10 day, and I'd probably have someone come & do a light feeding & make sure the power was all running though.

Thanks for the kind words, Sarah, I'm just glad I didn't kill everyone!

DC

 

[Artee]

I'll be out for most of february, will just have a relative watch my house and do light feeding once a week, but wouldn't be able to do water changes for about 3 weeks, i'll just do what Sarah suggested with 2 consecutive major water changes to keep it as close to pristine before i leave.

thanks all for the inputs...

 

[Charlutz]

robert -

since you have some time before you go, you could try it once or twice with 2 weeks between changes to see how it goes. this way you could monitor closely to see if it will be a major problem. if things look real bad, you could at least have some advance warning and think about additional precautions. too bad i don't live closer or i'd offer to stop by and help you out.

 

[Artee]

I have left them before for 10 days with no problems, but more than that, i am a little hesitant , some of the female mobas are showing signs of breeding and will have to find someone to care for frys if ever i get them, will just deal with it when the time comes.
Charlie, I have 2 extra large male featherfins i'd like to trade for whatever... are you interested, one lost(not really missing but clouded from an accident) an eye and the other is a w/c male that got his ventral fins nipped by the one-eyed one.

robert -

since you have some time before you go, you could try it once or twice with 2 weeks between changes to see how it goes. this way you could monitor closely to see if it will be a major problem. if things look real bad, you could at least have some advance warning and think about additional precautions. too bad i don't live closer or i'd offer to stop by and help you out.[/b]

 

[Charlutz]

Thanks for the offer and I'd like to help you out, but of the 12 featherfins I have, at least 5 are males. Now if you had any extra females...