Vacation feeding???

[trinamd]

Hello

I have a tank with 2 Yo-Yo's and 2 Danio's. I am going on vacation for the first time since becoming a tank keeper and need some advice for feeding. I will only be out of town for 4 days. Is it OK to use the vacation feeders from the store for these species or should I consider getting someone to care for them while I'm gone? Any opinions?

Thanks

[Martin Thoene]

Do nothing. Well-fed fish in an established tank will survive 4 days with hardly a care.
I once went away for 3 weeks and all my fish were perfectly OK.
Those vacation feeders are horrible things and usually make a mess.
Getting someone to feed your fish is disaster prone too unless they are an experienced fishkeeper.

No problemo.

Martin.

[Mark in Vancouver]

I would give them a good meal before leaving and then a good cleaning upon coming home. Four days is fine.

[Wendie]

Brings to mind my "fish keepers" when I go on vacation. I use small paper cups and put each tank's daily portion in the cups. Since I feed the kuhlis in one tank every other day, their cups will be labeled by day. A lot of the tanks I have contain male bettas so I always get a comment - only 4 tiny pellets in the cup... is this right???

[clownloach]

wendi's idea is a good one, i do it all the time when i leave for a couple of days and ask my buds to feed them for me.

[trinamd]

Thanks for the info! I'm so happy I don't have to let someone in my home while I'm out and I had a feeling that there would be a down side to those feeders. Much appreciated

[Graeme Robson]

Enjoy your vacation, my favorite is........................

[Big Steve]

I use an auto feeder all the time. I purchased an Eheim feeder from BigAl's online about 1 1/2years ago. It works great. The two AA batteries lasted about 14 month's. I have a 110 gallon freshwater planted aquarium with some rainbows, barbs, angels. I mix Spirulina, Tetra fin, Dried bloodworms and more recently HTH rainbow flakes. The feeder is programed for 3 feedings with 2 spins each on the feeder. It sits on top and I move one of the covers slightly open for the food to fall in. Occasionally I will close the feeder because I've read that it's good to skip feedings once in a while. I usually do this during my weekly water changes. I never worry about feeding my fish anymore![/img]

[newshound]

I would really love an auto feeder BUT so would my cats

[trinamd]

That's my problem too