Thinking of feeding up your fish with a lot of food before going on holiday? Trying to power feed them because you think fish will starve to death while you’re away?
Is it really right thing to do for your fish?
Table of contents
Reason better not to feed
Yes, there are reasons for not feeding before you’re going away for awhile so let’s talk more in depth.
Deteriorate water quality
If you feed your fish a lot of food at once, the water becomes worse by those uneaten food. Also, if they cannot digest properly, those foods that you power feed will be released by their waste and not stored in fish as energy.
Yes, fish will eat a lot and looks like they are asking more food but remember, you need to control it for their health and you are the only one who can.
Too much food will deteriorate your water quality faster and hence it will create difficult environment for fish to live at the end.
Even though your aquarium is set with good amount of bacteria in your filter, you need to understand there is a speed limit for the bacteria to break down and filter your water. Over feeding obviously exceeds its limit and harmful elements such as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate which will build up in the tanks as the time goes.
If you would like to know more about the nitrogen cycle, here is the link to Fluval Aquatics explaining 5 steps to cycling a new aquarium or you can simply watch the video above.
No one is looking after aquarium
Unless you have proper person to look after your fish on behalf while you’re away on holiday, many people won’t have the right person to look after your fish.
Your fish may be rare and/or expensive. Also depending on what sort of fish you keep, caring technique may change.
So, whenever you leave for certain period of time, there will always be risks.
So how can you go on holiday then?
Now you know that power feeding before you leave on holiday ONLY makes situations worse.
So, what can you do then?
No feed is ok
Unless you’re planning to leave for a month or so, they are ok to be left with no food.
Some fish that’s been fed properly can be left without food for a month!
Not that it means you should starve them on regular basis just because they won’t die by it
Sometimes when you treat sick fish, you may stop feeding for few days. Some other people want to quarantine before introducing into their main tanks and they will not feed for certain period of time for quarantine purposes.
Hence, you don’t have to worry too much or be scared of “No feed”.
How about auto feeder
Even though it’s ok not to feed them when you plan to leave on holiday, some may insist to keep its feed routine. Reason may be you don’t like to break the routine or fish you keep is juvenile and trying to grow.
Ok
How about installing an auto feeder if that’s the case?
What it does is as the name imply, it will automatically feed food to your fish with certain set time. What you need to do with it is to fill the compartment with food you like to feed your fish and set the time you like it to feed.
Not difficult at all, right?
Tips for using auto feeder
Check whether auto feeder properly functions or not.
If it doesn’t work properly, it may fall into aquarium somewhow and feed whole lot of food at once. Also if the battery part fall into the water, it may simply die and you may have to purchase another one to replace.
This is just a nightmare.
Do not overload the compartment with food
Just fill up with the amount it normally functions right. This may jam up and won’t feed as it should.
It may be a good idea to test few times to know how much you should be putting in in order to avoid problems.
In addition, because you will be placing the auto feeder above aquarium, auto feeder is exposed to moisture as you can imagine.
So, if you fill up a lot and food stays in the compartment for awhile, there is more chance to grow molds in there and that food eventually be fed in aquarium, causing troubles.
Check the battery life
Check the battery whether it is out of energy or has enough to work while you’re away. Especially when you’re planning to leave for long time, make sure the battery will run for that period as you won’t be able to check at that time.
Conclusion
If you’re going away for short period of time, it is better not to feed your fish while you’re on holiday due to several reasons below.
- Food amount is generally not fixed and should adjust to the fish behaviour, hence need experience
- When you ask someone else, they may not recognize when they should not feed
- When you ask someone else, they will only feed your fish with the amount they’re told
- When you ask someone else to feed while you’re away, they may continue to feed even when the environment becomes bad
Or if you insist you like to keep the routine feed even when you’re leaving for awhile, you can consider using auto feeder instead of asking someone else who cannot be responsible for your fish.
We saw many people asking someone else like neighbours to look after while you’re away and ended up most fish dead floating and/or starting to decompose in the milky white disgusting aquarium.
So, please take sometime to make legitimate plan before going away so you don’t have to deal with the mess when you come back from holiday.