9 days without food too long?

[Trever]

Last I tried an autofeeder, it was a disaster because my two tanks have 5 and 2 fish in them and the autofeeders either dump too much or essentially nothing.

I have a better auto system now but wondering if 9 days is ok to go without food. I've heard people say 7 is ok, though nears the borderline. Fish are fat and happy and most are not full grown but are by no means waifs. The 5 I've had for 10 months, for example. I can overfeed for a few days before leaving as well.

 

[Gtinnel]

Depending on the type of fish they would probably survive 10 days pretty easily, but I would try to find some way to feed them while you're away.

 

[jmichaelh7]

Wow I trip when I go a morning

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I wouldn't do 9 days. If one doesn't make it, it will cause an ammonia spike which will likely kill the others, since they would be hungry and weak, you'd lose everything.

 

[homer1475]

And here I freak when on fridays I have to give them 2 rotations of the autofeeder because I work all day and cannot feed them their regular frozen.

 

[Rtaylor]

They would probably survive, but it’s cruel. Feed them at least a few times over the 9 days.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

No. 3 days.
U go 9 days not eating. Lmk. Wait i prob wont hear from u...
D

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I feel bad when I miss 1 of the 3 feedings in a day and you want to go 9 days?!?!?!?!??? I would expect things to not go well…. And since you can either set your feeders to feed not enough or to much then why not set them up to feed not enough and at least then fish will get very little is better then 9 days without.

 

[Tcook]

Eheim feeder is reliable and easy to obtain. What about your LFS? Mine provides service from just feeding to full maintenance. What if a pump fries or tank springs a leak while you are gone?

 

[coralfishreef]

The “passive” fish in my tanks become aggressive when hungry.

With the Eheim auto feeder I put a piece of scotch tape to hold the plastic food door piece in between the default settings. In an instance where the feeder is only dispensing say 5 pieces, there is an option to have the feeder spin twice to dispense twice the amount. Or you could set the feeder to dispense more times with small amounts of food.

You could also get an idea of how much food will be dispensed by putting the feeder on a table with a plate or paper towel under the feeder and then manually dispensing food by pushing the Eheim button.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

The “passive” fish in my tanks become aggressive when hungry.

With the Eheim auto feeder I put a piece of scotch tape to hold the plastic food door piece in between the default settings. In an instance where the feeder is only dispensing say 5 pieces, there is an option to have the feeder spin twice to dispense twice the amount. Or you could set the feeder to dispense more times with small amounts of food.

You could also get an idea of how much food will be dispensed by putting the feeder on a table with a plate or paper towel under the feeder and then manually dispensing food by pushing the Eheim button.

This is exactly what I do but with the Neptune auto feeders. I hold my hand under it and press feed button. Then I decide if it’s enough or to much or if I need to let it spin again a second time. Do this 3,4,5 times and you are good. It also helps to use 1 type of pellet in there so all is same size so feeding are same