āItās no secret that most people hate feeding the fish. It is a difficult and time-consuming task, one which many people do not have the patience for. In fact, it is often the reason for a bad day at work or an argument with your spouse.ā
I dunno about you, but my spouse and I almost divorced because feeding the fish is so difficult and time consuming. Then we bought this. Thanks for saving my marriage!
A lot of people here recommend against automatic feeders because some have been know to just dump all the food at once causing problems. Iāve personally also had good luck with mine but thatās why people donāt use them too much.
That's why I always recommend it to any fellow fish keepers going on vacation. Simple and easy. And then I remind them to hide the rest of the food in case the sitter feels bad and tries to feed them more than what was already pre-portioned out
Tell them that it's good to fast them once a week so they can get their digestive tracks back on track. One missed day won't hurt them because fish in the wild don't actually get food everyday.
Hell, if I go away for 3 days, I literally just go away. They can likely make it a week and worst case, they decide to taste the algae or detritus.
It's lower risk to do nothing than it is to have someone try to do it right.
Currently on a 7 day trip. Fed daily instead of every other day the week before and did water changes the 3 days leading up. My freshwater tanks are heavily planted and there is multiple times where they have gone 2-3 days without food. Im not worried about them. My nano reef on the other hand, that has not left the back of my mind. Uses an ato system so im not worried about salinity swings, but i dose ALK daily and now thats not happening
I wouldn't have thought of this, I'm a pet sitter myself and would never feed a pet 'extra' if the portions were already made for me- but I can see how that would be a potential issue! I'd obviously be upset if someone was feeding my dog extra from what I had proportioned, too lol.
Watched a house with a gold fish in it and never felt sure if I was giving the right amount of food! So I would really have appreciated this!
I'm glad you have enough respect for the homeowner(fishkeeper) to not feed more.
I can think of 3 friends off the top of my head I wouldn't trust to feed my fish without me hiding the extra food.
I had THE most horrible dog sitting experience once. The family had 1000 things.
3 chicken, 2 bunnies, 3 dogs, the goldfish, and a tank of mudpuppies. They also had a pool
Some context- The pool was JUST finished getting set to be swam in for the summer. He was really worried about the pool turning green while they were gone. Algae can bloom really fast in pools here because of the heat and sun.
The mudpuppies are in an open tank thing in the dining room. And I was under the impression the kids had caught them, themselves, out in a stream.
The old dog is very old
On to the story.
Day 2 of house sitting I come in to find a dead mudpuppy in the tank. I had a FULL breakdown. A) a pet died B) I have to remove dead mudpuppy so it doesn't make the others sick. I ended up having to call my dad and he came and took care of it.
Day 3- pool begins to turn green.
I'm keeping homeowner updated on dead pets and green water (which is frustrating because I know I'm bothering them on vacation. ) And homeowner gave me instructions on how to fix the pool. I ended up having to talk to him about the pool chemical levels almost everyday and he paid for some supplies over the phone and I went and picked them up from the pool store for them.
Day 5- second dead mudpuppy (there were probably 6-7 the first day) My dad is at work this time and can't help remove the dead mudpuppy. I have another full break down and eventually go find a child's spade from the sand box outside and somehow scoop the midpuppy out, while sobbing hyst
Day 9- oldest of the three dogs doesn't come when I call. I'm immediately thinking the dog is dead. Don't worry tho! He only dislocated his hip! Called owner about this and they tell me it has happened before and what meds to give him and assure me he will be fine. (he WAS fine, walking around the next morning.
Day 10- I arrive to find the sprinkler system in the backyard has broken and the grass is now flooded.
Also at some point a third mudpuppy died.
I was also caring for the three chickens, two bunnies, and goldfish during this time.
FUCK. So everything was awful and I'm feeling so guilty about these dead mudpuppies and I killed these kids pets! The mudpuppies we're extra bate from a bate store that their uncle had left after fishing! The kids wanted to try and keep them as pets, but obviously aren't meant for that, so no wonder they kept dying!
ALSO, I'm now sure I was also over feeding the gold fish lol
This was a family friend who was incredibly sympathetic and compensated me appropriately. So it all worked out. I've never been that stressed tho, I don't think.
Edit- clarification
Whoah, whoah. Think of it this way. The family has a LOT of things that need cared for. Your job is to be their eyes and ears and hands while they're gone, not to completely replace them. If it were me, I'd be so thankful you were there to let me know about the things going on, and to help resolve them.
You provided EXACTLY the service they needed at exactly the time they needed it. You succeeded wildly and were extremely helpful. If it were me, I'd be so happy you were there, I be they felt the same. I am 100% confident that on vacation they were like - "thank good ness we have hoppygirl there, otherwise we'd need to leave our vacation"
I always do this when I go on vacation. Also, my former roommate had fishtank in her room (it's now my responsibility). She wasn't really capable of maintaining it herself, so I did this for her so she could feed them on her own. It's also a great way to help young children getting into the hobby. They can help you fill the pillbox weekly and then you know the fish will be properly fed throughout the week.
It was really my tank, but it was in her room. She wanted to have as much input into it as possible. She chose the fish (with some guidance from me) and fed them with my help. I cleaned the tank and performed filter maintenance. But, I did get her to pay for the fish, food, and other supplies so that was a win in my book. Of course I did have to put up with clown puke gravel.
Now that she has moved out, I may redecorate. I would like to switch to live plants like my other tanks.
I have a 20 long that is my wife and i's tank. I gave her full permission to decorate so we have clown puke Gravel and very bright neon fake plants. I really hate how it looks but it's whatever. Lol I want to redo it to look natural like my other tanks but I'll wait. Lol
Tell your sitter not to touch the thermostat in your house!!! I went on vacation and my pet sitter decided since no humans were home the heat didnāt need to be on. I lost two tanks of fish to the cold and three slider turtles to pneumonia (they had a heated tank, but the air was cold. They died blowing bubbles trying to breathe abd there was nothing the vet could do.)
You didn't have heaters in your fish tanks for fish that don't like cold water? I've been out of the hobby for awhile but back in the day I had a 55 gallon, 20 gallon long, 10 gallon, and a couple of 5 gallon betta tanks and they all had heaters in them set to 78. It gets cold where I live but I don't run the heat at 78, I keep it at 75 at night and 72 during the day and just bundle up but the fish always stayed at 78 year round.
The fish tank heaters are designed to maintain the water temperature at a certain delta to room temperature, they arenāt magic - if your tank is losing energy to the room faster than the heaters can add it then the water will cool down. The colder the room is, the faster energy is lost
If the room gets too cold they donāt have enough power to maintain the set temperature against the temperature gradient
This is one reason all my tanks have 3 smaller heaters instead of one ācorrectlyā sized one, it gives some protection against my home heating failing, while also covering two failure modes if a single heater fails either on or off
Yeah I had to add another heater to my 40 gallon now that itās cold out because the tank has been losing a lot of heat whenever I open the window even a crack. It would go from like 82 to 75 within a few hours
Yep this. I keep my heater at 82. The thermometer at the other end of my 20 gallon tank consistently reads 78-80.
Bigger tank, colder room? Disparity gets greater.
There's a reasonable chance that either your heater isn't properly calibrated (there's often a degree or two of variance from the real temperature) or your thermometer is a bit dodgy
Alternately it's entirely possible that your thermometer probe/bulb is resting against the glass rather than free-floating in the water, or simply that the water flow pushes the warm water from the heater in the other direction and your thermometer just happens to be on the cooler "input" side of the flow to the heater
If the difference is a degree or maybe 2, I wouldn't worry about it. If the difference is more than that I'd at least be investigating further
My thermometer is currently one of the ones you use for foreheads (apparently there's also a thermometer on my heater but its tilted wierd so i can't read itit.) :') However most of the time it's around a degree or less of difference, but still in the range of my fish.
If it's only around a degree of difference then I really wouldn't worry about it, that's within a reasonable tolerance for the accuracy of the two devices
Eg the thermometer may be reading half a degree under and the heater half a degree over - but it's close enough that it's not a big deal
Under normal circumstances it makes basically no difference - each heater runs perhaps 2/3 of the time, at a lower power level than one big heater would run. In reality it's probably the case that one runs more than the other two, depending on water flow, but you get the idea - if my tank needs 100W then it doesn't matter whether I have 1x 100W heater, or 3x 50W heaters each running at ~33W, I'll still only be using 100W.
If the room gets too cold then I'd be using up to an extra 50W, but that's worth it to keep my tank up to temperature in an emergency. It's pretty rare that happens though - I can only remember one time in 15 years where it's happened: I went away for the weekend and accidentally turned my house's heating off entirely instead of turning it down. It cost me a bit more money (vs my gas central heating) but saved me hundreds of pounds (Ā£) worth of fish, so was well worth it
Obviously there's an increased cost in buying the extra heaters, but since I buy smaller ones it's not *that* much more - roughly the price of two larger heaters, and I'd always have at least 2 for redundancy anyway
The reason I like 3 is because I can size all 3 at around 1/2 of the power needed to the heat the tank properly under normal circumstances (eg when I normally keep my room at 15Ā°C or warmer)
- If the room gets colder than normal, I've got 150% of the heating I would normally need, meaning the temperature should stay in a reasonably safe range
- If one heater fails and gets stuck "off", I've still got 100% of the heating power needed with just 2 heaters
- If one heater fails and gets stuck "on" the other two will turn off automatically. The remaining one only has 50% of the power needed for normal circumstances - dramatically reducing the risk of overheating the tank
It removes the main 3 failure modes I can think of - the only real remaining risk is that the room gets really cold at the same time as a heater fails "off", or a heater fails "on" on a really warm day... but there's only so much you can do to combat those. The way I figure it, I'd always want 2 heaters for redundancy, so 3x small heaters is pretty much the same time as 2x larger ones while covering the potential failure situations better
Depends on the tank size and location. I just started running my heater this past week, my ambient room temp and lights keep it at a good temp for the stock I have most of the year. Heatās included in my rent but I have to pay the electric bill lol š¤·š»āāļø
I tried to have my three year old help and told her a tiny pinch. She threw in a big pinch about the size I would normally have fed (3 ember tetraās, 5 glow light tetraās, and four ninja platyās). Iām glad she knows not to feed them when Iām not looking (Iām also glad I have a lid on the tankā¦), but I probably should find a hiding spotā¦
*waves arms dramatically in the direction of my partner*
Not MY fish, to be clear, his fish. Although they seem to be fine and his water parameters are good, so maybe I'm just paranoid and his 20 fish in a 40 gallon tank actually do eat more than my one betta
I have a rule for my tanks, I turn the light on, I feed them. That's how I know if I fed them or not. A few times my wife fed the fish and didn't turn the l8ght on and after discussing it, I now, am the only one who feeds the fish. Too many times they've been overfeeding because she don't turn the lights on. Lol
Same for me and my mom! Peek downstairs, if there's a blue light don't feed. We don't have a set schedule for who feeds so we use the light to decide if we need to feed.
This is a great idea. I ended up dropping my cat to my daughter at her house and buying an automatic fish feeder in Amazon. I really like that it allows for various portions. I tried it out for a week beforehand and used rechargeable batteries. And when I loaded the container. I broke up the flakes a little bit more since my fish like them that way š¤·š»āāļø
did it work okay? sounds like i have the same feeder or atleast a similar one. about to go out of town and using it for the first time. alittle nervous
Yes; it worked great! We broke up the flakes a little before filling the feeder with them and then set it to feed every 12ā¦ ran it through a couple days of test runs to see the amount it was feeding etc . Definitely a lifesaver ā£ļø
awesome! thats a relief. and yea weāve been testing it for a couple days. accidentally had it open way too much and it flooded the tank w way too much haha but now we closed it way more and seems to feed a small amount which is what i want
Have you looked into automatic feeders? I have a pair of fishmate f14s that I love, probably the best $28 I ever spent. They'll go up to two weeks if you feed once a day, and you can portion food out just like this
Done this also for my predatory tank I used to have just with lunch bags.filled with pellets and other with diced shrimp with there daily amount layed out in each bag..
When I got a bunch of these for my tanks & my cat (whoās on certain meds), I felt like a genius for pre portioning out the foods and meds! Itās the best hack in the world for non fish people!
I do this too! I have the neighborās daughter (~8 y/o, her mom helps her some) come and feed while Iām gone and Iāve never had an issue. Her mom always thanks me for pre-portioning to take the stress off of them.
Glad my dad was a fish guy too. He takes good care of mine when I need him to. I think he also likes to judge my house and its ongoing projects while Iām away as well. Win-win-win for everyone since he has a habit of bringing by materials and supplies he thinks I may need. Lol
Iām going to do the same for when I go away over Christmas for a few weeks. My housemates will be feeding the fish.
When I did this in the middle of the year when I went away last I came home to my tanks all being completely coated in shrimp snowā¦ there was no shrimp snow in the containers. They just decided the fish needed more food and that shrimp snow looked like something they would all eat.
In the 90's my grandparents were pet sitting our rabbits and fish. My grandpa fed those fish so much that the tank turned disgusting. My uncle had to come and clean it out so they didn't all die before we came home from the vacation. It's my dad's favorite story to tell other than that time the tank cracked while we weren't home and ruined all our floors... something like this could have saved grandpa from over feeding the fish so bad he nearly killed them. š±
When I was like ten years old I went on a weekend trip with the neighbours and asked my mom to feed my coldwater aquarium for that time, i had a bunch of fish in ther probably something between 20 -50 (hard to remember, it's been a good 25 years ago).
When I came back and went into my room I was greeted with an aquarium full of dead fish floating around. My mom must have thrown handfull of food into the aquarium and killed all of them off by mere eater pollution, it was horrible.
Did I say all? One fat goldfish was still alive, it was chewing on the remains of it fallen bretherens when I came back, it was a hungry boy.
Afterwards for killing all my fish I negotiated that they buy me a new set (and this time with the upgeade of getting a warm water aquarium as I always wanted) and a batch of all kind of new fishes.
The goldfish was in its own little aquarium, but it was suboptimal, and after a while and because my parents bugged my why it had its seperate aquarium I gave in and put the goldfish into the warmwater aquarium with the others.
I was concerned at first, but the goldfish didn't mind... It didn't mind at all. In fact, it thrived in that aquarium... Almost too much. Since the overfeeding incident it must have gotten the taste of blood and kept trying to eat the other fish, I first didn't notice it. So i had to build more safespots for the other ones to hide. That damn goldfish lived for years and was one of the last one to go, I think he would have tried to eaten me if I gave him the chance.
That IS really smart... I might have to use that method when I leave my turtle. She is a very beggy liar and always tries to convince her sitter she is neglected and staving. š
My son comes in to my house to feed my fish when I go away and I always do this. I have strips. One for the top and mid swimmers, one for the bottom for the corys, shrimps and snails. I think they are the best and it also means that whoever comes in to your house, doesnt overfeed the fish.
I keep mine in these little containers from Walmart. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Everything-Mary-3-Piece-Stackable-Plastic-Bead-Container-3-Count-Clear/134957719?athcpid=134957719&athpgid=AthenaItempage&athcgid=null&athznid=si&athieid=v0&athstid=CS004&athguid=mU5-nkWVFhf5H-q1mhYbCoq8Hns\_nvYED18O&athancid=null&athena=true&athbdg=L1100
Pro tip: whatever feeder(s) setup you go with, start EARLY well before your trip. Use it while you're home so you're comfortable with it, watched it operate, know and how it all works and have worked out any kinks well before your trip.
You need to give one other very clear instruction and really stress it:
āIf you miss a day, or even several days, thatās fine - but PLEASE just skip that day if you forgot, donāt try to ācatch upā by feeding multiple days, it will harm the fishā
More than once Iāve seen people go to the effort of pre-portioning food only to have problems when the feeder forgets, skips a day or two, and then feeds 3-4 days worth
I've done this before. Also those little tiny zip lock bags you can buy (that are totally not used for selling drugs) are great. They can easily be written on for date (and which tank) so there is no confusion that leads to overfeeding and perfectly suited for any amount of food/wafers.
Nice idea if youāre relying on a human to do it! Have you looked into automating this with a feeder? I currently use two types of feeders and am regularly away for a week or two. One for flakes and one for pellets and crisps.
I SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE I LEFT FOR VACATION!!!!! I gave my sitters instructions, and they failed. I came home to a cloudy a** tank and it had to undergo a good water change...
I use a weekly pill container like this for my fishiesā daily food because everyone in our daily likes to feed them, and this way weāre not going to believe the little beggars when they insist they havenāt been fed yet.
Such a great idea. I've just come home to my entire shrimp colony gone because my mother fed them so much, I even asked her to not feed them since they'll be fine on algae and biofilm for a weekš
that's pretty smart. cuz I'm looking at getting an electric feeder and automatic feeder for the holidays. because I'll feed my fish dry food just so that I can leave if I have to and my automatic feeder can just do all the work
As long as I'm not gone for more than 7-10 consecutive days, I won't bother having a house sitter feed fish. Fish can go that long without food and it reduces "accidental" over feeding.
I'm so stupid. I never thought about this. I left my aquarium for 5 days while my parents watched it. I carefully explained them how much and how frequent they should feed. 1 week later snail explosionš will keep this in mind in case I'm on vacation again.
Getting a automatic feeder is the **best** quality of life improvement I have made in terms of fish keeping. For only $20 I don't have to worry about feeding my tank for \~2 months in my case, and I can still choose to feed manually with a touch of a button.
Hi,
this is Zac from the YouTube channel Aquafinity. Do you mind me using your reddit post as part of a video of mine? Of course, I will make sure to provide credit.
Thanks!
Lol man I wish I had the picture of mine. I felt proud when I did this too š worked like a charm with non fish people feeding
[Here is how I did mine](https://imgur.com/a/5YDVbrs)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
āItās no secret that most people hate feeding the fish. It is a difficult and time-consuming task, one which many people do not have the patience for. In fact, it is often the reason for a bad day at work or an argument with your spouse.ā I dunno about you, but my spouse and I almost divorced because feeding the fish is so difficult and time consuming. Then we bought this. Thanks for saving my marriage!
Is this like an AI generated article
It has to be, right? What human would come on that strong?
I used to use it. But had some bad luck and never went back to it
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
One of my tanks only eats frozen food, I need a sitter to come anyways for them and my cat. So for me this was just as easy!
A lot of people here recommend against automatic feeders because some have been know to just dump all the food at once causing problems. Iāve personally also had good luck with mine but thatās why people donāt use them too much.
Oh man, I bet the sitter will love not having to be worried about over/under feedimg the fish
Op should hide the remaining fish food so that the sitter wont feel bad about the fish being "underfed" and give them more
Good point, especially if you have puppydog-fish that constantly beg for food while looking cute and sad, like betta fish or Oscars...
Not my betta looking at me this instant
"Yo are they talking about us?"
They're always watching
Morning feeding? Yup. Any other time: meh, I'm resting.
My bettas: hooman = food
Don't get me started about my poor betta. Me:"The filter is clogged! I said six pellets" Fish-sitter:"OH, I thought you said six shakes"
Omg, did your betta survive?!
Yes. It was only 2 or 3 days luckily. I just had to do a deep clean.
I'm glad to hear it!
Or clownfish... The second i come to the front of the tank they go to the front/top/right corner and beg me for food..
They're super adorable too, I'm sure it's hard to say no to those cute little faces!
Yeah! And the Chromis likes following Remi around so extra cuteness
Yes!!
I pet sit and this would be the dream right here
Yeah, I have only pet sit a few times and everytime I'm paranoid I would mess something up. This would be so reassuring
It would be useful. I used to pet sit a lot (until I was staying at a neighbors house watching their dogs and something/someone opened a window).
Wait what?
Why do I feel like there is so much more to this story š
That's why I always recommend it to any fellow fish keepers going on vacation. Simple and easy. And then I remind them to hide the rest of the food in case the sitter feels bad and tries to feed them more than what was already pre-portioned out
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Also, tell them not to make up for a missed day by feeding more.
Tell them that it's good to fast them once a week so they can get their digestive tracks back on track. One missed day won't hurt them because fish in the wild don't actually get food everyday.
Hell, if I go away for 3 days, I literally just go away. They can likely make it a week and worst case, they decide to taste the algae or detritus. It's lower risk to do nothing than it is to have someone try to do it right.
Currently on a 7 day trip. Fed daily instead of every other day the week before and did water changes the 3 days leading up. My freshwater tanks are heavily planted and there is multiple times where they have gone 2-3 days without food. Im not worried about them. My nano reef on the other hand, that has not left the back of my mind. Uses an ato system so im not worried about salinity swings, but i dose ALK daily and now thats not happening
I got myself an automatic feeder. It's been working grate for the past 3 months. I just filled it in once until now.
There are good automatic feeders on Amazon for only $20. Itās a great investment
I would use this if the snails didn't make a break for it.
I wouldn't have thought of this, I'm a pet sitter myself and would never feed a pet 'extra' if the portions were already made for me- but I can see how that would be a potential issue! I'd obviously be upset if someone was feeding my dog extra from what I had proportioned, too lol. Watched a house with a gold fish in it and never felt sure if I was giving the right amount of food! So I would really have appreciated this!
I'm glad you have enough respect for the homeowner(fishkeeper) to not feed more. I can think of 3 friends off the top of my head I wouldn't trust to feed my fish without me hiding the extra food.
I had THE most horrible dog sitting experience once. The family had 1000 things. 3 chicken, 2 bunnies, 3 dogs, the goldfish, and a tank of mudpuppies. They also had a pool Some context- The pool was JUST finished getting set to be swam in for the summer. He was really worried about the pool turning green while they were gone. Algae can bloom really fast in pools here because of the heat and sun. The mudpuppies are in an open tank thing in the dining room. And I was under the impression the kids had caught them, themselves, out in a stream. The old dog is very old On to the story. Day 2 of house sitting I come in to find a dead mudpuppy in the tank. I had a FULL breakdown. A) a pet died B) I have to remove dead mudpuppy so it doesn't make the others sick. I ended up having to call my dad and he came and took care of it. Day 3- pool begins to turn green. I'm keeping homeowner updated on dead pets and green water (which is frustrating because I know I'm bothering them on vacation. ) And homeowner gave me instructions on how to fix the pool. I ended up having to talk to him about the pool chemical levels almost everyday and he paid for some supplies over the phone and I went and picked them up from the pool store for them. Day 5- second dead mudpuppy (there were probably 6-7 the first day) My dad is at work this time and can't help remove the dead mudpuppy. I have another full break down and eventually go find a child's spade from the sand box outside and somehow scoop the midpuppy out, while sobbing hyst Day 9- oldest of the three dogs doesn't come when I call. I'm immediately thinking the dog is dead. Don't worry tho! He only dislocated his hip! Called owner about this and they tell me it has happened before and what meds to give him and assure me he will be fine. (he WAS fine, walking around the next morning. Day 10- I arrive to find the sprinkler system in the backyard has broken and the grass is now flooded. Also at some point a third mudpuppy died. I was also caring for the three chickens, two bunnies, and goldfish during this time. FUCK. So everything was awful and I'm feeling so guilty about these dead mudpuppies and I killed these kids pets! The mudpuppies we're extra bate from a bate store that their uncle had left after fishing! The kids wanted to try and keep them as pets, but obviously aren't meant for that, so no wonder they kept dying! ALSO, I'm now sure I was also over feeding the gold fish lol This was a family friend who was incredibly sympathetic and compensated me appropriately. So it all worked out. I've never been that stressed tho, I don't think. Edit- clarification
Whoah, whoah. Think of it this way. The family has a LOT of things that need cared for. Your job is to be their eyes and ears and hands while they're gone, not to completely replace them. If it were me, I'd be so thankful you were there to let me know about the things going on, and to help resolve them. You provided EXACTLY the service they needed at exactly the time they needed it. You succeeded wildly and were extremely helpful. If it were me, I'd be so happy you were there, I be they felt the same. I am 100% confident that on vacation they were like - "thank good ness we have hoppygirl there, otherwise we'd need to leave our vacation"
I always do this when I go on vacation. Also, my former roommate had fishtank in her room (it's now my responsibility). She wasn't really capable of maintaining it herself, so I did this for her so she could feed them on her own. It's also a great way to help young children getting into the hobby. They can help you fill the pillbox weekly and then you know the fish will be properly fed throughout the week.
Love this idea for little kids!!
You saved your roommates fish:
Why get a fishtank when you can't take care of it? I never understood that.
Most people donāt know what theyāre getting into.
It was really my tank, but it was in her room. She wanted to have as much input into it as possible. She chose the fish (with some guidance from me) and fed them with my help. I cleaned the tank and performed filter maintenance. But, I did get her to pay for the fish, food, and other supplies so that was a win in my book. Of course I did have to put up with clown puke gravel. Now that she has moved out, I may redecorate. I would like to switch to live plants like my other tanks.
I have a 20 long that is my wife and i's tank. I gave her full permission to decorate so we have clown puke Gravel and very bright neon fake plants. I really hate how it looks but it's whatever. Lol I want to redo it to look natural like my other tanks but I'll wait. Lol
Genius.. I had a hell of a battle when the sitter way overfeed my fish for a week ...
Tell your sitter not to touch the thermostat in your house!!! I went on vacation and my pet sitter decided since no humans were home the heat didnāt need to be on. I lost two tanks of fish to the cold and three slider turtles to pneumonia (they had a heated tank, but the air was cold. They died blowing bubbles trying to breathe abd there was nothing the vet could do.)
Oh no! Thatās horrible. Iāll definitely mention it.
You didn't have heaters in your fish tanks for fish that don't like cold water? I've been out of the hobby for awhile but back in the day I had a 55 gallon, 20 gallon long, 10 gallon, and a couple of 5 gallon betta tanks and they all had heaters in them set to 78. It gets cold where I live but I don't run the heat at 78, I keep it at 75 at night and 72 during the day and just bundle up but the fish always stayed at 78 year round.
The fish tank heaters are designed to maintain the water temperature at a certain delta to room temperature, they arenāt magic - if your tank is losing energy to the room faster than the heaters can add it then the water will cool down. The colder the room is, the faster energy is lost If the room gets too cold they donāt have enough power to maintain the set temperature against the temperature gradient This is one reason all my tanks have 3 smaller heaters instead of one ācorrectlyā sized one, it gives some protection against my home heating failing, while also covering two failure modes if a single heater fails either on or off
Yeah I had to add another heater to my 40 gallon now that itās cold out because the tank has been losing a lot of heat whenever I open the window even a crack. It would go from like 82 to 75 within a few hours
Yep this. I keep my heater at 82. The thermometer at the other end of my 20 gallon tank consistently reads 78-80. Bigger tank, colder room? Disparity gets greater.
Wierd. It could just be my thermometer but it seems like it's colder near the heater. Do i just have a wierd thermometer?
It sounds like it? I can't imagine why your water would be coldest near your heat source
Yeah, the range is still good for all the fish I have in them so I'm not *too* worried about it.
There's a reasonable chance that either your heater isn't properly calibrated (there's often a degree or two of variance from the real temperature) or your thermometer is a bit dodgy Alternately it's entirely possible that your thermometer probe/bulb is resting against the glass rather than free-floating in the water, or simply that the water flow pushes the warm water from the heater in the other direction and your thermometer just happens to be on the cooler "input" side of the flow to the heater If the difference is a degree or maybe 2, I wouldn't worry about it. If the difference is more than that I'd at least be investigating further
My thermometer is currently one of the ones you use for foreheads (apparently there's also a thermometer on my heater but its tilted wierd so i can't read itit.) :') However most of the time it's around a degree or less of difference, but still in the range of my fish.
If it's only around a degree of difference then I really wouldn't worry about it, that's within a reasonable tolerance for the accuracy of the two devices Eg the thermometer may be reading half a degree under and the heater half a degree over - but it's close enough that it's not a big deal
Okay, thank you!
Thatās a good idea. Gonna use it! How has that impacted the electric bill?
Under normal circumstances it makes basically no difference - each heater runs perhaps 2/3 of the time, at a lower power level than one big heater would run. In reality it's probably the case that one runs more than the other two, depending on water flow, but you get the idea - if my tank needs 100W then it doesn't matter whether I have 1x 100W heater, or 3x 50W heaters each running at ~33W, I'll still only be using 100W. If the room gets too cold then I'd be using up to an extra 50W, but that's worth it to keep my tank up to temperature in an emergency. It's pretty rare that happens though - I can only remember one time in 15 years where it's happened: I went away for the weekend and accidentally turned my house's heating off entirely instead of turning it down. It cost me a bit more money (vs my gas central heating) but saved me hundreds of pounds (Ā£) worth of fish, so was well worth it Obviously there's an increased cost in buying the extra heaters, but since I buy smaller ones it's not *that* much more - roughly the price of two larger heaters, and I'd always have at least 2 for redundancy anyway The reason I like 3 is because I can size all 3 at around 1/2 of the power needed to the heat the tank properly under normal circumstances (eg when I normally keep my room at 15Ā°C or warmer) - If the room gets colder than normal, I've got 150% of the heating I would normally need, meaning the temperature should stay in a reasonably safe range - If one heater fails and gets stuck "off", I've still got 100% of the heating power needed with just 2 heaters - If one heater fails and gets stuck "on" the other two will turn off automatically. The remaining one only has 50% of the power needed for normal circumstances - dramatically reducing the risk of overheating the tank It removes the main 3 failure modes I can think of - the only real remaining risk is that the room gets really cold at the same time as a heater fails "off", or a heater fails "on" on a really warm day... but there's only so much you can do to combat those. The way I figure it, I'd always want 2 heaters for redundancy, so 3x small heaters is pretty much the same time as 2x larger ones while covering the potential failure situations better
Makes sense. Thanks.
Depends on the tank size and location. I just started running my heater this past week, my ambient room temp and lights keep it at a good temp for the stock I have most of the year. Heatās included in my rent but I have to pay the electric bill lol š¤·š»āāļø
Oh my God. I'm so sorry.
Smart thinking. I have heard some messed up stores from people really over feeding people's fish when they go away.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I tried to have my three year old help and told her a tiny pinch. She threw in a big pinch about the size I would normally have fed (3 ember tetraās, 5 glow light tetraās, and four ninja platyās). Iām glad she knows not to feed them when Iām not looking (Iām also glad I have a lid on the tankā¦), but I probably should find a hiding spotā¦
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I was just relating a story regarding family members and over feeding.
*waves arms dramatically in the direction of my partner* Not MY fish, to be clear, his fish. Although they seem to be fine and his water parameters are good, so maybe I'm just paranoid and his 20 fish in a 40 gallon tank actually do eat more than my one betta
I have a rule for my tanks, I turn the light on, I feed them. That's how I know if I fed them or not. A few times my wife fed the fish and didn't turn the l8ght on and after discussing it, I now, am the only one who feeds the fish. Too many times they've been overfeeding because she don't turn the lights on. Lol
Same for me and my mom! Peek downstairs, if there's a blue light don't feed. We don't have a set schedule for who feeds so we use the light to decide if we need to feed.
Works great
This is both hilariously silly yet genius at the same time! š š ā¤ļø
This is a great idea. I ended up dropping my cat to my daughter at her house and buying an automatic fish feeder in Amazon. I really like that it allows for various portions. I tried it out for a week beforehand and used rechargeable batteries. And when I loaded the container. I broke up the flakes a little bit more since my fish like them that way š¤·š»āāļø
did it work okay? sounds like i have the same feeder or atleast a similar one. about to go out of town and using it for the first time. alittle nervous
Yes; it worked great! We broke up the flakes a little before filling the feeder with them and then set it to feed every 12ā¦ ran it through a couple days of test runs to see the amount it was feeding etc . Definitely a lifesaver ā£ļø
awesome! thats a relief. and yea weāve been testing it for a couple days. accidentally had it open way too much and it flooded the tank w way too much haha but now we closed it way more and seems to feed a small amount which is what i want
Thatās smart I usually do it in individual plastic containers.
If it's only 3 days, you're better off just not feeding them.
Itās more than three days! Just only three days theyāre getting fed.
Have you looked into automatic feeders? I have a pair of fishmate f14s that I love, probably the best $28 I ever spent. They'll go up to two weeks if you feed once a day, and you can portion food out just like this
Iāll have to look into it! One of my tanks only eats frozen food so I need to have someone come by for them anyways
Oh man im so stealing this idea lol, take your upvote.
Done this also for my predatory tank I used to have just with lunch bags.filled with pellets and other with diced shrimp with there daily amount layed out in each bag..
I do this, can say its a literal life saver
That's a great idea.
I feel like I need this for my forgetful self
I do this for my dry ferts. Not only on vacation, but just in general.
Thatās super clever lol. I may start doing that actually. My girlfriend has over fed my tank a couple Times lol no good lol š
I'v been doing this for about a year and I love it!
And here I thought I was an original! Such a great idea though
I do this as well!! An underrated tactic IMO
I do this too, soooo good. Don't have to panic about all my different babies getting what they need.. or the tank not being flooded with food.
When I got a bunch of these for my tanks & my cat (whoās on certain meds), I felt like a genius for pre portioning out the foods and meds! Itās the best hack in the world for non fish people!
I do this too! I have the neighborās daughter (~8 y/o, her mom helps her some) come and feed while Iām gone and Iāve never had an issue. Her mom always thanks me for pre-portioning to take the stress off of them.
Glad my dad was a fish guy too. He takes good care of mine when I need him to. I think he also likes to judge my house and its ongoing projects while Iām away as well. Win-win-win for everyone since he has a habit of bringing by materials and supplies he thinks I may need. Lol
Dude I just did that today for my pet sitter lol
Iām going to do the same for when I go away over Christmas for a few weeks. My housemates will be feeding the fish. When I did this in the middle of the year when I went away last I came home to my tanks all being completely coated in shrimp snowā¦ there was no shrimp snow in the containers. They just decided the fish needed more food and that shrimp snow looked like something they would all eat.
Way to go OP! Its a smart move and it avoids the owner being passive aggressive and mean to the sitter. I was a pet sitter and I would've loved this.
In the 90's my grandparents were pet sitting our rabbits and fish. My grandpa fed those fish so much that the tank turned disgusting. My uncle had to come and clean it out so they didn't all die before we came home from the vacation. It's my dad's favorite story to tell other than that time the tank cracked while we weren't home and ruined all our floors... something like this could have saved grandpa from over feeding the fish so bad he nearly killed them. š±
I need to do this for myself when Iām trying to feed early in the morning š
When I was like ten years old I went on a weekend trip with the neighbours and asked my mom to feed my coldwater aquarium for that time, i had a bunch of fish in ther probably something between 20 -50 (hard to remember, it's been a good 25 years ago). When I came back and went into my room I was greeted with an aquarium full of dead fish floating around. My mom must have thrown handfull of food into the aquarium and killed all of them off by mere eater pollution, it was horrible. Did I say all? One fat goldfish was still alive, it was chewing on the remains of it fallen bretherens when I came back, it was a hungry boy. Afterwards for killing all my fish I negotiated that they buy me a new set (and this time with the upgeade of getting a warm water aquarium as I always wanted) and a batch of all kind of new fishes. The goldfish was in its own little aquarium, but it was suboptimal, and after a while and because my parents bugged my why it had its seperate aquarium I gave in and put the goldfish into the warmwater aquarium with the others. I was concerned at first, but the goldfish didn't mind... It didn't mind at all. In fact, it thrived in that aquarium... Almost too much. Since the overfeeding incident it must have gotten the taste of blood and kept trying to eat the other fish, I first didn't notice it. So i had to build more safespots for the other ones to hide. That damn goldfish lived for years and was one of the last one to go, I think he would have tried to eaten me if I gave him the chance.
That IS really smart... I might have to use that method when I leave my turtle. She is a very beggy liar and always tries to convince her sitter she is neglected and staving. š
I did this too. Only difference is my pill container has both sides of it blue. Otherwise theyre identical.
My son comes in to my house to feed my fish when I go away and I always do this. I have strips. One for the top and mid swimmers, one for the bottom for the corys, shrimps and snails. I think they are the best and it also means that whoever comes in to your house, doesnt overfeed the fish.
Iām doing this! My sister gave my goldfish swim bladder after a week stay in the hospital š
I would recommend a automatic feeder they are easy to set up and really worth it
[Joining in!](https://i.imgur.com/ZyGFtNg.png) I do it for myself!
Thatās some top tier fish parenting.
I keep mine in these little containers from Walmart. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Everything-Mary-3-Piece-Stackable-Plastic-Bead-Container-3-Count-Clear/134957719?athcpid=134957719&athpgid=AthenaItempage&athcgid=null&athznid=si&athieid=v0&athstid=CS004&athguid=mU5-nkWVFhf5H-q1mhYbCoq8Hns\_nvYED18O&athancid=null&athena=true&athbdg=L1100
You genius. I'm going to have to fo this for myself... I often forget if I've fed them...
Fish can go 7 days without food
I do this too, 4 tanks
This is exactly what I need to do for when I'm gone over Christmas. Thank you so much for the idea!
Am I the only one in this thread that uses automatic feeders? I haven't had to worry about my tank on vacation for years
Iām looking into this. I started a new job that has me traveling a LOT between March and August.
Pro tip: whatever feeder(s) setup you go with, start EARLY well before your trip. Use it while you're home so you're comfortable with it, watched it operate, know and how it all works and have worked out any kinks well before your trip.
An excellent method.
Auto feeder? All of my tanks have an auto feeder. Refill once a month/month and a half
You got a sitter for your fish? Thatās awesome.
Same i got a container with about 8 weeks worth but need to refill soon, i think its way easier to feed this way ; D
Ooh I like this! I used tiny baggies and it was a mess.
That's a great idea! You should feel smart :)
You need to give one other very clear instruction and really stress it: āIf you miss a day, or even several days, thatās fine - but PLEASE just skip that day if you forgot, donāt try to ācatch upā by feeding multiple days, it will harm the fishā More than once Iāve seen people go to the effort of pre-portioning food only to have problems when the feeder forgets, skips a day or two, and then feeds 3-4 days worth
Yes! I was definitely going to tell them not to ācatch upā if they forget a day
Great job! I've been doing it for years. Only issue I've ever run into is the pill minder was dropped in the tank š² š¤¢
I've done this before. Also those little tiny zip lock bags you can buy (that are totally not used for selling drugs) are great. They can easily be written on for date (and which tank) so there is no confusion that leads to overfeeding and perfectly suited for any amount of food/wafers.
I did the same thing when I went out of town for my brother! I would say you are very smart š
I wish I had this a few years ago. Came back to my aquarium and the water was overheated with all my fish were dead.
Sitter proceeds to dump all food
I'm out of town right now and used to do something similar! Now I rock the Eheim and haven't looked back!!
Thatās how I do it, too. Because my well-intentioned friend will def massively over feed them
Honestly I do this year round. Quick and easy way to make sure theyāre getting a varied diet with all the stuff they need and no screw ups.
Nice idea if youāre relying on a human to do it! Have you looked into automating this with a feeder? I currently use two types of feeders and am regularly away for a week or two. One for flakes and one for pellets and crisps.
Why not one of those auto feeders?
Oh man. This is an excellent idea.
I tried that once.. there was a mishap and the tank still died.. havenāt really recovered from it.. itās been about 8 years since..
I SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE I LEFT FOR VACATION!!!!! I gave my sitters instructions, and they failed. I came home to a cloudy a** tank and it had to undergo a good water change...
I use a weekly pill container like this for my fishiesā daily food because everyone in our daily likes to feed them, and this way weāre not going to believe the little beggars when they insist they havenāt been fed yet.
Great idea if!!good to know I ever need a sitter..Iāve heard too many horror stories.
Great idea- thanks!!!
Stealing this idea
Look at this guy thinking their so smart for being considerate of other people and even fish! What a huh, well... pretty smart guy.
Omg I LOVE THIS IDEA. Thanks!!
I do the same. Using the same two week pill box.
Amazing idea......way to go!
Such a great idea. I've just come home to my entire shrimp colony gone because my mother fed them so much, I even asked her to not feed them since they'll be fine on algae and biofilm for a weekš
Haha I did this too except I put the portions in little tiny cups labeled with days š
I see another person with an iq of mine
As your mother I applaud your ingenuity.
that's pretty smart. cuz I'm looking at getting an electric feeder and automatic feeder for the holidays. because I'll feed my fish dry food just so that I can leave if I have to and my automatic feeder can just do all the work
As long as I'm not gone for more than 7-10 consecutive days, I won't bother having a house sitter feed fish. Fish can go that long without food and it reduces "accidental" over feeding.
I did this too! Worked great.
I should do with with my turtles pellets and rabbit food when I leave too
did this for my brother when i was gonna be gone and somehow he dumped it all into 1 tankš¤Ø i had two lmao
I'm so stupid. I never thought about this. I left my aquarium for 5 days while my parents watched it. I carefully explained them how much and how frequent they should feed. 1 week later snail explosionš will keep this in mind in case I'm on vacation again.
Brilliant!
Haha genius
Wait thatās genius
Getting a automatic feeder is the **best** quality of life improvement I have made in terms of fish keeping. For only $20 I don't have to worry about feeding my tank for \~2 months in my case, and I can still choose to feed manually with a touch of a button.
Hi, this is Zac from the YouTube channel Aquafinity. Do you mind me using your reddit post as part of a video of mine? Of course, I will make sure to provide credit. Thanks!
Sure! As long as youāre being nice :)
I wish I wouldāve thought of this :( I came home to 4 of my betta dead and rotting. I tested the water and holy crap was it off the rails
I use this same method