advice please.

[dancethenparty]

so i am going on vacation for 5-6 days and have a small issues.
a) i have 5 adfs and either have the choice of letting someone looking after them or finding some method of food they can eat that can fit in an automatic feeder.
IF i were to give them to someone they would be put in 2.5 gallon tank w/ a heater that is not cycled. which i don't really see a huge problem since it's only five days, and i cycled my tank with them and they did fine. or was i just lucky with that cycle?

SECOND ISSUE:
i have small fry that are of questional food size to the other fish so how would i take of them? they are currently in a little breeder cage.
so my question is: what would you do in my situation?

[domjd05]

I have no experience with frogs, but I know there are some great frog forums out there with people who have also kept fish.. for example

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

is a great site

I'm betting somebody here can answer you though.

[jaysee]

I would do a large water change before you leave and not worry about feeding them (fish and frogs). It's only 5 days. The problem you'll run into is with the fry, since they need multiple feedings a day. If you have a filter for the 2.5, I would put the fry in there and have someone feed them. Otherwise, I would turn them loose - you'll have more soon enough.

[Wild Turkey]

I would do a large water change before you leave and not worry about feeding them (fish and frogs). It's only 5 days. The problem you'll run into is with the fry, since they need multiple feedings a day. If you have a filter for the 2.5, I would put the fry in there and have someone feed them. Otherwise, I would turn them loose - you'll have more soon enough.

That sounds like a good plan imo

[dancethenparty]

have you ever done that before???? not feed your little pets for 5 days?!
and well you see these fry are special to me. cuz their parents are a pineapple+variated swordtail so their all different colors, one is like a solid orange, one a solid yellow, and the others have spots+strips but are very lite like their mother, so you see i'd prefer if they didn't die. with that being said would it okay if i put them on the automatic feeder?
and if i didn't feed them for five days, the day before would i prehaps overfeed them?????

[wolf_eyes]

Do you have someone you can trust to give you house key to so they can come over and feed the fish? That's what i would do in your situation. Fish can live fine for 5 day w/o food but if possible have someone come over every other day or whatnot to throw in a pinch of food.

[jaysee]

have you ever done that before???? not feed your little pets for 5 days?!
and well you see these fry are special to me. cuz their parents are a pineapple+variated swordtail so their all different colors, one is like a solid orange, one a solid yellow, and the others have spots+strips but are very lite like their mother, so you see i'd prefer if they didn't die. with that being said would it okay if i put them on the automatic feeder?
and if i didn't feed them for five days, the day before would i prehaps overfeed them?????

Fish yes, dogs no way. It takes a while for fish to starve to death. It's never really a good idea to "overfeed", even though the temptation is there.

[dancethenparty]

Do you have someone you can trust to give you house key to so they can come over and feed the fish? That's what i would do in your situation. Fish can live fine for 5 day w/o food but if possible have someone come over every other day or whatnot to throw in a pinch of food.
a)the alarm will be on B) parents hate that idea.
okay so heres my plan then. i will probably not feed the bigger fish/frogs and then just put the automatic feeder over the small breeder cage. sound good?

[korith]

I don't know about frogs. When I go for vacations, I use eheim auto feeders on my tanks, lets you set multiple feeding times each day. Can control how much they drop too. Works well in my fry tanks, I use a finely ground flake and adjust the feeder so it doesn't drop too much. It sells for 31 bucks at petco.

[HeatherB]

That would probably work. I left my fish for a week w/ no food and they did fine. I second the big water change before you leave!

If you decide to do the automatic feeder, make sure it is adjusted right for size of food, and make sure the food is crushed or what not. Not sure what kind of breeder trap you have, but make sure it stays where you want it in order for the fry to get food!

On the other hand, you could always release them into your tank, throw a bunch of um....what is that plant....Hornwort? Maybe java moss and watersprite? Or you could do a couple of fry hider things from the petstore, they look like floating astroturf! That way you could put the fish feeder on the main tank, and the fry can eat what the other fishes dont.

Correct me if Im wrong, platys eat fry, not sure bout swordtails, but nothing else looks like it would really bother your fry?

[dancethenparty]

That would probably work. I left my fish for a week w/ no food and they did fine. I second the big water change before you leave!

If you decide to do the automatic feeder, make sure it is adjusted right for size of food, and make sure the food is crushed or what not. Not sure what kind of breeder trap you have, but make sure it stays where you want it in order for the fry to get food!

On the other hand, you could always release them into your tank, throw a bunch of um....what is that plant....Hornwort? Maybe java moss and watersprite? Or you could do a couple of fry hider things from the petstore, they look like floating astroturf! That way you could put the fish feeder on the main tank, and the fry can eat what the other fishes dont.

Correct me if Im wrong, platys eat fry, not sure bout swordtails, but nothing else looks like it would really bother your fry?
since it moves and their small, everyone goe after them. especially the swordtail fry. i'm hoping they're have like a huge growth spert so i can put them in the tank.

[HeatherB]

Tank divider? make it just a little bit on one side for your fry and then the rest yo can have your big fishes in? Then you could maybe position an automatic feeder over the divider so both sides get some food?

How big/old are your fry?

[BirdOfPray]

For what it's worth, when I was in college I'd leave my fish alone over the short breaks we had. I think if it was less than a week I left them, and more than that I took them home with me. No one ever starved to death or appeared to have suffered. I think that was when I just had guppies and corys.

A word of warning on automatic fish feeders, depending on what type you get: don't position it over anything like an air stone. The surface aeration apparently throws up enough moisture that in the automatic feeder I got, the food rotted. Fortunately, it was so gummed up that it wouldn't fall out of there and into the fish tank or my poor fish would have eaten it. It was disgusting. Stupid mistake, but I didn't even think about it and I'd hate to have it happen to someone else!

[domjd05]

I noticed you said your parents hated the idea of giving a key to someone to feed your fish.... could your parents look after them for you?