vacation fish care plan - sound ok?

[chicagojo]

We are leaving for vacation from 8/1-8/6. I have found someone to come and feed the fish daily and siphon any obvious waste from the bottom of the tanks (no substrate) but when I have left this person responsible for water changes in the past, fish have pretty consistently become ill or died within a week (I'm not sure why but suspect temperature shock/poor acclimation or improper conditioner dosing) so I am hoping to avoid water changes during that time. My tentative plan is to do 100% water changes before leaving on 8/1 and another 100% change on 8/7 (we get in really late on 8/6). We have 2 fish, each in his own 2.5G heated tank. Will it be ok to let them go almost a week without a water change, considering that the solid waste will be removed on a daily basis? Open to other suggestions as well...

I forgot to mention, both fish are currently healthy and do not require any special care. Our typical water change schedule is 50% on Thursdays and 100% on Sundays. So I just did 50% today like usual and this coming week I am planning to alter to 100% on Sunday and 100% again on Wednesday, followed by 100% the following Tuesday. Hope that makes sense.

[LebronTheBetta]

You don't have to feed them. They can survive almost 3 weeks without food so they don't need it. You could do what you want. Doing the 100% before and after your vacation is fine. I think it's OK to not do a water change for almost a week. But do the 100% as soon as possible when you arrive. Removing the waste should help to keep the ammonia low which I agree with you. Sorry about your other fish. Maybe the caretaker didn't add in water conditioner? Or it's what you suspect and is shock. Sorry either way for your loss. :(

[battered]

Originally Posted by LebronTheBetta

You don't have to feed them. They can survive almost 3 weeks without food so they don't need it. You could do what you want. Doing the 100% before and after your vacation is fine. I think it's OK to not do a water change for almost a week. But do the 100% as soon as possible when you arrive. Removing the waste should help to keep the ammonia low which I agree with you. Sorry about your other fish. Maybe the caretaker didn't add in water conditioner? Or it's what you suspect and is shock. Sorry either way for your loss. :(

+1 to this. If you're still worried about not feeding them, you could just tell your betta-sitter to just feed less than normal. Even if you feed 1-2 pellets a day, I don't think a water change is an absolute necessity while you are gone.

[jeremywadejunior]

Originally Posted by chicagojo

We are leaving for vacation from 8/1-8/6. I have found someone to come and feed the fish daily and siphon any obvious waste from the bottom of the tanks (no substrate) but when I have left this person responsible for water changes in the past, fish have pretty consistently become ill or died within a week (I'm not sure why but suspect temperature shock/poor acclimation or improper conditioner dosing) so I am hoping to avoid water changes during that time. My tentative plan is to do 100% water changes before leaving on 8/1 and another 100% change on 8/7 (we get in really late on 8/6). We have 2 fish, each in his own 2.5G heated tank. Will it be ok to let them go almost a week without a water change, considering that the solid waste will be removed on a daily basis? Open to other suggestions as well...

I forgot to mention, both fish are currently healthy and do not require any special care. Our typical water change schedule is 50% on Thursdays and 100% on Sundays. So I just did 50% today like usual and this coming week I am planning to alter to 100% on Sunday and 100% again on Wednesday, followed by 100% the following Tuesday. Hope that makes sense.

I recently was in a similar situation, but it was my first time I've had someone to watch my fish. I was only gone for a week, and I changed the water right before I left. I came home to a really icky tank, though. :( My advice would be to definitely keep the fish at home and have the person caring for it just come to the house. I took my betta to my friend's house and he got pretty stressed out from the new environment I think. Also, make sure this person caring for your fish knows not to overfeed them. I enforced this by purchasing one of those pill boxes from Target and I put 4 small pellets into each day's container and just gave that to the sitter. Best of luck!