Four Holiday Fish Feeding Tips

During the holidays many hobbyist leave to visit family and find that they have forgotten to plan on feeding their fish during their vacation time. Don't worry! Here is a simple list of suggestions for when you are away and the fish must stay.

1. Don' feed them!

If you are only leaving for a few days (2-4) most fish will do perfectly fine without food. It is actually beneficial for fish to skip some feeding days because it allows their digestive system to rest and prevents bloating.

2. Automatic Fish Feeder

If your trip consists of weeks then you might consider purchasing an automatic fish feeder that you can easily setup to feed your fish while you are away. I recommend purchasing a automatic fish feeder in advance so you can fine tune the amount of food it is dropping and see if it meets all of your needs. Another suggestion is to still not feed the fish (unless you have species of fish like puffers that suffer greatly from missed feedings) during your vacation. Many tropical fish can survive for a month without food!

3. Hire a fish sitter

This may sound funny but many hobbyist especially those with saltwater aquariums will enlist a close friend or neighbor to feed and watch over their fish while they are away. I would suggest having a fish sitter over an automatic fish feeder mainly because automatic fish feeders usually have limited control on the amount of food your fish are actually getting verses how much they should be getting. A babysitter, once shown the daily routine of your aquarium care, can easily adapt to your fish's feeding requirements which change from day to day and keep an eye on the aquarium systems.

4. Do not buy a Fish Vacation Feeder

You have probably seen fish vacation feeders in every fish store in shapes of shells, pyramids and even gel forms. These vacation feeders are not helpful in feeding your fish while you are away at all, in fact, they actually are the cause of many hobbyist losing their fish while away. They are marketed to slowly dissolve in your aquarium while releasing food pellets during your vacation, sounds nice, but never ends well. Usually this pellet food is uneaten and starts to decay in your aquarium slowly polluting your aquarium water. Along with dissolving feeder the aquarium enters a state of pollution fast, this is especially horrible for betta tanks (with no filtration) and aquariums less than 20 gallons. Stay away from these to keep your homecoming to your fish a happy one.

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