Leaving tank unattended

[Knowleman]

Due to work commitments, we are unable to take a long vacation this
summer so are planning a series of short breaks instead (e.g. long
weekends).

We have a 50g reef tank, fish and inverts, lots of LR, 9 months
established, very stable. Fish normally get fed once a day (frozen
food) - no fussy feeders.

Rather than keep bothering the neighbours, how long is it
safe/responsible to leave this kind of tank unattended. What
precautions would you recommend to minimise the risk of occupant stress
or some kind of disaster?

[Charles Spitzer]

"Knowleman" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Due to work commitments, we are unable to take a long vacation this
> summer so are planning a series of short breaks instead (e.g. long
> weekends).
>
> We have a 50g reef tank, fish and inverts, lots of LR, 9 months
> established, very stable. Fish normally get fed once a day (frozen
> food) - no fussy feeders.
>
> Rather than keep bothering the neighbours, how long is it
> safe/responsible to leave this kind of tank unattended. What
> precautions would you recommend to minimise the risk of occupant stress
> or some kind of disaster?

you could probably not feed fish for 4-5 days pretty safely, or get a pet
sitter to come in.

[George Patterson]

Knowleman wrote:
>
> Rather than keep bothering the neighbours, how long is it
> safe/responsible to leave this kind of tank unattended.

Depends on the fish. An adult fish who eats live food can go a week without. A
butterfly typically needs to be fed every day. Others can go 3-4 days without
any real harm. One thing you might do is get a "lettuce clip" and put some
Romaine lettuce in the tank. Fish that are fond of vegetation will pick at this
for days.

George Patterson
"Naked" means you ain't got no clothes on; "nekkid" means you ain't got
no clothes on - and are up to somethin'.

[Knowleman]

Thanks George - like the idea of the lettuce clip, but our lot seem to
ignore actual lettuce. When we tried it early on the it was only the
cleaner shrimp that went for it, and he went into quite an amusing
feeding frenzy.

If we experiement with other vegitation, I guess any human style green
salad would be ok - is that fair assumption? Anything to avoid?

Occupents BTW are : clowns (x2), banana wrasse, pyjama wrasse, scooter
blenny, dot-dash blenny, algae blennie, african pigmy angel, scarlet
hawkfish, firefish, cleaner shrimp, boxer shrimp, fire shrimp, various
(mostly) soft corels and an anemone. All small stuff in tems of fish .

[George Patterson]

Knowleman wrote:
>
> If we experiement with other vegitation, I guess any human style green
> salad would be ok - is that fair assumption? Anything to avoid?

Try to find organically grown stuff to avoid chemicals on the veggies. Some fish
like spinach.

> Occupents BTW are : clowns (x2), banana wrasse, pyjama wrasse, scooter
> blenny, dot-dash blenny, algae blennie, african pigmy angel, scarlet
> hawkfish, firefish, cleaner shrimp, boxer shrimp, fire shrimp, various
> (mostly) soft corels and an anemone. All small stuff in tems of fish .

As far as I can see, none of those are particularly fond of vegetation. Check
with your LFS -- IIRC, there's some sort of compressed food cube you can buy
that they'll pick at for a few days.

George Patterson
"Naked" means you ain't got no clothes on; "nekkid" means you ain't got
no clothes on - and are up to somethin'.