How long can they go without food?

[hippyguy]

Hi all!
I am going on holiday shortly for 10 days, and am wondering what to do about my 4 King Tiger Plecs, L66. They are in a 30" at the moment, but will soon be moved into a 4'. The tank is the usual set up, sand, gravel, lots of rocks, caves, bogwood etc...! The tankmates are 1 oto, plus lots of baby and semi-adult endler's livebearers. There will be someone to look after my tanks, just to do the flake, but can they go on a 10 day fast, i.e. no frozen food? I put the endler's in hoping that as they are carnivorous they may occasionally pick the babies off as they swim right in front of them, but they've never shown any interest. Anyway, what does everyone think?
Cheers, Hippyguy

[Silurus]

If your fish are healthy, 10 days is not a problem.
You might want to ask the fish-sitter to throw in a couple pellets in addition to the flakes.

[Barbie]

If you are going to have a fish sitter, you might stress that it's FAR more important to underfeed the fish for their health than risk even one single overfeeding. I usually have people watching my fish feed every other day, if not every 3rd day, just in case. The fish can tolerate the schedule with ease, and you don't risk losing them all from polluted water conditions. People that don't actually keep fish (and some that do) think that because they are still looking for food they need to be fed more and this can spell very real disaster. Good luck!

Barbie

[ikan]

I would think changing the water and bringing the temperature down a couple of degree centigrade will help since it will reduce their metabolic rate. But 10 days I wouldn't think it's a problem at all providing they are healthy. Depending the type of filtration system you have and your tank setup you might still need to top up the water. If you are concern I would get someone to feed the fish once (in the middle of your holiday) and leave them with the food in a plastic bag for one feed so they don't overfeed your fish.

[XEEN]

I never try to not feed my fish for 10 days, but after one week, they are stil healthy.
If i leave home for more than a week,I ask my neighbors to feed my fishes and to avoid overfeeding, I prepare a bowl for each day with the good amount of food and this for each aquarium, like that no risk.

[ronsterrc]

you might want to individually bag say two feedings so your fish-sitter can only feed the desired amount, on the two ocassions. Give them a whole box of food and no doubt the whole box will end up in the tank.

[dustyplec]

i think the offical stat is that most fish can go 3 months or so without food if they are healthy.
In my opinion i would simply leave them to it for 10 days,the amount of people i talk to that have lost lots of fish because of people over feeding whilst they are on holiday is simply astonishing.
My vote is just leave em to their own devices

[hippyguy]

Ok, cheers guys, I think I'll just leave them to it. I may get a fishkeeping friend to come in and feed them their frozen food once, but from what I have heard it isn't overly important!
Cheers, Hippyguy