Fish

tinkerbell

I have a question ...

Been thinking for a while now of getting a few marine fish for my aquarium. However, the problem is - my boyfriend and I live in an apartment, and if we go away on holidays at any stage, there'd be nobody here to look after the fish.

Now, I would like to have a tank full of clowns, so obviously I'm not gonna fill the tank with any sort of fish (especially clowns that cost lots of €€€€) if they won't survive my holiday trip

My question is, is there anything to sort out fish while you're going away? I mentioned it to my mom and she thought she had heard of something along the lines of releasing food into the tank or something ... I dunno really, I dunno what I'm talking about

So guys, any ideas at all? I'd love to have a tank full of clowns, but obviously there's no point if my fishy friends won't survive

Thanks in advance!

nesf

I've seen weekend and holiday food blocks that release food for upto 2 weeks. I've never used them though, so I've no idea how well they work.

Pet-Bliss.com has a few of them. But I've never kept fish so I've no idea how well they work.

boroughmal

There are fish feeders that feed your fish a certain amount automatically, They dispense an amount twice a day at the same consistent rate for two weeks. They are available with a time & a clock and a programmer & can now be intigrated into auto house electronics to also turn the light on & off in your tank.
What worries me is that you say you want clowns and you want to leave them for two weeks. This would not be possible unless you have an Ioniser a sand pressure filter or a fluid bed filter and possibly all automated in case the water went wrong whilst you were away.
These items are considerably expensive compared to an automated feeder.
You may be better off leaving them unfed for three days at a time during the hols and getting someone else to do this. this will ensure that almost everything shuts down to a very basic level, and puts the tank on hold untill u come back.When u come back start by feeding every two days and then every day untill your filter builds up to normal as you can kill them with instant feeding.
The last option is to find a fishkeeper and pay him to look after them whilst you are gone. This option is the same as putting your dog in a kennell for the hols. And a good fishkeeper will relish the fact that he might be able to teach you a thing or two whilst he is at it.
The pet bliss site is the place to look.
Regards

The Sweeper

Hmmm. No offence Tinkerbell, but if you want something pretty to look at in your flat, buy an ornament.

If you were to substitute a cat or dog for the fish in your post, but present the same concept - you don't know what you're doing, you're not sure how to feed them, you'll neglect them for a fortnight and your main worry is not spending €€€€€s on something that'll die while you're on holidays - this thread would be overspilling with outraged protests and shouts of animal cruelty.

However, because they're fish...

I'm going to stand up for the fish. There is a LOT MORE to caring for an aquarium than filling a salad bowl with tapwater and dumping swimming things in it. If you want to keep fish, take it as seriously as any other pet. Do your research. Find out the difference between, for instance, what you can put in a freshwater tank as an ornament and what you can only put in a saltwater tank. Look up the basics first - the must haves. Cost them. Now see if you're still interested. Drop into your local aquarium and talk to the staff in there. Cost everything properly before you start and plan contingency for holidays, illness, moving house etc.

Or just buy some unusual prints and have them framed and hang them around your flat.

fred funk }{

ssshhhh!

Give her a break man!

I wouldn't go near them feeder blocks with ten foot barge poll. What i do when i go away is I leave out little tubs of food and cling film the top and mark them for each day, I get a relative to drop by and throw the contents of each tub in the tank, this stops them from over feeding.


If im only going away for two or three days i dont feed them at all.
You should also get a timer for the lights on your tank for when your away this keeps them in their routine and they are very cheap.

Also, do plenty of research before getting into marine as its totally different than fresh water and more expensive but not as much as some people say.

The Sweeper

Yeah okay maybe I was a bit harsh - but I can remember seeing a few people in the past keeping fish in conditions that were really bloody awful. Green water, dead fish left in the tank / bowl etc. - and I can be a bit of a nazi about the "fairground goldfish" concept too.

It just makes me nervous when I see people asking basic care questions about something they seem to already have (tinkerbell seems to refer to an existing aquarium) - it's like "I bought me one of these, now how do I look after it?"

tinkerbell

Okay, just to clear a few things up ....

MAJD, I'm not an idiot, I'm an intelligent person, and I'm not one that would make my pets live in cruelty.

I asked the question about the food issue, in case it did arise that I was going away at some point on a holiday, and nobody was available to look after the fish (however, I'm sure I could find somebody, so it'd be a worse-case scenario if I was using one of those food block things).

I only asked the question, just to check out if such a thing was available, before I even think of getting a tank of clowns. What's the point otherwise? Why would I get a tank without knowing what I'd have to do if I had to go away? It's the same with getting a puppy - if you think for a second that if you're going away on holidays, and you'll have nobody to look after it, then you ain't gonna get a puppy, for the simple reason that it'd be cruel!

I mentioned the money because as you know, clownfish are expensive. I'm only just out of university, I don't have loads of money, so if I was gonna be getting clownfish, I'd be taking damn good care of them, because I probably wouldn't be able to afford to replace them! And also, I have taken into account the costs of other marine fish related equipment as well.

Regarding the aquarium, it's not mine, it's my parents. They used to have it as a tropical fish tank. However, it hasn't been used in a while, so they said they'd give it to me. Therefore, I don't know that much about all fish related things, as they were the ones who looked after the tank.

That said, before I would even think of getting marine fish, I would obviously do my research first, call out to Fish Antics, etc. or whoever, and ask them advice first, because I know that marine fish are seriously difficult to keep.

I think it was unfair of how you said "if you want something pretty to look at, buy an ornament". It's not a case of how I want something pretty to look at, I want to get marine fish, just the same way that I want to get a Newfoundland puppy, but obviously that's not possible right now because I don't have the garden for it!

It's the very same as when my folks were thinking of getting a Newfoundland puppy this year (our old Newfoundland died a few years ago), but it wouldn't have been possible as my folks are big into travel now, and it wouldn't be fair to leave the puppy on her own. Same as this, only it's just a different animal.

My question was a very basic question, because it would be one of the reasons if I would fill the tank or not. If the worse came to the worse, and I had to use a foodblock thing for a few days, then fine. But I only asked to find out if such a thing existed, because if it didn't, then there'd be no point in filling the tank, because it'd be too cruel.

I hope that's cleared up some misunderstandings here?

boroughmal

Its nice to know that someone has asked, we see all too many people doing the wrong thing by fish & I can understand the ornament bit.
However thanks for speaking up for yourself. If you want more good advice I am only too happy to help.
Regards