The Puffer Forum

Although I am not planning on going out of town for another few months (Christmas is coming up..), I am wondering what puffer owners do to ensure that their friends stay safe and full? My dogs I can easily drop off with relatives for a little while, but an aquarium isn't quite so easy to move.

I am curious about water changes, feeding, etc. I remember reading someone's post about asking a friend to care for their fish and the person didn't know how to do proper water changes and flooded the house and dropped the salinity, or something like that...

And what is your time range? Are they okay on their own for a weekend? A week? Two weeks?

Thanks!

I've heard nothing but horror stories of people messing everything up and killing fish. I think I would personally feed a normal portion, then do a water change right before I left, and just make sure I could come back in no longer than a week. If I could trust someone just to go and check on the fish only visually, but not attempt anything, I would do that too.

I left for 10 days before (hurricane evacuation) I fed the fish and did a water change before I left. I gave them a little extra portion than normal. I knew I wouldn't be back for a while. On the 4th day I was able to return home just to set up the battery operated pumps. A neighbor that stayed would check the pumps once a day and change batteries if needed. On the 10th day we had our electricity back and we came home. The fish survived with no electricity only battery powered pumps for 10 days, no water change for almost 3 weeks (city water was contaminated and not safe for people), I also didn't feed them for those 3 weeks. I didn't want their water quality to go down too fast. I wasn't sure when the water would be safe again. This was all during Hurricane Rita. No fish were lost. During Hurricane Ike we did the same thing, only for 7 days. On the 7th day we came home with generators. We would run the main pumps while we were home at night and during the day it was battery pumps. My only problem was that the water got hot. It was about 120 degrees in the house. I did put ice in ziploc bags to cool the water down. But this may be too much information for what you asked. Sorry. To answer your question: Yes if your water is clean and your fish are well fed before you leave then there shouldn't be a problem if you're gone a week.

Alright, thanks guys. I think I will be gone between 10 days to two weeks, I can probably have one of my friends come in and feed her a little bit every few days. I don't want her to starve, but I also don't want her tank to get crazy disgusting and have to deal with ammonia. Would you suggest having someone come in to feed her?

Most people overfeed fish, even people who live with or see other people care for fish. If it's 2 weeks, maybe they could come in once to feed, but you would really have to trust this person not to decide on their own how much Lola "really should" eat. Without water changes, I think it's too risky to have her feed several times. Lola could very easily, if she is a healthy weight at this time, which she will be, go without food for 10 days and not starve to death. But if your friend overfeeds her, that could be very dangerous. :/

As long as there is someone you can trust to look over the fish you should be able to have them feed as well. I definitely recommend doing a water change the day before you leave though. I have had no trouble setting up pre-proportioned food bags with days marked on them for my friend to thaw out and drop in the tank. If they need to feed pellets I put the proper amounts in ziplock bags and again mark a day on the bag. Seems tedious but most assuredly worth it and makes your friend feel more at ease that they are taking proper care of the fish. Good luck.

You can also have premeasured amounts of food set up for who ever, so they dont over feed. When I went on vacation my mom stopped by every other day and I told her exactly how many worms to give each puffer, worms were easier so she didnt have to thaw and would cut back the chance of over feeding(in my head at least lol)

That's sort of what I do, I have a friend who comes round to cat-sit when I go away. I leave little post it notes on the tanks and various portions of food wrapped up in cling film in the freezer!

However, she did also give my community tank a pack of freeze dried daphnia (I think!) as a treat :-s but no harm was done there luckily.

Advice:

1 - Make sure you have enough water in your sump if you're running one.
2 - Feed the fish (normal amount)
3- Do a large water change. I usually do 75%-80%.
4 - When back: Do a couple small water changes. I say this, because over the course of 2 weeks, the PH, etc, will have changed a bit. A few small partials (say 20% x 3) (within a day or two) will allow the fishes to get used to the normal water parameters.

I've left alone for 2 weeks at a time. The worst part in my opinion is the evaporation of water. I'd like to have an auto-top off, for my 150, but other than that, leaving the tanks for a while is no problem.

There are professional pet-sitters. Two of the vet techs at our vets office offer this service. They will do anything from checking the tanks water levels and feeding at whaterver intervals you wish with pre-measured dry foods or pretty much any specialized food handling needed. We have never required them to do partials. The price varies with the time and number of visits neded. They also will walk and feed or even sleep over to tend to furry or feathered or scaled pets. They have been fully satisfactory for us.

RTR wrote:There are professional pet-sitters. Two of the vet techs at our vets office offer this service. They will do anything from checking the tanks water levels and feeding at whaterver intervals you wish with pre-measured dry foods or pretty much any specialized food handling needed. We have never required them to do partials. The price varies with the time and number of visits neded. They also will walk and feed or even sleep over to tend to furry or feathered or scaled pets. They have been fully satisfactory for us.

I do that for a few people. I love it.

I'd pre-portion the food and specify times.

The problem is trust. Not that long ago, when I joined here, my wife over fed the puffers and they died because of an ammonia OD. Well... we moved the tanks and in a new home and guess what she is doing again... 10x the typical feed. Grrrr......

don't worry too much about the water changes. Leave a schedule that is about 1/2 the regular feeding. 10 days is really no sweat.

Considering that having folks come and go helps keep the house safer, and is far cheaper than boarding out dogs, it is an easy choice. Ours are really nice folks and already have known the hounds from the vet's office. The owner of the LFS (a long-time friend) is their technical back-up i any of the pumps or filters misbehave. He claims not to understand my set-ups, but certainly knows all the equipment used.

I am going away in a couple of weeks, i will simply do a large water change and feed well for a couple of days before i go. I will try and relax and save my ocd for when i get back. A whole week with no waterchanges!!!! lol

You will go nuts