Back from vacation - fish care with no fishkeeper?

I just got back in from NB, after a week away. Since people stress out so much about vacations and their fish, I thought I'd give an honest, no spin report on what happened here.

Not much.

My biggest concern was the week old boesemani fry, but they seem to all be there. I didn't count before I left (they move too fast and are small), but everything looks good. Ditto for the ajamaruensis. In both cases, I filled their 5 gallon fry tanks with plants to give them micro-organisms to feed on, and they grew without me feeding them. They are the size I would have expected if I had been here.

I threw two mops of Melanaotaenia duboulayi eggs in to incubate while I was away, and they hatched out a lot of young. So I have more fish than I thought I would. I put plants in with them too, so they fed immediately. They were only a few hours old when I got home.

My brown pearl Steatocranus cichlids decided they were going to die and they would need to breed fast, so they are guarding eggs and looking quite fat.

Fish can go 2-3 weeks without food. After a week unfed, not one fish is dead, or ill. None have sunken bellies. They appreciate the return of Gary the Food Dispenser, but they were doing fine. They would have been fine for another week.

I brought back some dulse (seaweed) for the mollies, and some strangely shaped beach rocks from various places I visited. One of them has a nice plant fossil in it. Plus I found three aquarium books for $12 total in a second hand store my daughter wanted to scope out - one of them would have cost me an easy $30 if I had tried to find a copy online, and the other two are curiosities.

Glad to hear your fish made it without their "food dispenser" and that you enjoyed your week in NB!

I'd love to see the plant fossil!

Glad to hear the fish did fine.

glad all is good love to see the plant fossil too

Good write-up.
I went away for a week as well last week and everyone is doing fine, no casualties even my tiny Gudgeon Fry seem to be growing ..

I think the key is light stocking, live plants and no power blackouts to mess up the Aquaclears...

GaryE wrote: and no power blackouts to mess up the Aquaclears...

Big problem with HOBs during an absence. I added sponge filters just in case. Then it is a bit of overkill and i really started to wonder why I use HOBs. Anyways I have those double sponge filters, the cheap China imports that you can buy for $3 (and take forever to get to your home), and they work great. In case the HOB fails I have peace of mind.

Back from 10 days in Vancouver. All the fish are well, same shape as when I left. Except for the drop in water levels, you wouldn't be able to guesss I was away. All tanks have live plants and all but two 10 gallon tanks have duckweed. My fish include various livebearers, 3 types of killis and a few corys.