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Well, here's the typical college student scenario. I've got two tanks, a 5 gal with zebra danios and a snail, and a 2.5 gallon with my guppy. The problem is, in December I'll be going home for a month; it's a five hour drive and something I really, REALLY don't want to subject my babies to

I've heard people approve/disapprove of the weekend or vacation feeders, but I found one that says on the package to "feed fish up to a month". I'm not sure if I should trust this, but if I couldn't find anyone to keep the fish up here then I was going to buy that and risk it.

(This is a very, very last resort though.)

One other little complication: the 5 gallon tank has a heater, while the 2.5 does not. I'm not sure what kind of heater to buy for the little tank (the dorms turn off the heaters over the break! ), or if I should just put poor Opal into the danio tank and let her brave it out.

These are all really tentative plans, but I figured I'd ask for everyone's input before I did anything drastic or unnecessary

Is there anyone with a larger tank on campus that you can board your fish in? Larger tanks are less likely to swing madly.

The feeder blocks pollute the water quickly and bugger the pH, i suggest you take the one you have now and drop it in a bucket for a month to see what happens.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I think your best bet is to take them home. Five hours isn't that long. Go buy a 10-gallon cooler. Fill it with your 7.5 gallons of water, your filter media, and your fish, and bring it home.

The problem I'm thinking of isn't the heat, although that is a potential problem. If the heat is turned off, it's because they expect nobody to be there. If nobody's there, they'll feel free to do other things, like kill the electricity for eight hours so they can do repairs. I doubt that your fish will survive eight hours in an unheated tank with 45-degree ambient air and no filter.

Last edited by Silverlight at 04-Nov-2004 09:36

good point silverlight, i never thought of that!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Yup, I always take mine home at Christmas. A month is just too long to leave them.

Taking them home is dead easy - you can used the aforementioned big container, or you can bag them in appropriate bags (ie fish-store bags, not ziploc that won't breathe.

Here's Molly's Big Tip:
Take water home with you, straight from the tank, as much as you can. Empty milk jugs, tupperware, if it holds water, fill it. This way when you get home all you have to do is put the tank on a stable surface, pour water in, get the heater going, and pour the fish in - no acclimation required, so you can worry about getting everything else unpacked while their water slowly heats back up. When you have a free hour, start slowly adding in local tap water and get the filters going. I don't know what I'd do without this method, as my drive home is 7 hours and usually requires an overnight stay. With the fish packed in good bags wrapped in newspaper, the ~22 hour trip is no problem at all.

-Molly
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I agree.. bring 'em home and use a batt operated air pump, simple as that