# Cichlid vacation disaster...



## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

AAARRRGGHHHH.    

I walked in the door from a week vacation in Oregon...to find that my African cichlid tank was a disaster. There was uneaten food on the bottom, and all the fish looked very listless. Water was cloudy....

I have the neighbour's 14 year old kid look after my tanks while I'm away, and she's been really good. My other 3 tanks are fine, other than a bit more algae than I like 
She was over for two days before we left watching me feed them, and being the obsessive type that I am, I left daily amounts of food (pellets) in small tupperware containers for her.

I've fished 7 dead mainganos out so far. Looks like all my yellow labs and zebras are fine, and I'm in the middle of removing all the rocks to look for more bodies, and doing a large water change.

Vent over. back to body retrieval. GRRRRR.....


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## -DC- (Apr 21, 2010)

that really sucks hapens to alot of people. 

I had a 160 MBUNA tank die off 2 years ago while away for a week the filter failed on me. but the guy checking dcouldnt have known, I'd say i was 2 days too late one fish died without filters the rest went bad VERY quickly.

For future reference when away I'd strongly suggest you let them go hungry! When I'm away away i always have someone house sit for my cat's and dog's, but with the fish they turn lights on and light off, that's it. I normally feed heavy for a week leading up too a vacation and then one big water change then no food until i get back. IT's easy to make a mistake feeding, hard too make a mistake when your not feeding!


In my experience 90% of fish species when healthy can go much longer then a week without food no problem at all. I only feed my Mbuna every 2-3 days any way , they get the rest grazing on the tank algae.that tank in particular I'm sure could run well over 2 weeks without a feeding I have allot of rock work covered in algae, i also stop cleaning it off the glass when traveling giving them all that extra grazing space!


Any way sorry for your loss! hopefully the rest bounce back!


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## AWW (Apr 22, 2010)

Yeah, Unless you really teach some one its better to let them go hungry. I taught my grandfather and he has done it for years, so he knows what he is doing. But for full grown fish, For a weeks trip they could probably be fed twice.


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## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

Really sorry for your losses and mess.
Have you thought about auto-feeders for next time?
I haven't tried them before, but after a vacation horror myself with the Landlord's kids when I was keeping fish 20 years ago ( just got back into it last year ), I was tempted to but could not afford feeders.
I left measuring spoons of different sizes for the various tanks for the kids to use once daily, but they enjoyed watching the feeding frenzy so much, they just fed them whenever they wanted.


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## bingerz (Mar 3, 2011)

sorry to hear about your losses =(


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## pistolpete (May 2, 2010)

absolutely agree with DC. A week is not very long at all for adult fish to go without food. 
Anything up to 10 days will do no harm. Most aquarium fish are fat anyway. I was away once during a winter time power failure and lost a bunch of fish due to cold water, sucks to come home to that.


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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

So, the final tally was 11 dead mainganos out of 17. One looks ready to kick the bucket. Now I'm wondering if it was something specific to them, as the zebras and juvie yellow labs are fine. After speaking to the kid helping out, the leftover food was all from the previous night, and according to her dad, there was a definite drop off in the energy level in the tank that day.

Definitely sucked walking in the door after 10 hours of driving, going "Ah, so good to be....WTF!!!!

Sigh.


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

Rich,

Iam sorry to hear about this, it wasnt to long ago that were chatting about your setup and you being excited about the new additions.Is there any way you can pick up these guys again ? or are just planning to stick with the remaining stock?


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

i agree with no feeding . dont forget that african females hold their eggs for close to 21 days without food and r just fine s long as they r in good conditions before their fast.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

What a sad end to your vacation. I hope that the other mainganos pull through.


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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

Crisis seems to be over. One maingano still looks a bit under the weather, but the rest seem to have got their normal energy back, and look like they're trying to figure out the new pecking order. The original dominant male is one of the survivors, so he's busy putting everyone else in their place.

They are slowly regaining their appetite, as I haven't fed them since coming back. Today was the first day they've congregated at the glass when I've come up to the tank. Good sign!

What sucks is that something happened, and I wasn't around to catch it and maybe prevent the mayhem. Ah well, it's what happens in this hobby sometimes, I guess...


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## Shiyuu (Apr 9, 2011)

Sorry to hear about the loss, I wish the rest of them will get well soon in no time.

I believe there are few fellow members also lives in South Delta, perhaps we can all help each others out next time when someone is going away on vacation.


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