vacation

[LizStreithorst]

I'm going to NADA.  I'll be gone 3+ days.  I'd always planned for it so I wouldn't have small fish that needed feeding several times daily.  But I was into Discus back then and Discus kids get stunted if they aren't cared for right.  What about Angel fry?  I have babies from Ed that are close to peas.  Will they get stunted if they go for 3+ days w/o food?  I wouldn't have told Ed to ship them to me if I'd been planning on going away.  My decision to go was sudden.

[Mugwump]

I'd leave the lights off, so they aren't as active...don't feed the last feeding the day before, less fecal waste to decay.....do a nice water change...and have fun.....they should do fine...

You can then, upon return, do another water change, and feed lightly, so they don't gorge..they'll pop back in no time....just like you never left.  If you should lose a couple, it's more than likely fry that are the weakest of the spawn...no loss there....

IMHO....I'll bet that you could do discus fry the same way, and they wouldn't miss a beat....

[LizStreithorst]

Thanks for the info about Ed's and my babies.  If I were to have found myself in this position with Discus that's exactly what I would do.  I bet Discus fry would suffer from it, though.  Remember, Discus fry have mom and dad to eat from when pickin's get slim.  They are more dependent on a regular source of good food.  I believe it would stunt them.  I've never tried it so I could be wrong. 

It would be a fun experiment to do with 1/3 a spawn starved for 3 days, 1/3rd  fed as normal, and 1/3rd left only with their parents and no other feeding.  Too much waste of tank space and waste of good fish for me to do it.  I bet the ones that were with their parents would do as well as the ones that got normal feeding from me would mature well and the ones that were starved would have poor shape and big eyes.