Tropical tanks and air pump advice.

[Kelley24]

Morning all. I have 2 fish tanks, goldfish and tropical fish. We're going away for 2 weeks to look after my little brother whilst mum is on her honeymoon. Our nextdoor neighbour is looking after the fish and cats for the 2 weeks. My question is, do i have to teach him about putting the air pump on? Do the fish actually need it? I think i remember someone telling me that the air pumps were for our benefit as a decoration rather than for the fish. I was also told that if i moved the filter high enough to make the water ripple then this is enough for the fish with regards to oxygen in the water. Is this right?

[hammerman]

It's a tricky one to call. During the warm weather, an air pump is very welcome as warmer water has less dissolved oxygen than cold water. But i have a gorgeous trop tank with no air at all.....although it is very heavily planted.

Personally, i wouldn't be turning the air off at night any way. You could do one of several things. Leave the pump on all the time, buy a cheap timer and have it come on and go off with the timer (you could do the same with the lights too) or leave the thing off completely.

If it was me, i'd opt for the first one and leave it on all the time.

Good luck

[rogerr]

Be careful if your neighbours are going to feed your fish. We went away and next door fed them for us. We came back to what looked like pea-soup. Those tablet thingies are better, but weren't around at that time.
Leave your pump on full time as H suggests above.

[hammerman]

As rogerr above says....be careful with the feeding. It will probably be better if the fish got fed every other day or even every 3 days....it won't hurt or you can make up little parcels of food to give on certain days.

[RATTER15]

Leave the pump on all the time, it doesnt need to go off. Get some little feeding tablets to feed fish or they will get overfed.

[maggie01]

We bought holiday sticks for both the goldfish and tropical fish and they were fine when we came home. That way they are not overfed.

[Kelley24]

I'm going to give him little parcels of how much they get fed. I'm just a bit worried about leaving them 2 weeks with holiday bocks as mine dont seem to touch them, although, they were all still alive when we returned a week later. I'll leave the air pump on all the time as suggested.