Leave them three weeks cold?

[erikthur]

I live in Sweden and I might be going on a three weeks xmas vacation to the Philippines.
My killies and Endlers can easily withstand one week without food.
But can they withstand three weeks?

And I guess the following question is not for you Singaporians:
How about slowing down their metabolic rate by lowering the temperature?
And in that case – how low can/should I go?

Anybody with knowledge or experience in these matters?

[RonWill]

Erik,
After 2 wks, the killies will be very happy to see you. Not sure if they can handle 3 wks. You might want to drop in some daphnia or if the fishes eat flakes/pellets, then hook up a food-timer.

[stormhawk]

Erik, with regards to how low can you go with temperature depends very much on the species in question. Coolwater killies can withstand temperatures around 20+ degC. You could go lower though but warm-loving species will not survive at certain temperatures. This is from references on the web.

You will need an automatic food timer or find someone to come over and help you feed the fish. At 3 weeks without food, many fish cannot survive that long, especially hungry fry.

[erikthur]

Back from 3 weeks vacation in the Philippines.
I left about 40 healthy killifish without food (but with light and normal water temperature). They were mostly annuals. Only two fish died. I am happy

[whuntley]

A few years ago, Oleg Kiselev went to Russia for three weeks. He only had one death in his rather large fishroom. He grumbled that was below the average for when he was at home giving them TLC.

I know of small killies that have lived for over a month with no food. Starvation is not truly unhealthy for them. Fouled water from overfeeding before leaving is the worst killer of all. No, letting a kind friend continue the overfeeding for three weeks would be worse, or a failed mechanical feeder.

Don't worry about them and don't do any drastic lowering of temps to regions that may not be all that healthy for them.

That's my US$0.02. [Free advice is worth every penny, too. ]

Wright