Pet Forum / Aquaria / Goldfish / June 2005

My fish have gone 5 days while I've been away and I've heard that goldfish
can survive upto 7 days without feedings.

From my own personal experience its best to do a water change and gravel
cleaning before going and don't feed them anymore than usual before going
away either.  If you do ask someone to feed your fish while you're gone,
make sure they either understand thoroughly how much to feed or bag daily
portions for the person.

If by "time release feeders" you are referring to those things that dissolve
in your tank, I have never ever heard anything good about them and most of
the bad things I've heard are really bad (like clogging your filter with
guck).

I don't know how good electronic automatic feeders are, but if I was going
to be gone a really long time and I couldn't find someone reliable to feed
my fish, I would buy one.

I've left my fish for two months at a time repeatedly.

goldfish in the pond, two years with out anyone feeding them.

The number I've heard most often is two weeks.  Three to four days
shouldn't be a problem.