Got back from 7day Hawaii vacation and only one fish died

Got back from 7day Hawaii vacation and only one fish died. One of my african cichlids. Dont know yet till tomorrow morning. Tired as f#@$. Darn loss one cichlid but better than all my freshwater friends. Will update tomorrow which of my cichlids on my signature list is dead.  

Did you have anyone care for them while you were gone?

When I went on my last trip, I was away for two weeks. I had someone house sit and feed the fish. I used the little pill boxes with the day of the week on them and had all the food measured out ready to go with implicit instructions to only feed once a day the amount measured out. They followed instruction and I still came back to a missing silver dollar. It was the smallest runt of the batch. I found a bit of gill plate late on but the other fish ate it up.

That's too bad, but like you said, only one... If you had a bad fish-sitter, it could have turned into something a lot worse. Like if they didn't notice it was dead, I haven't had it happen (yet) but I have heard it can lead to ammonia spikes and mass die-offs.

My house sitter did not notice. My feeding was so light the fish were living on an appetizer amount of food per day. Then the fish involved was small so Im sure they polished it off in a few hours. But there is always a risk whether someone is there or not that issues can occur.

On my week long vacation to Cannon Beach, OR I was scared for all my fishes. But fortunately only 200 fry died!  

I wasn't expecting the sitter to do daily water changes, or any at all on my time away though, so it wasn't a surprise.

It was one of my Chisumulaes that got killed by others. Cause my 2 automatic feeders emptied on the 4 day and they had 3 days without food. Which is ok for the fish. Someone here told me. But I guess they bullied one of them and killed it. Now its just bones. 

Its a tough call, you want them fed but you want your water quality not to drop, so usually that means reduced feedings since you are not there to do water changes. Overall it was a sad loss but not bad considering.

I tested the auto feeders a week before to make sure how long it lasts. Thats why I knew it lasted 4days cause of amount to feed 30+ africans. But you're right I loss one but saved whole colony.  

What auto feeder did you end up using? Always been interested in trying one out.

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I had a few of those feeders but since I am always on longer vacations I picked up some with a larger capacity that last for 1-2 weeks, they are way more programmable for all your needs and the mech is much more trustworthy imo. You can pick them up new on ebay for less than $20! They are so great everyone should get some.
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