# NPTs when traveling - Happy Holidays!



## Dustymac (Apr 26, 2008)

I just got back yesterday from a couple weeks out of town and found my tanks in pretty good shape. All the water levels were low but the light timers and automatic feeders did their job and everything looked healthy. In fact, glued to the glass of one tank were some Green Cory eggs.










We've never had Corys spawn before until trying them in NPTs. As I understand it, all I have to do is scrape the eggs off the glass and pop them in another tank? Maybe some day.

Back on topic, I use Coralife's power center for the lights and Eheim's 3581 feeder to feed the fish. The basic staple for the plants and fish in my NPTs is Tetramin's tropical flake food. Since some of the flakes are pretty big, the Tetramin has to get forced through a 1/4" mesh screen, which busts up the large flakes so they don't clog the feeders. I used to let my daughters handle the feeding but they don't communicate very effectively, yet, and some days the fish would get nothing to eat and other days they'd get overfed. Oh well... 

Does anyone else have a strategy for traveling they'd like to share?
Jim


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

We're still out of town, since Tuesday afternoon, and will return Saturday afternoon. For trips like this I just fatten the fish up real good for the two days prior and they are all doing fine when we get back, so I anticipate all will be well. This usually helps to encourage the algae crew (a few mollies, a bristlenose, 13 otos, 1 CAE I can never catch, and two renegade blue platties) to do their job instead of waiting for me to feed them. The rest of the fish never seem to suffer from 5 or so days of vacation. I guess there's enough goop built up on the bottom for them to snack on...

BTW - congrats on the cory eggs!!! I have been wishing mine would spawn, but I've simply got too many egg-eaters in the tank to allow for much repro other than ramshorn snails. Maybe one day my Apistos will change that?


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## Dustymac (Apr 26, 2008)

mudboots said:


> The rest of the fish never seem to suffer from 5 or so days of vacation. I guess there's enough goop built up on the bottom for them to snack on...


This reminds me of a funny story. During one of my excursions away from home, the light on the 55 got pushed back by one of the girls messing with the fish. Since the feeder sits on the light, it got pushed back as well. When I got back about a week later, I found the feeder had been missing the slot in the hood and was depositing the food down behind the aquarium. So yeah, fish can go a long time without food, even if it is by accident.



> BTW - congrats on the cory eggs!!! I have been wishing mine would spawn, but I've simply got too many egg-eaters in the tank to allow for much repro other than ramshorn snails. Maybe one day my Apistos will change that?


Well, you never know what it takes for fish to spawn. Back in the olden days when breeding Angels in fish-only tanks, I'd have to feed the breeders live brine shrimp to get them started. Now, I just toss in some flake food and the NPT environment seems to do the rest. It can happen to any of us any day! 

Jim


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Thanks for the encouragement Jim.

BTW - all was well when we got home. The fish were actually still pretty plump, so they found something to eat even without a feeder.

The newts look like those pencils that they used to use in Kindergarden. I had thrown all of the tadpoles in with them (many, many, many dozen) in case they decided to morph while we were away (don't need baby frogs jumping all over the house) and figured I might lose a few to newt predation. I had 5 individuals left this morning, two REALLY plump newts, and one heck of a laughound:. I've never seen anything like it!


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