fish feeding while away

Due to a family emergency I had to travel suddenly, the end result being
that my fishies did not get fed for 8 days. I left a baggie of food with
instructions taped to the tank and a note on the whiteboard for the
housemates but none of them fed the fish.

The 29 G tank has four goldfish (one 3" common, one 3" shubunkin, one
1.5" fantail, one 1" fantail) and three otos. Plus lots of elodea,
although depleted a bit from a previous trip, and now of course nibbled
to nothing. I did a 20% water change just before I left. In retrospect I
think the lack of feeding contributed to the otos' survival - no food,
no goldfish waste!

In short, goldfish survived fine not being fed for 8 whole days (but the
elodea didn't).


y-m