Holiday food for goldfish

no1catman

Going away for several days in June, interested to know what people could recommend to keep my goldfish in an outside pond fed??

We have two adults, one three years old, about three dozen of two-year olds, and maybe another dozen a year old.

katy1987

hi

goldfish can go for at least 2 weeks without being fed. but in my experience they haven't been thrilled about it! better unfed, in my opinion, than fed those horrid 'holiday blocks' made of ash and plaster of paris. yikes.

i think for just 'several days' they'll be fine. have you got any plants in the pond for them to munch on? i'm not that hot on pond aquascaping but i know my goldies (in tanks) will demolish hornwort and elodea

hope this is of some vague use!

ETA i have left my fish unfed over a 3-day weekend on a number of occasions, and never encountered any issues as a result of this.

picklepick

The above poster is corrct, they will be fine left with no food.

I happily left mine for a week and no problems. As long as they have plants to nibble on they will be fine

DKLS

Please do not buy any holiday feed block.
The fish will be fine for up to 2-3 weeks, at this time of yeah there will be plenty of bugs for the fish to eat.
I noticed my mates goldfish yesterday were enjoying a feast of mosquito larvae.

rudekid48

If it is true that goldfish have a memory span of less than one minute then they won't even notice the time pass by.

katy1987

actually goldfish can easily be trained (conditioned) with rewards (food!) so the memory thing can't be true. eg if you stand close to their tank, they will generally wiggle straight on over and look excited because they remember that this is what happens at feeding time!

rudekid48

Or they are getting excited because they think you are a new person that they've never seen before!

katy1987

haha touche. well, explain this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7qoQS3EiNE

no1catman

Appreciate the informative comments.

Though concerned for them recently, couldn't see them, they avoided the surface, didn't come for food, most odd. We had had a heron visit, but they didn't seem upset by that - saved by the pond net.
So I did a partial water change (which isn't a good idea being on a water meter), and put a new UV light in the filter - what a mess that was in - though didn't put it back together right!
But, thankfully today, they are almost back to normal, near the surface in the sun, and back to feeding.
still at least it shows they can cope without any food for awhile.

stator

Couldn't a neighbour just sprinkle some food into your pond once a day? I'm sure they could go without food, but it's not very nice, especially when they are expecting it regularly.

sb44

Aquarium kept goldfish can go 3 weeks or so without food as they live on the carp already in the tank.

Is it not the same for pond kept goldfish?