Feeding questions (holidays and sushi nori)

[Wen73 9]

Hi, I have a couple of food related questions.

I have a 150 litre aquarium with three fish in it, a small ranchu and a much larger oranda and pearlscale (body length about 2.5 inches or 8 cm).

1) I am going on holiday for five days. I can feed them the day I leave, but then they will be on their own for four days. Do they need to be fed? I can ask our neighbour but I'm always a bit leary that someone else might overfeed or one of the fish will get all the food etc. Their is a lot of elodea in the tank which they could eat, but for some reason they don't.

2) I've hear goldfish can eat sushi nori? Is it just the regular kind you buy at the grocery? Just wondering if anyone has any experience with it. How much and how often can you feed it to them?

I'm trying to keep them on a primarily plant based diet because too much of anything else (Hikari pellets, gel food) has them lapping at the surface.

Thanks in advance.

[Gcourtney 854]

They will be fine for four days goldfish are tuff troopers

Not sure about the sushi nori though

[motherredcap 6,284]

They will be fine. Throw a plant in there if there is one they like to nibble on.

[Andrea 23]

I feed my goldfish dried seaweed, I buy mine from the fish store, but I think it is the same as what you buy in the grocery store. Maybe you should double check the ingredients I feed it rarely, but they do it enjoy, they chew on it for awhile. I just tear it up, into small pieces, but it does float.

[Narny105 1,992]

Just do a large water change the night before or on the day you leave, give them a normal sized feed rather than a larger one.

They will probably be nibbling on the plants during the five days without food. With the sushi nori, just make sure it's 100% dried seaweed- no additives. They still need protein in their diet though, so make sure that you still keep a balanced diet for them

[shakaho 6,312]

Nori is about 45% protein.

[Wen73 9]

Thanks everyone. I've started doing a 25% water change daily to prepare for departure, and will have done that 3 days in a row. I don't usually do more than that in one go because our tap water usually has nitrite in it.

I'm hoping that if they get a bit hungry they will realise the elodea is food and start eating it. I will try some seaweed when I get back from holidays.

[Orandatchi 210]

As what Narny said, make sure there is nothing in it, but pure seaweed. Make sure it doesn't have salt either.

EDIT: And oh, random but can we have a video of them eating the seaweed?

Edited March 18, 2013 by Orandatchi♥