Prepping your fish tank for your holiday trip

We often associate going away for the holidays as a more relaxing period in our annual calendar – a time to step away from life’s cares and enjoy our families and the things that mean the most. But when it comes to our pets – things can get a little complicated. If you’ve got a cat or a dog – there’s plenty of options and places for them to stay. 

But what about your fish? And let’s be honest, fish-o-philes – if you’re anything like us, your aquarium is a precisely engineered mix of technology, aquarium bulkhead fittings, science, and intuition that keeps the habitat enjoyable for your fish and your tank looking incredible. Who on Earth could you trust with such a monumental task? We know, we’re having a chuckle here – but honestly, what do you do?

The common solution is to trust a friend. They come over, hopefully they know what they’re doing and everyone comes out better for it. In a recent survey though – most people were nervous to take care of a friend’s aquarium – far more so than they were a dog or cat – which is kind of wild when you think about it. 

They know that fish cost a pretty penny. They see the wild bulkhead fittings, the pumps, the ceramics, the plants and worry that if they make one wrong move – that they could mess a whole bunch of things up. So what do you do? How do you best prepare someone to take care of your tank when it absolutely terrifies them?

The first thing you can do is prepare as always. A week prior to your trip, invite your friend over and go through an inspection of your own. Check the fish, the hardware and aquarium bulkhead fittings for leaks. This way, they’re seeing you – the owner of the tank checking things out in front of them – letting them know and letting them see that everything’s good to go. Whatever you can do, put their mind at ease. Change the filtration media, change the bulb on the tank – whatever maintenance needs to actually be done – do it in front of them. Make a show of it – it sounds silly but it’ll put their minds at ease and give them some self-assurance that they’re not going to wreck anything. 

When they go home, it’s definitely time to do some actual work of your own – doing things like checking water levels, chemical composition and the like. This is stuff that should be done anyway and you’ll help give your fish the best chance of being ok while you’re gone.

The last thing – is to make instructions and make them easy to follow. Feed fish at this time. Food can be found here. Only use this much. In the event that X happens, call X – here is their contact. Just spell it out, act it out, reassure, but also make sure you do the behind the scenes to make it all work. Do that – and you’ll enjoy a stress free time away. 

If you’d like to learn more about some of the ways you can add to your aquarium or outfit it with aquarium bulkhead fittings, give us a call today and we’ll be happy to provide you with a free consultation. Until then, good luck! Happy holidays!