I went for a walk in a National Park today and found a paddock full of fallen Oak leaves. I happily gathered a huge armful ( no signs saying not to take) and happily put it in the car. I've boiled them- they were brown but still not dried- and then rolled and folded them and now have enough leaves for my 11 tanks for my holiday feeding regime. My daughter-in law is coming over once a week to feed and topup tanks but I was a bit worried that i might not have enough food as I have so many babies coming on. I have some IAL and a small pack of mulberry leaves but worried it just wouldn't last 8weeks.

I had purchased 10 Mulberry Trees for this purpose but unfortunately they have minimal leaves and will probably not be useful for sometime yet. I also paid a person for more Mulberry Leaves but unfortunately he never delivered- grrrrrr not impressed but he wasn't a regular member although it was through the forum, so I guess my fault for being too trusting.

I now have a heap of weekly medication dispensers to fill with things like BetaG, mineral powder, Biozyme and some dry pellets for Claire to feed each week as well.

I will have RO water ready in buckets, bottles and my water storage container to be used in weekly topups and will do several water changes the week before I go. We will be away approximately 8 weeks and I'm a bit worried about the water not being changed but feel it safer to just have top ups rather than asking Claire to spend so much time doing water changes and perhaps not mixing minerals properly. Plus it takes 8 hours to refill the water storage container and I can't really ask her to come twice in one day to switch the water off - the auto shutoff doesn't work properly despite numerous attempts at fixing it. Hopefully all will be well.

I am very tempted to put my TB's, Tibees, Mischlings etc into my large tank with the Crystals as that tank has a much larger water volume and may be safer for them. I know it means more xbreeding but I'm not particularly worried about that - who knows what interesting little creatures may be created- I just need to have a think about that and luckily all my Mischlings etc are CBS based so I can still sort the CRS out when I get back. That way I can have 2 canister filters plus sponge filters running in the 980 with about 150 shrimp in there instead of leaving most of them in 24 inch tanks with just sponge filters ( except the TB tank which also runs a canister but that would be put onto the 980 if I go ahead with combining the troops).

I guess there's two ways of thinking , as if something goes wrong in the big tank I stand to lose all my TB, Tibee and Crystals while if I leave them in their separate tanks I may only lose a few. Any thoughts to help me decide would be great. I just keep going round and round and getting more worried and confused. It's too late to change the holiday as we are farm sitting for my brother while he goes overseas , he is only away for a month but we need a week travelling each way so it will be 6-8 weeks depending on how long we visit with him before and after his trip. We are travelling from Adelaide to Capella Qld ( near Emerald) and don't like travelling too many hours each day. I'm really looking forward to catching up with him as we don't see each other very often but I worry about my precious shrimp and would be devasted if anything goes wrong:(

Since it is the cooler months i wouldn't worry too much about moving them and if they seem happy and healthy just let them be... less fussing seems to work better for me. I went away for 2 months and they were fine. Fed powdered food every three days, lights were on timers and just topups with RO.

Thanks Chi. I have timers for the lights but Claire will only come once a week so hopefully by using the frozen leaves plus the powdered food weekly they will be OK. Squiggs has done a bit of a test to see how long some shrimp could go without water changes and he was at 8 weeks + last time I heard. It's now a matter of do I move the TB, Tibees etc into the big tank or just leave them be.

Mine were in 30l tanks and were fine...just do the filter maintenance and a wc a day or 2 before leaving.

Thanks Chi.

8 weeks hmmm... should be fine with the food i think. i have shrimp tank 25x25cm i cant move all the babies shrimp as they are not visible. and after 1 month keep looking babies find one by one everyday until cant find any, so i use the tank for keeping small fish. after 2 months surprise the shrimp all growing bigger and i can move them to shrimp tank. never feed them

Edited June 7, 201411 yr by poeticwinter

The experimental tank is at 3mths(12 weeks) now with no deaths & plenty of breeding. Also, as long as you have a good biofilm you will be right. I know people who only feed once a week & let the biofilm do the rest, so if your daughter-in-law should be right. I can't stress this enough to you & I know you struggle to listen but do not keep moving your shrimp!! They will get way more stressed than if they only get fed once a week(even though that won't be happening, but I hope you get my point) I know you worry & will worry the while time you're away but unless something drastic happens that should be fine with minimal daily care.

I love how you start this thread every time you go on holidays, I think it's awesome that you are about your shrimp so much! Great stuff Shrimp Mamma!

p.s. Don't move your shrimp!!

OK point taken shrimp can stay in their individual tanks.

By the way I've only been on 1 holiday this will be the second. Last time it was 2 weeks.

All my tanks have been established for some time now so there should be heaps of biofilm.

Mmm I can't help but worry about them but now I have the extra leaves that can go in I'm much happier. Claire is very good but she is busy and forgets things so she might forget for a few weeks at least the leaves will last for a while. :)