Going on holiday - help!

Hi all,

So i'm going away for 5 days next week on holiday. I always just assumed I would leave my axie for that time in his tank and he'd manage without food for 5 days and be fine, however the recent warm weather in the UK has me freaked out.

My tank has been hovering between 24-25C since last week and theres very little I can do about it. I'm worried there could be a heatwave or warm weather while i'm gone and I won't be there to keep an eye on it.

I just don't know what the right course of action is. I would fridge him for the time that I'm away but I think you're supposed to change the water every day and theres no-one to do that. My friends are silly squeamish girls who cant even feed him an earthworm let alone muck around with the tank or pick him up.

What is the right course of action here? Do you think he'll be okay if I do a big water change right before i leave (bringing it to around 23C) and he puts up with potentially 25-26C temperature while i'm gone? Do you think its safer just to leave him in his tank or to fridge him or some other option I haven't considered?

Thanks

If you put the tank on the floor or in a basement, it'll be cooler than on a piece of furniture elsewhere.

It might be costly, but buying a chiller will keep it cool. Either that or blast the air conditioning. Cooling fans work too.

This might sound like an utterly stupid suggestion, but do you have the curtains closed in the room he's in? And the lights (both tank and room) turned of? I've been trying to deal with the heat wave the same as you- I couldn't get the temperature down and had to fridge them last weekend, but this week I left the curtains shut and it made a huge difference- the tank went down from 24/25 to 20°c. Hope this helps

回复: Re: Going on holiday - help!

Purpletotodile said:

It might be costly, but buying a chiller will keep it cool. Either that or blast the air conditioning. Cooling fans work too.

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The cost isn't the only thing that puts me off about chillers, they just look like a total nightmare. They're bulky and hideous and I would need to find room for it (and apparently it cant go in aquarium cupboards as its needs space around it to ventilate) not to mention the pumps and everything...honestly I really cant be bothered with them at all even if they didn't cost more than my entire setup. Too much for a little 20g tank imo. If I upgrade in the future and get a sump or something I'll look into it, but right now it just looks beyond tedious.

I live in the UK where we don't have home air conditioning, we just have radiators. I would use a fan but apparently i'm the only person who owns an axolotl who has a tank lid lol, I have no idea how anyone else uses them if they have lids! I'm looking for a lidless tank right now for that very reason!

回复: Re: Going on holiday - help!

Mouse Mason said:

This might sound like an utterly stupid suggestion, but do you have the curtains closed in the room he's in? And the lights (both tank and room) turned of? I've been trying to deal with the heat wave the same as you- I couldn't get the temperature down and had to fridge them last weekend, but this week I left the curtains shut and it made a huge difference- the tank went down from 24/25 to 20�c. Hope this helps

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I never have the tank lights on, I don't think my room lights would make a difference to the temperature but they would be off during the day anyway. I have the curtains open in the day as I have plants in my aquarium, also I do get a little worried that closing the curtains kind of traps heat when the sun shines on them and turns the room into a furnace? I think while I'm away I'll keep them mostly closed with the window open, HOPEFULLY its going to be a bit cooler in England this week anyway. My tank is still 24C now but i've just accepted that my axie will have to deal with 23-24C in the summer because my tank has a lid so I don't really have any cooling options!