I am going away on vacation this Sunday for 6 days and have 1 fantail goldfish. Should I get an automatic feeder, or will he be OK without food for 6 days? There are no live plants in the tank for him to feed off.

6 days seems like a pretty long time. I would see if you can find someone to stop in maybe once or twice to give him a bit to eat?? or maybe get a small plant for him to nibble. anacharis is very tasty to goldies, and cheap.

as Smack said it is a long time and maybe you could someone or a cousin to stop by to feed.. i would suggest on getting a plant for them to nibble on..probaly most safest thing to do..

buddy buddy. the ones you gave me, the guppies destroyed, the goldfish destroyed. sure are yummy treats.

I've heard bad things about auto feeders (ie they can overfeed). I would suggest getting someone to come feed them (even if only once or twice)...if that person does not know fish, I would pre-measure food for them so they don't overfeed! otherwise, get a plant to float in the tank..that should hold them over for a week....technically speaking they can last a whole week.....but it's not ideal. When I didn't have anyone to feed them and was gone a week and didn't have any plants, I put in a weekend feeder disk and then didn't feed for the rest of the week and they did fine...the only problem with the weekend feeders is that they seem to mess up the water...it looked kind of foggy when I came back..but water changes took care of that!

i left mine without food for 5 days and they were fine, ive read books that have said 1-2 weeks is ok depending on how old they are (bigger fish have more fat to live off). I would think they would be ok, but if they are young, edible plants and things is probably the best idea