They won't die if you don't feed them for a while, and in fact if they're in a small volume of water you probably don't want leftover food & increased waste production anyway. On Tuesday head down to Animal Spirit on Mass Ave and pick up some fish food (it's really cheap).
Tap water isn't safe for them, because it has chlorine and / or chloramine in it. Chloramine is the big baddie here. Your Brita filter removes chlorine but not chloramine, and while chlorine will evaporate if you let the water sit in a bowl or tub for about 24 hours before adding it to the tank, chloramine won't. A quick search on Somerville water doesn't get me any solid info, so to be on the safe side I would assume Somerville does use chloramine like most cities do these days. So, no on the tap water.
If you know someone who keeps tropical fish they should have a dechlorinator on hand; otherwise, you can get some at the pet store on Tuesday.
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Date: 2009-09-07 01:02 pm (UTC)They won't die if you don't feed them for a while, and in fact if they're in a small volume of water you probably don't want leftover food & increased waste production anyway. On Tuesday head down to Animal Spirit on Mass Ave and pick up some fish food (it's really cheap).
Tap water isn't safe for them, because it has chlorine and / or chloramine in it. Chloramine is the big baddie here. Your Brita filter removes chlorine but not chloramine, and while chlorine will evaporate if you let the water sit in a bowl or tub for about 24 hours before adding it to the tank, chloramine won't. A quick search on Somerville water doesn't get me any solid info, so to be on the safe side I would assume Somerville does use chloramine like most cities do these days. So, no on the tap water.
If you know someone who keeps tropical fish they should have a dechlorinator on hand; otherwise, you can get some at the pet store on Tuesday.