[Rilelen]

I'm frequently out of town for 2-4 week periods (travel for work). I suspect it's not starvation directly that has killed fish in the past, but aggression due to food scarcity/fighting over territory. That can end in either injury/death directly or lead fish to hide/be kept away from areas of the tank with microfauna, algae, etc.

There's not a one size fits all solution here. Not all the creatures we keep are equal in their needs. Someone above noted that certain predators might not fare so well, and some fish do need to eat more frequently (e.g., anthias, and I'm increasingly convinced chromis, do better when fed small amounts multiple times a day). I keep octopuses as well in a species-only set-up; they really need to be fed at least every third day, which means frozen food at a minimum (and some only take live). Whether you can leave your tank unfed for a week or two (or longer) depends a lot on what's in it, their physiological needs, and the individual temperaments of your particular critters. As well as your personal comfort level with the level of risk, and considerations of humane treatment. I personally am not comfortable with leaving species that eat continuously throughout the day in the wild unfed for an entire month. Yeah, humans *can* survive weeks without food, but that doesn't make it humane to deprive humans of food for weeks at a time.

For me, the auto-feeder is an easy solution for my main tank that greatly reduces potential harm at very little cost; I make a big effort to get my fish eating pellets or flakes, and feed small doses of NLS pellets regularly (thrown in with their normal frozen fare), so that when I go out of town it's not an issue. The auto-feeder is set to distribute very small amounts of food daily while I'm gone; in years of using them, the only issues I've had are them NOT dispensing food. I've never had an incident of over-dispensing (which would be my one main concern).

The octopuses, of course, require a whole different set of care; luckily, I have a team of friends and co-workers who have graciously allowed me to teach them how to feed frozen on a feeding stick, and who are conscientious about keeping those tanks on absolute lock-down so there are no accidental escapes.