Guppies forgive a missed meal far more easily than a week of heavy feeding. Uneaten food rots, ammonia climbs, and a tank that looked fine on day one can crash before you return. A good brief removes judgement from the job. Your neighbour never decides how much food looks right, because you decided every portion before you packed.
Part one: portion every day before you leave
Count the days you will be away and fill one small labelled pot for each day. Write the weekday on each lid with a marker. Put into each pot only the amount you would feed on one normal day, and resist adding a little extra for luck. Place the pots in a row in the order they should be used. Move every other tub, bag and bottle of fish food into a closed cupboard away from the tank. A neighbour who finds only one labelled pot per day cannot overfeed by accident.
Show your neighbour one live demonstration before you go. Feed the tank together, empty one pot slowly, and point out how little food a day involves. Name the begging behaviour out loud. Guppies rush the glass and crowd the surface whenever a person approaches, fed or not. Tell your neighbour plainly that begging after the pot counts as theatre, not hunger, and that no second helping follows for any reason.
Part two: write the short note that lives by the tank
Tape one page beside the tank with three short sections. The first section covers feeding: empty one labelled pot each morning, scatter the food across the surface, and throw the empty pot in a bowl so you can count used pots on your return. The second section covers hands-off items: leave the light timer, heater and filter alone, and never top up the tank unless the note says otherwise. The third section lists call triggers, which Part four explains in full.
Keep the note free of optional tasks. Do not ask a neighbour to test water, clean glass or change water during a short trip. Each extra task adds a chance for a well-meant mistake. If your trip runs longer than two weeks, arrange a separate visit from an experienced keeper for a water check rather than loading that duty onto a beginner.
Part three: set lights and equipment to run untouched
Put the tank light on a timer that matches your normal photoperiod and test the timer for two nights before departure. Check that the heater holds a steady temperature and that the filter runs quietly with good flow. Feed the fish a normal meal the morning you leave and do a partial water change two days before departure, never on departure day itself. Start with a stable tank in good shape, and it should need no rescue work while you are gone.
Leave a spare plug-in air pump and a battery-backed air stone ready only if power cuts affect your area often. Tell your neighbour where the trip switch sits and which sockets must stay on. Label the tank plug so nobody unplugs the filter to charge a phone.
Part four: name the problems that merit a call
Give your neighbour a short call list in plain words. Call if a fish lies on the bottom and does not respond when food lands. Call if the water turns cloudy and smells sour. Call if the filter stops, water leaks onto the floor, or more than one fish dies. For a single dead fish, the note can say to net the fish out, place it in a bag in the freezer, and send you a photo. Clear triggers stop small worries turning into secret extra feeding as a remedy. KinsLe Care Pass holds this four-part brief together as temporary access for your neighbour, with portions in part one, the hands-off list in part two, equipment notes in part three and call triggers in part four, so nothing depends on a neighbour remembering a doorstep chat.