A cichlid tank punishes improvisation faster than most holiday setups, because the ration itself is a peacekeeping tool. Too little food and the group turns on itself over scraps; too much and the fouled water stresses the same fish into the same fighting. Holiday instructions for this tank therefore read less like friendly guidance and more like a recipe: fixed food, fixed amount, fixed time, and no room for a kind sitter to freestyle.
Portion everything before you leave
Measure the ration the way you actually feed it, then go one step further for a sitter who does not keep fish: pre-portion each day's food into small labelled pots, one pot per day, stored where the sitter cannot confuse them. A pot removes every judgement call — no estimating a pinch, no guessing whether the big fish needed extra, no second helping because the group still looked hungry. Write which pot, which day, and what to do with an uneaten pot (nothing: skip it and note it). If frozen food forms part of the ration, portion it into labelled bags in the freezer with the thawing step written out in one line.
Write the menu like a recipe
Name the exact food from the exact tub, the exact amount in spoons, pots or cubes, and the time of day. Add the sentence sitters most need in a cichlid tank: these fish will act ravenous at every visit, and that performance is normal, not a sign the ration was too small. Spell out the feeding order if the group needs one — scatter at both ends of the tank, say, so subordinate fish eat without crossing the dominant fish's ground. Close the menu with its prohibitions in plain words: no extra pinch, no second feed, no treats from the kitchen, and no new food bought as a substitute if a tub runs out — a missed day harms this tank less than the wrong food does.
What the sitter should watch, and what to leave alone
Give the sitter three observations worth a message to you: a fish hiding and refusing the feed entirely, visible injury after a fight, and equipment silence — a stopped filter or a heater light that never cycles. Everything else can wait for your return. Say explicitly what not to touch: no water changes unless the written emergency step calls for one, no rearranging rockwork to break up tension, no separating fish into buckets. A sitter following a short written emergency step — who to call, where the spare heater lives — protects the tank better than a sitter encouraged to problem-solve among territorial fish.
A short trial run before the holiday
If the sitter is new to the tank, have them feed once while you are still home. Watching where the food actually lands, how fast the group takes it and how the pots are labelled takes five minutes and removes the misunderstandings that written instructions alone can leave behind. Adjust the wording afterwards: any step the trial run made them pause over is a step the written version explains badly, and it is cheaper to learn that now than by phone from another timezone.
Sharing the instructions for the trip only
Paper on the tank lid works until it gets wet, lost or photographed out of date. Through Care Pass in KinsLe, the holiday carer opens a time-boxed link to the portioned menu and tank notes, then access ends when you return.