Cover the Visiting Rhythm and the School's Day
Cover a steady visiting rhythm first, because a harlequin rasbora school organises its day around light and feeding, and irregular cover frays the group before any single mistake does. Name the sitter, the visit days, and a consistent time that matches the school's existing feed, and confirm the light timer stays untouched so dawn and dusk arrive when the fish expect them. Write the backup person's name beside the sitter's, since a missed visit matters more across a holiday than a slightly late one. A plan that says who comes, and who comes if they cannot, is the difference between cover and hope.
Cover One Measured Feed, Scattered for the Whole School
Cover feeding as a single measured event, because harlequin rasboras rush food so eagerly that holiday overfeeding is the default failure. Leave each visit's portion ready in its own container and describe the scatter: food spread along the front and middle water so the whole school feeds, not only the boldest fish at the sitter's end. State that the school surging upward is normal and earns nothing extra, and that food still uneaten after a few minutes is removed and reported, since this group's appetite failing is itself a symptom. No second feeds, no treats, no exceptions written kindly into the margins.
Cover the Feeding-Time Count and School Shape
Cover counting and group shape as the plan's core health check, because a harlequin school reports its condition collectively long before any individual fish can be examined. Write the group's number into the plan and set the count at feeding, when the school bunches in open water and can be tallied twice. Add the shape language the sitter should use in updates: tight or scattered, rising together or drifting, colours deep or pale. Define the call-you triggers in those terms: the school will not gather, several fish hang separately near the surface, or the group ignores food it would normally mob.
Cover Fixed Settings, Tests, and Top-Ups
Cover the tank's settings as things the plan freezes, because harlequin rasboras are creatures of stable, soft, planted water and holiday experiments undo them quietly. Record the heater setting, the filter's normal flow, and the water level mark, and state that only prepared water is used for top-ups. Write your normal test readings into the plan with the test days and the range that prompts a phone call rather than a sitter-led water change. If the house will be hot while you are away, add the agreed instruction for warm days now, while you can think it through calmly, instead of leaving the sitter to invent cooling measures.
Cover What the Sitter Must Never Improvise
Cover the prohibitions explicitly, because most holiday losses in an established rasbora tank come from treatment, not from the original problem. The plan should bar added remedies, deep substrate cleaning, plant rearrangement, and new tankmates, however well meant, and route every worry to you, your backup, or your named aquatic shop instead. Include the dead-fish instruction without flinching: remove, photograph, report the same visit, and change nothing else in response. A sitter who knows the limits of the role protects the school better than a confident improviser with a shelf of bottles.
Cover the Return Read of the School
Cover your own first check as the plan's closing step, because the school's behaviour at your first feed home summarises the whole holiday. The group should rise together, tight and copper-bright, work the scattered food as one, and settle back to mid-water as a unit. Test the water, read the sitter's counts against the portions used, and note where any instruction proved ambiguous so the next version of the plan is sharper. When that check is done, KinsLe Care Pass ends your sitter's temporary view of this school's routine, with the plan kept ready for the next trip away.