Automatic Feeders
- Thread starter Saint
- Start date
Automatic feeders are pretty nice to have in case of emergencies and business trips, but most well-fed, healthy fish can go for a good ten days without food before they start to suffer.
The thing with an automatic feeder is they may add too much food to the tank and you can return to a whole bunch of dead fishies from the ammonia spike all the rotting food caused.
When you are home, feed your fish moderately at least three times a day. Make sure your tank is spotlessly clean in the water quality department. Then when you leave, it is usually best not to feed the fish for that duration of time. My fish have survived foodless during all my three day weekend vacations. I don't go on them very often, about once a month, but it doesn't hurt them to fast so long as they are healthy before hand. They are a variety of tropicals and goldfish.
If you have a planted tank, use a timer to set your lights. For unplanted fish only tanks, keep the lights off when you are gone.
If you are going to invest in an automatic feeder, make sure you get a really good quality one. Nothing could be worst than having a feeder that just dumps all the food into the tank giving you dead fishies on your return.
~~Colesea
The thing with an automatic feeder is they may add too much food to the tank and you can return to a whole bunch of dead fishies from the ammonia spike all the rotting food caused.
When you are home, feed your fish moderately at least three times a day. Make sure your tank is spotlessly clean in the water quality department. Then when you leave, it is usually best not to feed the fish for that duration of time. My fish have survived foodless during all my three day weekend vacations. I don't go on them very often, about once a month, but it doesn't hurt them to fast so long as they are healthy before hand. They are a variety of tropicals and goldfish.
If you have a planted tank, use a timer to set your lights. For unplanted fish only tanks, keep the lights off when you are gone.
If you are going to invest in an automatic feeder, make sure you get a really good quality one. Nothing could be worst than having a feeder that just dumps all the food into the tank giving you dead fishies on your return.
~~Colesea
I used one of those when I went on vacation last summer. It worked well, on a short vacation I took. No problems.
But on a second vacation I came home to find that the drum which contains the food had come loose and food was no longer being put in the tank.
So if you get one of these, make sure that the drum is securely inserted into the mechanism before you leave for a long vacation.
My fish survived because it must have worked a few times before it came loose.
But on a second vacation I came home to find that the drum which contains the food had come loose and food was no longer being put in the tank.
So if you get one of these, make sure that the drum is securely inserted into the mechanism before you leave for a long vacation.
My fish survived because it must have worked a few times before it came loose.
proquatic
I also just bought one of those proquatics feeders today and it looks like its working well enough. I m going on vacation for about 14 days and had purchased a nutramatic 2x that sucked. I only hope i can get it to put out enough food once a day to last for 14 days.
One thing i do like about it is that i can test it by pressing the fish on it 14 times. Thats great now all i have to do is find time for it. The nutramatic seemed to get so much moisture and stuff after 2 hours that all it did was spin pretty much. 2 pieces of pellet food and 3 little flake pices came out in 48 hours. Glad i tested it.
So id go with the other one
I also just bought one of those proquatics feeders today and it looks like its working well enough. I m going on vacation for about 14 days and had purchased a nutramatic 2x that sucked. I only hope i can get it to put out enough food once a day to last for 14 days.
One thing i do like about it is that i can test it by pressing the fish on it 14 times. Thats great now all i have to do is find time for it. The nutramatic seemed to get so much moisture and stuff after 2 hours that all it did was spin pretty much. 2 pieces of pellet food and 3 little flake pices came out in 48 hours. Glad i tested it.
So id go with the other one
I have some $30 Eheim auto-feeder I use on long vacations. It works okay, enough to get them food at least once or twice while I am gone. I had the same problem that beaver8888 mentioned: the moisture cause the flakes to get wet and stick around.
I haven't tried any of those dissolving weekend feeders...
I haven't tried any of those dissolving weekend feeders...
