Auto Feeders

[Lisbeth Oden]

Hello all - I’m going to be away for a while and want to make sure my fish are fed (unreliable roommate). I’ve been using sinking wafers/pellets for the Cory’s and the baby guppies love them too! Any suggestions for auto feeders that can handle them? Suggestions on good regular auto feeder appreciated too. Thanks


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[Colin_T]

How long are you going for?

Automatic feeders can be useful but can also cause problems by putting too much food in the tank. If you are only going away for a couple of weeks, just feed the fish more often before you go, and then let them starve while you are away. Do big daily water changes while feeding them more often to keep the tank clean. Clean the filter a week before you go.

You can add some live plants a week or two before you go.

Even an unreliable roomy can be used to feed the fish once or twice a week. Measure out the food and put it in ziplock packs and ask them to feed one pack every few days. If they only do it once a week, the fish will be fine with that. If they feed the fish 2 or 3 times a week, that is fine too.

I asked one of my sisters to feed my fish while I was up north. She did it once and then didn't do it again. The fish went without food for over 2 months and the majority of them did fine.

 

[Lisbeth Oden]

How long are you going for?

Automatic feeders can be useful but can also cause problems by putting too much food in the tank. If you are only going away for a couple of weeks, just feed the fish more often before you go, and then let them starve while you are away. Do big daily water changes while feeding them more often to keep the tank clean. Clean the filter a week before you go.

You can add some live plants a week or two before you go.

Even an unreliable roomy can be used to feed the fish once or twice a week. Measure out the food and put it in ziplock packs and ask them to feed one pack every few days. If they only do it once a week, the fish will be fine with that. If they feed the fish 2 or 3 times a week, that is fine too.

I asked one of my sisters to feed my fish while I was up north. She did it once and then didn't do it again. The fish went without food for over 2 months and the majority of them did fine.

Good to know. I’m gonna be gone close to two months. I’ll go with that then - I think I can probably get my roomie do it once or twice a week. And I hopefully have a fish tank care person coming by a couple of times to do some water changes and a cleaning.


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[Colin_T]

Add a heap of plants and increase the lighting times by a couple of hours per day. This will encourage plant and algal growth and the fish can pick at that if they don't get fed.

When I got back from my trip, the plants and algae were all gone due to the fish eating them. I didn't increase the lighting times or add more plants, so adding more now would potentially help.

 

[AbbeysDad]

You'd think even a somewhat unreliable roommate could manage to feed a predetermined amount once or twice a week!

Fish can go w/o food for a week or more, but longer than two weeks is pushing it I think.
I have taken trips and have found that the Eheim feeders are very reliable. You just need to set them up and run/monitor for awhile so you get the disbursement amount correct. The one pictured below is a spring/auger type and would work well for flakes, pellets or wafer chunks. They have another model more suitable for flakes and small pellets.