Auto Fish Feeders

[GirlFish]

Hi De Ho everyone. I just signed up and didn't know which forum to put my question in so I chose this one for maximum exposure.

I've always kept tropical fish and Africans and have always been around to feed them regularly or had a family member do it for me but I have a new job and I have to travel in two weeks and have a dilemma. Nobody I trust is going to be in town and I need to get an automatic feeder and I need suggestions.

I have a 20 tall aquarium with a quad of purple Moscows that I dearly love and paid a mint for and I need a feeder that will dump flakes twice a day. I want to know what is the most reliable, best built, most proven, best everything feeder.

I'll only be gone five days and the tank is heavily planted but I still want to feed them regularly.

 

[Assaye]

Honestly, they will be FINE for five days. In the wild fish are lucky to eat every day, let alone twice a day. I've left fish for two weeks before and they'll all been fine. Most will say the same.

Otherwise, don't know much about automatic feeders.

 

[Sesshis_grl]

No idea how reliable or good they are but I've seen some cheap but decent looking ones at meijers and petsmart. They look like they have a good amount of features and I'm going to try one out when I go back up to college. I need something to feed them on the weekends, I can give you my opinions on it if you like after using it a while

 

[Katty]

I agree with Assaye that they should be OK for 5 days without food, especially if they are well fed now and not malnourished.

If you really want to go with a feeder though you could look at websites like petsmart/petco (or some other large pet store with a website with reviews, or even amazon.com) and pick a feeder that seems to get good, consistent reviews. You don't even have to buy it from that store, you can go buy it somewhere else since you're only using the site for the reviews.

And then since you have two weeks until your trip, whichever feeder you get, hook it up and have a test run with it for a few days. Don't hook it up to the tank, place it outside the tank so the food will fall into a bowl or a box so you can monitor if it's dumping the right amount of food without you missing it or your fish eating it before you see it. Keep the receipt (and check the store's return policy before you buy, but most stores should accept a return if it failed) and if it doesn't work right return it and try a different model of feeder, or skip the feeder altogether.

 

[Tolak]

I would just let them be for 5 days. There is no way to be sure how that feeder will act while you are away, even if you give it a test run. If they don't get fed for 5 days you are sure of what is going on.

The reduction of food and a couple of weeks with no food is part of what is used conditioning difficult to breed species that go through a seasonal cycle in their natural environment. I've had fish go for two weeks without food several times, double that in the cases of eggbound females.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Ditto, not had a fish yet that cannot tank 2 weeks without food. I suspect they could go months without food, and not suffer ill health from it.

 

[helterskelter]

5 day's will be fine.
I've left even small fish for 10-12 days and their was no problems.

However I do use with auto feeders and ehiem is the very best feeder, but feeders work best with pellet feeds. flake tends to get damp and clog up.
I got a second hand ehiem here if ur in the UK
PM if intrested

 

[karin]

I also agree that 5 days will be fine. I also second the recommendation for an ehiem autofeeder. I have one for emergencies and am happy with it.