I recently bought one of these Hydor jobbies
http
/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?...roducts_id=1306
It runs on 2 AA's and can be hooked up to an air pump to keep the food dry in its chamber if you are going to be away for a long time.
The lights on the front flash to tell you what mode it is on. Green light will feed fish once in 24 hours. Yellow light will feed fish Twice in 24 hours, red light will feed fish 3 times in 24 hours. I used the "Twice" setting.
In the Twice setting, when you start up the device, the barrel that the food is in will rotate 360 degrees, letting a specific amount of food out of the hole in its side. This hole is adjusted manually to allow the correct amount of food out per rotation. (Trial and error!) It will then stay still for 12 hours and then rotate and release a second feed.
I loaded the barrel with a mixture of crushed flakes, small cichlid pellets and small sinking pellets. The barrel will not let large flakes pass through (only a few pass through so as not allowing one complete feed), and I should imagine that cichlid sticks or similar would also be dificult for the device to process - Although the opening in the barrel does look wide enough to let them through.
...This has turned into a review hasn't it. Pah!!
Id say its worth £20, I used it for a 2 week holiday, trialing the feeding quantity for a week before I left to ensure that roughly the correct amount of feed was supplied to the fish. I also fed my fish up before I left and had the feed quantity minimised for my holiday so the water quality wouldnt suffer.
I doubt that the chamber is large enough to feed for longer than 2 weeks, although if going on a 16 or so day holiday, the remaining feed free days wouldnt harm the fish.
Although I have heard fish can survive for upto 10 days if fed well before going away. I think Eheim make an autofeeder too but ive not heard much about it.
