Auto feeders?

C

cadman

AC Members
Jan 17, 2008
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Per my last post, I have some time away from my fish and aquirium and need to employ a method to keep my fish feed while gone. Am considering an auto feeder similar to one of these:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/TPautofeeders.htm

I don't know much about them other than what I read in catalogs and was curious if you guys can shed some light on them. I tend to feed a combination of flake, pellets, and frozen to my tropical fish I know had read that there "could" be some issues with certain types of food like flakes with certain "quality" feeders. Can some of you give me some input on these as to which are the best for the buck and such? Would like to try and get away with spending under $40, but I want something consistent and reliable. Thoughts please?

Thanks much for your input!
 
Whats your feeding schedule like currently?
 
Do a search for feeders - they have been discussed here on this forum quite often ...

Personally I use feeders 2-3x a year when I am gone - I have never had any issues with them. I will say you get what you pay for. I prefer the eheim feeders - they run around ~$80 each.
 
The least amount of time gone will be 6 days. I typically feed a combination of frozen or pellets and then flakes once a day.
 
Auto feeders are a disaster waiting to happen, in my opinion. If you're going to be gone a week, let the fish go hungry; if more, get a friend to feed them for you (if the friend is not a fish keeper, you should probably go ahead and measure out smaller-than-usual daily portions to prevent overfeeding) or a hire a caretaking service (many LFS's offer this).
 
I don't really have any options for someone coming by. Seems 6 days is quite a long time to let them go without food. I know there are those other things that you can buy that release food or that the fish can pick at. Is it really the general concensus of the forum that these things are garbage? I am not just looking to spend money and am up for alternatives, but at the same time, I want the best for my fish.
 
I have heard of fish going as long as a month without being fed and they were just fine.

Fish are cold blooded animals and thus require less in the way of energy to function. Plus they are constantly eating the slime, algae and other tiny organisms from the aquarium surfaces. I wouldn't worry one bit about six days. In fact I wouldn't even worry about two weeks.
 
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