What's wrong w/ white block weekend feeders?

lisaemc2

lisaemc2

AC Members
Feb 14, 2010
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Boston, MA. USA
I'm asking because I've never heard a warning about them until lately. I travel quite a bit & I've been using the feeder blocks for years. I only do this when I'm gone over 4 days but I've never had a problem. What, pray tell, is the downside to this? I'm leaving to go out of the country for a week in Sept. so, I'd like to know.
 
From what I've heard, they're not very nutritious for one and secondly they create a lot of waste. If it's just for a few days, it would probably be better to just not feed them at all instead of using the weekend feeder. But for an entire week, I'm not sure. Some people will probably suggest to ask someone you trust to feed them every couple days until you get back. If not, I can't think of an alternative to the feeder block.
 
They're made of plaster of Paris, for one thing. They don't provide any nutrition at all really, just a feeding substitute so it keeps them busy...at the expense of your water quality, often times.

I find them very depressing, especially since places like Walmart use them routinely instead of having someone feed them real food. Why would you ever want to feed your fish this chalky mess? It doesn't even look like food!

Tetra made a considerable improvement to the feeding block:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tetra%20vacation&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=800&bih=463

You might want to give it a try. If you're leaving for a week, the 5 day formula should work for you - split up one of them amongst your two small tanks.
 
maverickbr77 said:
if you are gone a lot an auto feeder might be helpful. Haven't used one myself so can't give you much info on reliability.
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I've heard some pretty bad horror stories with these things. Maybe if you can find one that is known to be reliable but I'd be a bit weary with one. Good suggestion though :)
 
funkman262 said:
I've heard some pretty bad horror stories with these things. Maybe if you can find one that is known to be reliable but I'd be a bit weary with one. Good suggestion though :)
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I've used the walmart ones for years without problems. Just don't overload it.
 
You may want to try that vacation feeder by Tetra, that's made with a gel instead of plaster. It looks more appetizing, anyway. Maybe the weekend version would be just enough to leave without worry, or incurring water issues.
 
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