Automatic Feeder Questions

[pachuco2k]

What's up folks? I'm going to be away for the weekend and am looking into ways to get my fish fed over the weekend. I have a 20 gallon tank with 4 Zebra Danios nearing the completion of its 3rd week of existence. Can anyone recommend a reliable automatic feeder? My local Petsmart has these feeder pyramids but they say they are for about 15 fish a day. That would be overfeeding. Can those pyramids be cut in half without messing up there release of food? I have to get this going tonight cuz I leave in the morning. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[juliemichelle]

WalMart has these small discs that are much smaller and intended for what you're looking for...let me find them...they're by Wardley...one shell feds 10 fish for 2-4 days depending temp and ph. Any extra will just be sucked up by your filter anyway. Also, it wouldn't hurt the fish to not eat while you're away. Next time you go feed them a little extra for the 2-3 days before you go and they'll do just fine. Have a great trip!

 

[pachuco2k]

Dang, unfortunately there's not a Walmart nearby me here in San Francsico. I think the closest one is like an hour away. I will definitely have a great trip though!! Happy Halloween!

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Those disks are no good. All they will do is foul your water. Your fish will be fine without food for 2 days. Overfeeding before you leave is also no good because it will just leave you with more "mulm" in the water to mess up your levels.

 

[ferret]

NO WALMART?!?

My god. There's like 5 in a 15 miles radius of me.

 

[pachuco2k]

yeah, go figure. Walmart hasn't penetrated the San Francisco area yet.

 

[Allivymar]

Forget the weekend feeder things. They just mess up the water parameters. Your fish will NOT starve over a weekend; they can go for about a week without any major worries if they are usually weel fed. You can just em be. I have a betta at work; he isn't fed from Friday afternoon till Monday morning and he's a healthy pig.

 

[Guest]

I second Roger. I have left my fish up to 5 days with no food, it doesn't hurt them. Those feeder blocks are to be avoided at all costs, I hear more bad things about htem, never heard any good stuff.

 

[pachuco2k]

OK, the feeder blocks are out of the question. I am coming back early Sunday so I guess I can feed them tomorrow morning and then Sunday. So no one has ever used one of those auto feeders huh? I was looking at the various models they have at Petsmart and they have some nifty timed ones and all that. But if they can survive for a few days I'll save that money to buy some fishes when the time is right. Thanks all!

 

[peterp]

A couple of days won't hurt the fish and sometimes it is good to let them go a day or so without feeding.
I've got to work out something that will go for 3 weeks but I have till next summer to figure it out :?
Saw some fairly expensive autofeeders at BigAl's from ehime and other makers for around 80$cdn.

 

[tkos]

I have an auto feeder. It costs about 25-30$ (in Canada) and is made by Hagen. It feeeds twice a day so I tend to keep it on a very low setting so not too much food comes out. It is really good but I only use it in my tank with fry as I don't want the platy parents consuming the babies when I am gone. If I go away for up to a week then I don't worry about the other fish. For longer I get a friend to stop by every 3-4 days and drop in a little food and top off the water.

But for a weekend? Don't worry about anything unless you have some very special fish.