Automatic fish feeder

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JulieB

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
99
Location
Sacramento, CA
Hello everyone! My husband and I are going away for Thanksgiving, and again at Christmas, and we need a way to feed the fish. Unfortunately they're not as easy as the cat... I have yet to find a way to get the fish to eat out of a big bowl of food in the kitchen :D

Does anyone have any advice on an automatic feeder? I feed them flakes, they won't get the blood worms while we're gone.
 
how long will you be gone... if only a few days i say let them fast... less ammonia to your system... and gives there systems a chance to clean out... i only feed my fish 5 days a week normally...
 
We'll be gone 5 days at Thanksgiving, 7-10 days at Christmas. I worry about the rainbows and fasting them, they tend to pick at the gourami's and angel's long fins if they don't eat everyday... all of my fish are piggies! :)
 
You could have a friend watch them. If you wanna gamble, rather than let some stranger feed the fish who might overfeed and thus accelerate your tank's problem, you could just let them fast. Then wait and buy a feeder at Christmas time from Dr Fosters and Smith. Finbally, you could bite the bullet and get the feeder now at the lfs. Personally, I would risk it and just elt the fish fast- buying those food pyramids they sell ahve been known to pollute the water as they decompose.
 
Oh those food pyramids are lame in my experience. The fish never figured out that it was food. I just want something to drop flakes in every day.
 
i think an auto feeder will be fine, they get a bit expensive though.

fish do not need their systems cleaned out by not eatting. while i think they could be fine a day or two, more than that adds stress to the fish.

would you leave your dog alone for a few days without feeding? when you want to clean out your system, do you stop eatting?
 
bigals has the cheap-o penn plax dual-auto feeders for $15-16. They feed twice a day and have an adjustment for the amount of food to dispense each feeding. I need to get a few myself, but for now I'm going to use the tetramin gel 14 day feeders. Once I get the auto-feeders, I'll be sure to post a review! Come to think of it, I should review the tetramin gel feeders after this week too. I'll only be gone for a week so I'm hoping it'll last the whole time. They were nice and cheap at $2.50 each from bigals so I ordered one for each tank. My fish are piggies too!
 
hc8719 said:
i think an auto feeder will be fine, they get a bit expensive though.

fish do not need their systems cleaned out by not eatting. while i think they could be fine a day or two, more than that adds stress to the fish.

would you leave your dog alone for a few days without feeding? when you want to clean out your system, do you stop eatting?
#1 fish are cold blooded so a comparison to a mammal is a little off IMO cold blooded animals do not need to eat every day... it is a metabolism thing. every many mammals in the wild do not eat every day...

if you do a quick search around the forum you will see that MANY people fast their fish at least one day of the week... helps clean out the system and prevent constipation...
 
If you have someone watch your fish you can get those little stackable container systems used to sort beads (at the craft store) or a pill sorter (at the pharmacy) and measure out the appropriate amount of food per feeding; then all they have to do is open the next compartment and drop it in. I do this when I go away - no risk of overfeeding or feeding inappropriate amounts. Its especially useful when you have top, middle and bottom feeders as you can put the right foods for each type of fish into each compartment.
 
Excellent idea joannde! I think I want to go the way of the auto feeder, though. I don't want to inconvience my neighbors who may be going out of town too, (I only trust 1 family with a key to my house.)

I don't mind leaving my fish for a weekend without feeding them, I know they will survive just fine. However, I don't want to leave them for a week or more.

I have a cheap feeder, but I don't think it works very well. It's one of those that uses a battery to turn the food container around and it dumps food twice a day (supposedly). I would like one that is a little more reliable.
 
JDogg said:
hc8719 said:
i think an auto feeder will be fine, they get a bit expensive though.

fish do not need their systems cleaned out by not eatting. while i think they could be fine a day or two, more than that adds stress to the fish.

would you leave your dog alone for a few days without feeding? when you want to clean out your system, do you stop eatting?
#1 fish are cold blooded so a comparison to a mammal is a little off IMO cold blooded animals do not need to eat every day... it is a metabolism thing. every many mammals in the wild do not eat every day...

if you do a quick search around the forum you will see that MANY people fast their fish at least one day of the week... helps clean out the system and prevent constipation...

This gets brought up every couple days and we have the same discussion. You basically hit all the counterpoints to the original comment.

For the OP, I would recommend getting a quality feeder ($20-40) and having it feed every other day if possible. Feeders often get bad reputations for OVER-feeding, rarely do they ever feed to little. If you can set a feeding schedule once every 24hours that would be perfect. It's a semi fast, that over a 5-10day period will keep them healthy and not affect the water quality much. Definately do a large PWC when you get back in either case.

For reference I fast 1 day per week and the fish react to the feeding after the fast the same way they would react to a feeding 5 minutes after a normal routine. You cannot judge their health based on their percieved appetite (no appetite is entirely a different story).
 
I have faced this issue many times. I do not worry too much for 3 or 4 days. However, for a week long vacation I use the rotating flake auto feeder. If it malfunctions (ie:doesn't drop food), I have confidence the fish will survive the one week.

The real trouble is a 2 week vacation. For that, the auto feeder is a must. And I worry about it not dropping food. I use a fresh, new set of batteries each time. I pray that it will make it a week before failing or running out of food, since I know the fish can go the last week without.

Then there are fish that do not eat flake foods, like spiney eels, who only eat frozen bloodworms. There is no autofeeder option for this. You must decide if you will let someone into your home every few days to feed for a 2 week vacation. Since Many people don't want people in their homes while they are away, the only option for a 2 week vaction and a frozen food eating fish is to put in live food for them to hunt/eat while you are away. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of using one kind of fish as food for another, then either don't get a frozen food eating fish, or don't go away for more than a week.

Last time I went away for 2 weeks, I used guppy fry to feed my spiny eel. (what could I do, wife wouldn't allow the fish-sitter option). 40% of them made the transition from food to pet and are still in my aquarium.
 
JDogg said:
#1 fish are cold blooded so a comparison to a mammal is a little off IMO cold blooded animals do not need to eat every day... it is a metabolism thing. every many mammals in the wild do not eat every day...

if you do a quick search around the forum you will see that MANY people fast their fish at least one day of the week... helps clean out the system and prevent constipation...

1. ok your saying fish are cold blooded so putting neons in 60 degree water is fine? i used "cold feeling" to get a point across

2. many fish in fact have a faster metabolism than humans, clown loaches can nearly double their size in weeks, have you ever seen a human use the toliet as often as a pleco or gourami?

so dont tell me metabolism is a mammal thing unless your doing a load in your pants every 2 hours

as far as your "every many mammals in the wild do not eat every day" (never got why "every" was needed) if you havent noticed animals in the wild who dont eat every day, suffer from mental and physical stress, including a weakened immune system.

fish do not need their system "flushed" if you need proof, ive been feeding fish every day for the past 12 years, and have had no problems
 
I think that there is nothing bad on leaving the fishes without food for 1 or 2 days. Anyway, a fish that is not used to it will have a different behaviour IMO than another used to this kind of feeding. Variety is said to be always a good thing and I think that this counts for everything. You could think that it´s crazy but I really think that it´s neither a bad idea to overfeed your fish from time to time. Why should they always clean their system and never fill it up? In nature both things would happen..
 
kostasonia said:
I think that there is nothing bad on leaving the fishes without food for 1 or 2 days. Anyway, a fish that is not used to it will have a different behaviour IMO than another used to this kind of feeding. Variety is said to be always a good thing and I think that this counts for everything. You could think that it´s crazy but I really think that it´s neither a bad idea to overfeed your fish from time to time. Why should they always clean their system and never fill it up? In nature both things would happen..

Feast or famish, that's the general rule in the wild.
 
hc8719 said:
JDogg said:
#1 fish are cold blooded so a comparison to a mammal is a little off IMO cold blooded animals do not need to eat every day... it is a metabolism thing. every many mammals in the wild do not eat every day...

if you do a quick search around the forum you will see that MANY people fast their fish at least one day of the week... helps clean out the system and prevent constipation...

1. ok your saying fish are cold blooded so putting neons in 60 degree water is fine? i used "cold feeling" to get a point across

2. many fish in fact have a faster metabolism than humans, clown loaches can nearly double their size in weeks, have you ever seen a human use the toliet as often as a pleco or gourami?

so dont tell me metabolism is a mammal thing unless your doing a load in your pants every 2 hours

as far as your "every many mammals in the wild do not eat every day" (never got why "every" was needed) if you havent noticed animals in the wild who dont eat every day, suffer from mental and physical stress, including a weakened immune system.

fish do not need their system "flushed" if you need proof, ive been feeding fish every day for the past 12 years, and have had no problems

1. hc8719, cold-blooded refers to their inability to regulate internal temperature. That means if they were gradually put into 60F water and didn't die from shock, their metabolism (which includes feeding as well as energy expenditure) drops like a rock. They become sluggish, less alert, but unlike mammals CAN SURVIVE for VERY long periods of time. Remember they are also in water and buoyant, their body is not supporting their mass all day. If our core body temperature drops into the low 90's hyperthermia becomes a very dangerous condition. Our bodies fight to burn calories so that we can stay within a very rigid temperature range. This requires a HUGE amount of resources by way of food and fat stocks to do nothing other than maintain an optimal temperature.

2. There are caveats to every "rule". During periods of massive growth or when sick/stressed such as during an outbreak with Ich/fungus or when fry/young, it is probably detrimental to not feed every day. They are using incredible amounts of resources to grow and/or fight off disease, but please also think about what you just said. The small amount of food you are feeding them allows them to double in size very quickly? You just helped proved my point. Because they are not burning so many calories for temperature regulation and structural support they can use virtually ALL of their resources for growth and development (movement being the major other energy expenditure).

so dont tell me metabolism is a mammal thing unless your doing a load in your pants every 2 hours

Rate of metabolism and the reasoning BEHIND metabolism are 2 very different things. I'll still argue that humans and all warm-blooded creatures have metabolisms VASTLY "faster" than any cold-blooded species because they are CONSTANTLY using resources for temperature regulation.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this issue. Human emotions placed on non-human entities are making critical discussion near impossible.
 
7Enigma said:
kostasonia said:
I think that there is nothing bad on leaving the fishes without food for 1 or 2 days. Anyway, a fish that is not used to it will have a different behaviour IMO than another used to this kind of feeding. Variety is said to be always a good thing and I think that this counts for everything. You could think that it´s crazy but I really think that it´s neither a bad idea to overfeed your fish from time to time. Why should they always clean their system and never fill it up? In nature both things would happen..

Feast or famish, that's the general rule in the wild.

It´s also general rule that when they find abundance of food they eat really a lot! So this option should not be out of the calendar either.
 
hc8719 said:
JDogg said:
#1 fish are cold blooded so a comparison to a mammal is a little off IMO cold blooded animals do not need to eat every day... it is a metabolism thing. every many mammals in the wild do not eat every day...

if you do a quick search around the forum you will see that MANY people fast their fish at least one day of the week... helps clean out the system and prevent constipation...

1. ok your saying fish are cold blooded so putting neons in 60 degree water is fine? i used "cold feeling" to get a point across

2. many fish in fact have a faster metabolism than humans, clown loaches can nearly double their size in weeks, have you ever seen a human use the toliet as often as a pleco or gourami?

so dont tell me metabolism is a mammal thing unless your doing a load in your pants every 2 hours

as far as your "every many mammals in the wild do not eat every day" (never got why "every" was needed) if you havent noticed animals in the wild who dont eat every day, suffer from mental and physical stress, including a weakened immune system.

fish do not need their system "flushed" if you need proof, ive been feeding fish every day for the past 12 years, and have had no problems
out of respect for the op i will not continue the this line of discussion...if you wish to continue this pm me :D
 
LOL. Why can't people keep their responses short and to the point...
If it was me and I had the money, I would buy th ef eeder at the pet store. It's our responsibility to give these creatures, our pets, the best chance they got to a healthy, long life. But, that's just my feeling.
 
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