Vacation Feeders

[franmorr1966]

http://www.petco.com/product/3399/API-V ... eeder-3399

Above is a link to the feeder I'm considering for my fish. I will be away for six days. I have 4 medium sized clowns and 6 medium sized silver dollars among assorted tetras/barbs.

I have a 55 gallon tank. The silver dollars and clowns are voracious eaters. 1. Have you used the product (or something similar) 2. Do you recommend it 3. How many feeders should I put in the tank? I'm afraid the fish will have them completely eaten in a couple days. I've never used these type of feeders so I don't know how they work.

Thanks.

Fran

[bookpage]

I have not used feeders. I have only been gone for 2-3 days at a time and gave them food when I returned. I did find this and it may help.

http://www.bestfish.com/vacfoodpa.html

[Diana]

Do not use that sort. It adds minerals to the water, makes the water hard.

Tetra makes a gelled vacation food that is well accepted and does not harm the water chemistry. If there will be someone home to drop a few of these in the tank perhaps in the middle of your trip it would be worth getting several. Feed 2-3 of the large ones when you leave, then 3 days later have your friend drop in 2-3 more. That is it.
Lock up all the other food so there are no accidents or misunderstandings.

Do not overfeed while you are gone. Do not risk anything happening to the water quality. Better not to feed at all than to risk a build up of waste from too much food by a well meaning person.

If you want to test the Tetra feeders, then get a few and see how long it takes the fish to eat them.
The food will stay good in the tank for a long time. I have used them when taking care of a friend's tanks, and the tanks with the least fish still had their food (and were still eating it) after a week. The tanks with the larger fish population had eaten all theirs, and mobbed the new one I dropped in.

They come with a little dish. If your friend does not want to get his/her arm wet to remove the dish it will not harm anything to wait for you to get back to remove it.

[palaeodave]

Healthy, decent sized fish will be absolutely fine without feeding for a week - 2 weeks in a well planted tank.

[franmorr1966]

Bookpage, your link was helpful, thank you.

No, there won't be anyone who will come into feed the fish, so that's why I want it taken care of before I go.

I wouldn't mind letting the big fish go hungry for a few days (I will be gone for a total of 6)--I know it wouldn't hurt them, but I don't want them to make meals of the smaller ones. I will go to my LFS and see what I can try out over the next few days. I'm leaving Wed. morning. Thanks for the tip on the gel-like feeder.

Fran

[Francois van Brederode]

I second that, the fish will be fine for 6 days.
Either that or have someone feed them ONCE during your leave, and give them a vacumm sealed portion to give your fish to prevent overfeeding.

[franmorr1966]

I second that, the fish will be fine for 6 days.
Either that or have someone feed them ONCE during your leave, and give them a vacumm sealed portion to give your fish to prevent overfeeding.

The big fish will be fine for six days, the little ones will disappear.

[Diana]

Very important when you have a mixed tank that you do feed. Probably OK to cut the rations in half, or just feed a few times, but 6 days is enough to make the big fish eat the little fish.

[franmorr1966]

Very important when you have a mixed tank that you do feed. Probably OK to cut the rations in half, or just feed a few times, but 6 days is enough to make the big fish eat the little fish.

That's how I feel, Diana. One size does not fit all in this case.

[Keith Wolcott]

These are a bit pricey, but they have always worked flawlessly for me. You can completely control what you feed and how much for each feeding . My fish get about half rations when I am away.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/10851/product.web

[franmorr1966]

These are a bit pricey, but they have always worked flawlessly for me. You can completely control what you feed and how much for each feeding . My fish get about half rations when I am away.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/10851/product.web

Thanks, Keith.

Yes that is pricey; I'm usually not away that much so I think I'm going to go with the Tetra Gel feeders which I bought today. I'm glad I brought it up here so I learned not to get the chalky looking stuff.

Thanks again to all.

Fran