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Automatic Feeder - holiday

Dominik K

Member
Joined
14 Jun 2021
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80
Location
Southampton
Hi All

Im going on a 2 week holiday at the end of may.
I have a small nano tank (64l).

Although I will prep some water and ask someone to do a partial water change 1 week into my away time and check in to make sure everything is fine, I'm looking for a solution to feeding.

I tend to do 2 small feeds during the day (morning before work and afternoon/ evening after work) of mainly tropical flake
Even if switched this to a bigger feed I'm not going to be able have anyone who would feed my fish daily for two weeks.

How do people resolve holidays? I'm looking at some sort of automated feeder solution - is this a thing? Ive seen some stuff on amazon but not sure if its suited to smaller tanks and flakes.

Any advice is appreciated. I'm worried about my fish.
My honey gourami called toadi is awesome and I want to keep him alive for as long as possible :)
 
I would just measure out the food in a bag and give it to the person doing the water change if you feel you need to feed.

Fish can survive a long time without food - even 2 weeks, so if your tank is healthy I wouldn't worry
 
I have used eheim feeders, ihmo you should forget about using flake, as it gets damp, forms clumps, and blocks the feeder, I use spirulina pellets (osi), i would think that most hard pellet type foods would work
 
I would be happy to leave fish unfed for 10 days, and have done without any issue. I think there's more a risk with over-feeding (by a helper or an autofeeder). For a fortnight, I'd still not feed or I'd measure out a normal one day's worth of food for your water change helper to just feed once only
 
I've used this auto feeder several times for small rainbow fry. So it will cope with small food but pellets are better and I had to restrict the feeding slot. I use tape but stick two pieces together, sticky side to sticky side, then stick that over the feeding slot, so that the food doesn't come into contact with the glue on the tape and create a clump.

I agree with Fredi and Jamiepearson
forget about using flake, as it gets damp, forms clumps, and blocks the feeder,
I think there's more a risk with over-feeding (by a helper or an autofeeder). For a fortnight, I'd still not feed or I'd measure out a normal one day's worth of food
Even with the auto feeder I fill it with half the amount I'd feed normally and set it to feed half as often as I would if I was there. That way even if it dumps the whole lot in one go, the filter/fish should take care of it.
 
If someone is going to change your water maybe a week after you leave, I think is going to be enought for your fish to be fed once a week (just prepare the portion he/she should apply to your tank after the water change). Less risky than an automatic feeder.
 
Thank you all for your replies

Perhaps I am overfeeding ever since one of the pygmy corys died from no discernable causes I am very concious.
 
I would just measure out the food in a bag and give it to the person doing the water change if you feel you need to feed.

Fish can survive a long time without food - even 2 weeks, so if your tank is healthy I wouldn't worry
This would be my advice as well. In the past I've have had no problem feeding the fish a bit extra for a couple of days before a longer trip (2 weeks or so) and let someone who checks on the house feed the fish from measured out bags a couple of times during the vacation.

As for auto feeders such as the Eheim; that works too, but you will have to use small granules such as Fluval bug bites as flakes are very hard to dose from auto feeders in my experience.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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Thank you all for your replies

Perhaps I am overfeeding ever since one of the pygmy corys died from no discernable causes I am very concious.
This can happen unexpectedly with pygmy corys, and I don't know that anyone's found a satisfactory answer as to why.

I'm in the "don't feed for 2 weeks" camp. Especially if it's a mature tank, the fish will find things to eat. Also, since there's less net bioload, the water will be cleaner. You may not need to change the water in that case. Maybe just top off with distilled water if it's better for the filter output. Easier all around, and arguably better for your fish.
 
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