Weekend Feeders?

fancychance

fancychance

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Sep 9, 2007
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Hi everyone...

Next week my husband and I are going to be gone for about five days. Our family doesn't live around here and I don't know any one well enough to trust them with my fish (we just recently moved).

My main question was what would be the best method of making sure my fish get fed? I don't really want to use an automatic feeder because the last thing I need is more things being plugged up or having to worry if it's working or not.

I have seen various types of 'weekend feeders', but I was concerned it would be a mess and leave the water cloudy/full of ammonia. Has anyone ever used one of these or know which one is the best?

Lastly.. I have a peacock eel.. We feed him freeze dried blood worms.. Any suggestions on how to make sure he gets fed?!

I would love to be able to go on vacation without stressing the whole time if my fish are okay or if they are starving to death (and believe me, I would worry)!

Hopefully some of you can give me some advice..It would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks ..
 
I'm not such a fan of the sea shell, could-be-sidewalk-chalk, weekend feeder. First off, IMO it's not high quality nutrition, so my fish might prefer not eating at all(bit of a joke). Also, these things do put some waste into your water, so you may not like what your tank looks like or how your water behaves when you return.

I've had a battery operated auto-feeder for years and I love it. It's great. I recieved it as a gift, but it was under $10. I highly recommend it.

I'm pretty sure they also make automatic brine/bloodworm feeders, but I don't know much about these becase I don't indulge my fish with such tasty delights.

Worst case scenario, fish don't have to eat everyday. I did a cross country move where, for water quality and stress reasons, my fish fasted for almost a week.
 
Either don't feed for 5 days (your fish will be fine) or - if that is too stressful (and believe me, I would understand!) - buy a medicine/pill dispenser (you know, those things that you can stick pills in for a week or a month so you can keep track of whether you took it or not), measure the food yourself and ask a neighbor to come in once or twice. Ask them to do absolutely nothing, except dump the food in that days dispenser in your tank.

This worked brilliantly for me, when I left the country for 5 weeks!

L.
 
Don't think about feeding them using the weekend food shell, pyramid or whatever its name. I went on a vacation for 10 days and bought the 10-days vacation food. When I came back, the tank was dirty like hell, the fishes were pale and literally white colored and the house was smelly. It's obvious that this thing will increase the concentrations of Ammonia to the sky, even if you do a water change. Your fish might get sick because of the impact of those vacation/weekend feeders.

You can feed them the day that you are leaving and that's it. I think the fish can live without a food for a period of a week. I think that.

Good luck...
 
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Your fish will most certainly be fine for a couple of days without regular feedings; don't worry.

The weekend feeder seashell/pyramid things are all but useless for their intended purpose; don't bother.

What I DO find them good for, though, is, snail snacks - break 'em up into small chips (pencil eraser diameter at most), drop one or two in every week or so - snails enjoy them, and get some calcium for healthy shell growth.
 
nynikki said:
Holy Cow!! That thing is $90... :eek:
Click to expand...

You get what you pay for - I've got 3 of them and have NEVER had any issues with them - they work EXACTLY as they are advertised. If I needed another I would get one of these in a heartbeat.
 
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