Need advice on automatic fish feeders

20 years ago

Hi, I'm new to this forum and would appreciate your advice.

I have an aquarium containing 6 African Cichlids, and I'm going out of town for a couple of weeks. Can anyone recommend a good automatic feeder? I generally have a neighbor come over to feed the fish, but I'd rather try the auto feeder route if there's one I can rely on.

Thank you,

Robbie

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Comments (5)

skygee
20 years ago
Are you thinking of having someone stop in at least every couple of days? Just to make sure the tank is running okay - no loss of power, etc, etc? Being in zone 4, I'd worry about losing power and heat, which of course then your fish will be gone.
robbieanne
Original Author
20 years ago
Yes, I plan to have someone check the tank while I am away. I'm new to my community, so I don't have a lot of people that I know or trust to take on such a task, unfortunately. I had a neighbor feed the fish when I was away for 4 days not long ago, and the fish were waaaay overfed. I came home to a mess.
I really need to get a feeder that is reliable. Have narrowed it down to either a Hagen NutraFin Profeed or an Eheim Feed Air Automatic, both of which appear to be high-end feeders.
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skygee
20 years ago
They're both battery operated, right? I'm sorry - I have no experience with automatic feeders - so can't really recommend one over the other.

If you wind up just having a human do the feeding, perhaps just request an every other day - or even every third day feeding. Fish would be fine without a couple of days of feeding. Last time I went away, my friends who were taking care of things offered to come twice a day to feed. But I knew that wouldn't be necessary - I was afraid of my fish being overfed as well. Plus I premeasured out the tanks daily feeding - especially since all my tanks are different sizes and have different fish populations. I just used small snack sized zip bags, measured out the daily portion and instructed my friends to feed ONLY that measured amount ONCE a day. That prevented any overfeeding of the fish.
thunderxrage
20 years ago
Those automatic fish feeders are quite interesting. I do not know if they are great and such. There is one at WalMart, but I think it take flakes. I do not feed my fishes with flakes, but with granules. I suggest that you just buy whatever you want and test them for a few days and decide.
DaGoatMan
13 years ago
I have tried a few automatic feeders and what I have found to be the best one so far is the Eheim Everyday Fish Feeder. Reliable and appears to be very well built. It has a lot of different feeding intervals you can program and it is fairly simple to operate. I use mine to feed three small feedings a day. Works great for me. I leave it running all the time. I never have to worry about feeding and it gets done consistently. I always change to fresh batteries before going on a long trip just to be sure.