Feeding Stations

[LISound]

What type of worms? How do u make your fish food?

 

[Paul B]

I use live California Black worms. I don't make fishfood, I open clams and hatch brine shrimp.

Worms

New Born brine shrimp

 

[reefknight]

Well done, sir!

Can you give us a few more details about your hatching/ separating box, please? Maybe a few more photo's to show the interior as well? I would love to build one as I believe that would make hatching a lot simpler. Due to work, I'm busy constantly and anything that would make this easier is a blessing. I'm going to attempt this weekend to make a feeding station for my female Mandarin. She's not real skinny, but not plump either. I've attempted to blow Nutramar Ova from a pipette to her, but it scares her and my anthias and wrasse eat it all before she returns.

Thanks for the suggestions and inspiration!

 

[Paul B]

The hatchery is simple. I put eggs (and salt water) on the right, dark side. Ther is a sliding door that seperates both sides, it covers a 3/8" hole between the sides. I slide the door closed. There is just salt water on the left, clear side. After about 35 hours the eggs hatch. I put a light over the clear side and put a black cover on the dark side. In 15 minutes all the shrimp swim to the lighted side and the shells stay on the dark side. Close the door, open the valve and the shrimp flow out.
I start a new batch of eggs every day in a small seperate container and put them in the feeder after I hatch a batch. This way I get a hatching every day because they take about one and a half days to hatch. You can strain the water and re use it once or twice or use discarded water from your tank. I usually use new ASW on the shrimp side so when I put the shrimp in my tank, I am also adding new water.
In this picture you see a tube. I lower that tube to let the water and shrimp out. I have now replaced that with a valve.
I also airate the eggs before they hatch.

 

[LISound]

how much water does the left side hold? how many do you hatch a day?
The reason i ask about volume, I don't understand how you get the new hatched shrimp out and into the feeder.
or you fill the left side up with new water every day? I really want to do this as i hate feeding frozen stuff. it always degrades my water quality since i only have about 25-30gallons total system.
thanks for taking the time to share.

 

[Paul B]

Both sides hold about a pint but it could be any size. Both sides are filled and the eggs are placed on the right side. After they hatch they swim to the lighted side on the left. That tube you see is connected to the bottom of the left side and when I lower it, the shrimp and water come out into a container that I dump in my tank. You have to slide the door closed between the sides when you remove the shrimp so the shells stay there. After a hatch, I dump the entire thing out and fill it with salt water for the next hatch.

I don't understand how you get the new hatched shrimp out and into the feeder

I let the tube empty in a container then I have a container full of shrimp and a pint of water. If I want to put them in my feeder I use a brine shrimp net that you buy and I strain out the shrimp. Then I put those shrimp in a little water and pour them into my feeder.
I don't know how to make it any clearer but let me know if I am confusing you someplace.
I don't want to dump a pint of water in my feeder because that volume of water will allow most of the shrimp to escape through the holes in the feeder. I only want to put the shrimp in there with a tablespoon of water.
I hatch about a quarter of a teaspoon of shrimp eggs a day, maybe a little more.

 

[LISound]

Great, those were the answers I was looking for. From the pic its hard to tell how big that container was

 

[Paul B]

I am very happy with the way this feeding device is working and I use it every day. Now about half of my fish feed from it although I don't need many of them to eat from it and I would like for them to get take out some place else. The thing is mainly designed to feed fish that will only eat pods or baby brine shrimp. Fish like mandarins and small pipefish like bluestripes. Now my copperband, gobies and some shrimp suck out a large portion of shrimp but luckily those other fish spend plenty of time there and all get some.
A few days ago I added a tiny red scooter bleeny but he has not figured it out yet.

 

[Paul B]

I am very happy with this new baby brine shrimp feeder. Her are two mandarins, a copperband, bluestriped pipefish and a gobi. The two cardinals, another gobi and red scooter bleeny could not fit in the picture, but they eat there also.
I really love the thing because the baby brine stay in the device and don't get lost.

 

[CORALFISHG]

What size rigid airline tubing do you use.. the only tubing i could find 1/8 and im thinking thats going to be to small.

 

[Paul B]

I used 3/8" outsise diameter, 1/8" may be a little small. It may be hard to get the shrimp down there. Aquarium stores usually sell rigid tubing or you could go to Home Depot and buy PVC tubing in 3' lengths that is used to hook up sinks.

 

[Moort82]

Hi Paul, just wanted to say my bluestripe pipes say thanks for the idea. They cottoned on to it straight away and happily spend the day hunting the feeder. The mandarin is a bit slow on the uptake so far but she is as fat as mud anyway and only has the pipes for competition.

 

[Paul B]

Your welcome

 

[navydave]

Very cool, thanks for sharing this.

 

[HumbleFish]

Paul, first off, great design!

I want to build one of these for my Mandarin pair. They are both eating nutramar ova very well, and I'd also like to train them to eat pellets. Any suggestions for modifying this feeding station for those purposes?

 

[Paul B]

No, the feeding station will only work with live food. For what you want to do I did build a feeding station for that also for my Moorish Idol that worked very well.
It was a dish that sat on the gravel with a tube going to the surface, so it was exactly what my mandarin station was without the mesh. Above the funnel on the tube I had an automatic feeder which deposited pellets into the funnel a few times a day. There was also a tiny pump that pumped water into the funnel so the food would go down to the dish.
The Moorish Idol would check out the feeder on every trip around the tank and would stare at the pellets falling down the tube. He lived five years which is almost a record for a Moorish Idol.

 

[HumbleFish]

Thanks for the added info! I'll build one soon!

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Hummm. I've been considering getting a Mandarin, but I'm pretty sure my tank size would preclude me from supplying enough pods on a daily basis due to its small size (55g). I'm wondering if something like this and regiment of hatching brine shrimp would fit the bill?

Awesome idea by the way!

 

[GROSSR]

Yes, I know it is over a year later.

I am intrigued by you wanting your mandarins to mate. Did the female get healthy? Did she mate with the male?

thanks

rich

 

[Paul B]

Yes, they mate all the time. They are mating here. I still use the feeding station every day