How do you feed your fish when on vacation?

[falconut]

I'm trying to see how everybody is taking care of this. I currently feed my tank primarily frozen cubes. All of my fish will eat flake and pellets, but I like the nutrition and variety of the frozen.

I usually have somebody come over and feed my tank every day. I mix up and bag the portions ahead of time, so they simply have to scoop the tank water and thaw the food then pour it in.

I have been trying to figure a way around bugging somebody everyday, while I'm away, but so far I haven't come up with anything. If I use an autofeeder w/flakes or pellets they will simply float over to the overflow box. I suppose I could use a funnel or pipe to keep the food from floating to the overflow, but not exactly sure how it would work.

So, what do you do when you're away?

 

[unclereefer]

I don't really have anyone i trust to feed my fish, so i don't leave for over a week at a time. I don't have any aggressive fish, so their fine for a week or less with no food. I don't like to leave but if i have to they survive.

 

[marinelife]

My mother does it for me, I have a cup of food in the freezer for each day of the week I am gone. Another think you can do is ask a local club member to help you out

 

[skeeter-doc]

When I go out of town, I don't worry about it, I make the fish fast. They are fine and a bit hungry when I get back, but no deaths have happened because of this, ...

 

[saltydude]

My wife and I use a automatic feeder. We hook it up on the side of the sump and it goes off 2 times a day and it is blown out threw the pump for all to feast. The digital ones are the best.

 

[dc]

I have rhondomatic electric feeders for all my tanks and use pellets. I got them at DrsFosters&Smith. With an electric feeder, if your power goes out, so does it, and you won't have to worry about overfeeding and polluting your tank.

 

[falconut]

saltydude - I never thought about putting a feeder on the sump. I assume that flakes are what you're using. I think pellets would probably just since and rot. Awesome idea.

I don't think I'd want to make then fast. My Angels and Anthias are supposeded to have a minimum of 1 feeding a day, so I wouldn't want to starve them.

 

[jpndave]

I like that auto feeder in the sump idea. What food and auto feeder are you using?

 

[falconut]

dc - do you just have the feeder drop the pellets right into your tank? Don't they just float over to the overflow?

 

[saltydude]

The feeder I am not sure of because it is in the basement until I use it again ( I have too much fish stuff in the house as it is). Buy one that is digital and can be set at more then 3 differant time intervals. As for food, I use products by "new life". As long as it has no homones in it and has garlic, I will buy it. Garlic helps with the health of fish.

 

[saltydude]

FALCONUT; You are right about it going over into the overflow, so to get past that, I put the feeder in the sump and it comes up threw the sea swirl. I tried hooking it up to the top of the tank and have the food drop into a floating fish feeder, but with all the current I have in my tank the floater was all over the place. I use flakes and not pellets.

 

[saltydude]

dc: good point about the electric powered one!

 

[dc]

Some of mine are sinking pellets and I have a foam ring in the corner of my reef tank so they don't go in the overflow. It won't hurt them to float around, once the fish start eating them, the powerheads blow them down for the bottom fish.

Anything that still goes over, is pod food.

 

[DMK]

the fish feeding fairy knows when i'm gone and stops by once each night and feeds...