i am going away in April for 8 days, and i am already worrying about my goldfish being fed. i have seen automatic feeders for about 15 dollars, and i'm wondering if anyone has experience with these, do they work good?

I just bought one of these, I've been testing it by having it hang off the side of the tank backwards (so that it is dropping off the outside of the tank and onto the shelf) and it seems to be working fine. It drops a few pellets into the tank every 12 hours.

http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.c...=01107800020101

That is the one I bought.

You can adjust how much food goes into the tank, it takes some trial and error to figure out how much is the right amount though, so I would recommend a few dry runs before you use it over your tank. You can force it to drop food by taking the batteries out for a few minutes and then putting them back in.

I have yet to use it in my actual tank as I haven't gone on vacation yet. But I'm going to be gone for four days over thanksgiving (yes I know they will be fine for four days without food, but I'd prefer they be fed), and it seems to be reliable.

I personally think your fish would be safer not being fed than using one of those. Ive heard too many horror stories about them dumping all the food in at once and the owner coming home to nasty water and dead fish. I went on a trip for a week and didnt feed my golds and they were ok.

I though horror stories about a white thingy put in the water, not about those machine. Can somebody verify this please? I just bought one TODAY as well.

small ranchu, I too have heard the horror stories about the weekend feeders and other type of blocks that slowly release the food into the water, as opposed to mechanical ones.

I have so far heard only good things about the one which I posted a link to, a friend of mine says she's been using it on her tank (tropicals rather than goldfish) for years, and it has never failed once.

So far, I've had it running about a week and it has dropped a consistent amount of pellets every time.

I too am going to be away for about 2 and a half weeks and am scared to death. What I figured I am going to do is...Fast them the first week, I'm hoping to be cycled by then but who knows so I'm tying to keep the waste levels down...And then having a neighbor come over twice a week to feed them and add a dose of prime to each tank each time he feeds them...

I know there were other automatic feeder topics on here, maybe if I dig I can find one.

Ok, here are some I found, hope this helps!


http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=45742

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...utomatic+feeder

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...utomatic+feeder

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...utomatic+feeder

Good one : http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...utomatic+feeder

Thanks Erin. It seem scary

I didnt check those- but I remember reading several threads about feeders. I think Bak2it or someone found a feeder that was pretty good but very expensive. Personally for me-NEVER again. I used a cheap one an dthe food got damp. When I got back after 10 days the food stank something terrible and my fish were not in a good way .

I think they're okay, just be careful about water splashing!

My friend keeps tropicals and had to leave for several days, so he got one of those auto-feeders. But while he was gone, water splashed into the machine and made everything MOLD over!

My water splashes quite a bit, so I personally wouldn't try it.

If u r often not home, always bz or out going. Using one ensure feeding2-3 times a day. If u r at home morning and night. feed em urself, btw,feeding time is fun.^-^