


This is useful when you want to store different types of fish food.īattery vs electric feeders – Automatic fish feeders are either battery-operated or powered by electricity. Portion control fish feeders have small compartments where the food can be stored, and one compartment of food gets discharged at feeding time. This is the most commonly used type and is ideal for small sized food and very useful to store food for a month or more. Rotating barrel fish feeders vs Portion control fish feeders – Rotating barrel fish feeders have provisions to store food in the barrel that gets dispersed at pre-set time intervals through an opening. These fish feeders are bigger and size and can hold high volumes of fish food and bigger pieces too. Feeders for outdoor tanks are normally used for small pools, terrariums etc. These are designed to hold and disperse small quantities of food for aquarium fish. Different types of automatic fish feedersįish feeders for indoor vs outdoor tanks – When you have an aquarium that you keep indoors, you want an automatic fish feeder that can be fitted to your tank easily. Depending on your needs, you can time your feeder to give out fish food more than once every day and ration accordingly. Normally fish feeders are set to dispense food once a day since it’s usually enough to feed fish once a day. The feeder has chambers that are emptied into the tank and rotated with a clock mechanism for timed feeding. The fish feeder is first mounted at a convenient place above the tank such that its mounting bracket hooks firmly at the tank’s edges or suction cups from the feeder attach themselves to the walls of the tank to disburse food. Automating this task is important for the health of your pets. This affects all the fish in the tank and the complete environment.ĭispensing a specific quantity of food at regular intervals also has other benefits – for one, you won’t have to worry about excessive food collecting at the bottom of your tank, spoiling its look secondly, some feeders have provisions to dispense different types of food to different species.

Overfeeding, on the other hand, results in excessive protein intake, that in turn raises ammonia levels due to increased excretion in the aquarium. Malnourished fish don’t get enough protein, and this makes them anemic, listless and susceptible to bacterial infections. This is helpful not just when you travel, but even in our day-to-day life to feed the correct measure of food such that our fish don’t go under-nourished or overfed. Some people may not feed enough while others may feed too much both these situations are hazardous as our fish are completely dependent on us in their artificial environment.Īutomatic fish feeders assume the complete responsibility of dispensing the right quantity of food at the right time, thus reducing this part of our duty. With today’s demanding schedules, this is not so easy we may not always be there to feed the fish and if we were to delegate this work to someone else, there’d be the problem of how much to feed. Keeping fish requires a disciplined maintenance routine we need to feed them the right quantity of food on time and take care of the tank from time to time. Overfed fish excrete more that, and the excessive food that decomposes in the tank together makes the tank toxic. But this often led to overfeeding which was one of the major reasons for death of aquarium fish. Smolin presented his case with the explanation that till then, most people just dumped heaps of fish food in their fish tank in order to provide sufficient food for their fish for a couple of days or more. It was in 1953 that Seymour Smolin filed for a patent for his device that was designed to release a specified quantity of fish food in the form of pellets into the fish tank at specific time intervals. Read our complete guide about the best aquarium heaters.
#Automatic feeder fish how to
Here’s our list of best automatic fish feeders and a quick introduction to why you need them, how they work and how to select an automatic fish feeder from among the wide range that’s available in the market. Read our latest guide about the best fish tanks. This problem can easily be solved with automatic fish feeders though they’re much more helpful than just feeding fish when you’re away as you’ll read here. And there’s always the problem of who will feed your fish when you’re away. And yet, it’s this silence that can endanger your little friends – for your fish cannot whine like puppies when they’re hungry and they cannot demand food. So, you were looking for pets with low-maintenance needs and zoomed in on fish? You can never get bored of watching the fish in your aquarium go about their daily routine, swimming silently in the calm environment you’ve created for them.
