Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Food and Feeding => Topic started by: Vanadia on November 13, 2019, 07:02:54 AM
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I am going away for 2 weeks in January, and I am unsure what to do about feeding my bristlenose pleco. I have left my aquarium for up to 2 weeks on many occasions in the past without issues, using Fishmate feeder. However my Bristlenose pleco only eats fresh foods, like courgette, spinach and Morning Wood, so I can't really put these in an automatic feeder. Algae wafers cause fighting among my fish so I have had to stop using these.
Would it be OK not to feed him at all for this long? I have left him up to 5 days without food in the past. There is a piece of driftwood in the tank, mossballs and some algae in the tank, would these be enough?
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You could grow some algae on rocks before you go. Put some large pebbles in a glass container with some water on the sunniest windowsill you have. Add a drop of ammonia if you have any. That should encourage algae to grow on the pebbles and you can put them in the tank before you go.
Alternatively, is there anyone who could add the veggies for you? They'd have to be willing to go in the following day to remove the uneaten bits, though.
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What I think might work well for you would be some Shrimp King Snail Stixx - https://dennerle.com/en/products/nano-aquarium/feeding-minerals-vitamins/food-dwarf-crayfish/shrimp-king-snail-stixx I get mine from www.pro-shrimp.co.uk These are little hard sticks of approx 1.5cm long. After approx 15 mins of being in the tank, they become soft and edible. They contain carrots, kelp algae, tomatoes and spinach. Although intended for my nerite snails, my fish have taken a liking to them, even though they have shown no interest in other veggies. The way it becomes soft means that an inhabitant doesn't run off with it in the way that they would with an algae wafer - they just swoop down every now and again, take a mouthful and swim off, often creating a cloud of debris around them as they chomp on it... but which would be ideal for bottom-feeders to avail of. Sometimes I roll my eyes up at the mess the fish make with it but then know that my nerite snails will clean it up later on.
I also have a Fishmate Feeder. I haven't tried Snail Stixx in it but I reckon they might work well dispensed every few days via that method. [The reason why I no longer use my Fishmate Feeder, and therefore haven't tried it with Snail Stixx in it, is irrelevant - it is purely because my current tanklid needs to come off and the Fishmate Feeder needs to sit on a condensation tray with a hole cut in it, but at least one of my two nerites is an escape artist and could easily create a gap to escape from.]
I am more than happy to send you a few sticks to try out before buying them from elsewhere, if that would help - just PM me your address and I can pop them in the mail. If your bristlenose (and other fish) like them, then you'll probably need to test them out in the Fishmate Feeder to ensure that they remain hard in that up to a fortnight to the point of being dispensed rather than distintegrating due to humidity/condensation from the tank, and also work out how much they eat in what timeframe in order to figure out how much and how often to include this in the Fishmate Feeder.
Hope that helps.
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If the Stixx work out, I can highly recommend the feeder here for condensation free food dispensing. Even a half pack of food has been dispensed by this feeder over many months with no adverse effects :cheers:
https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/tank-equipment-reviews/automatic-feeders/ (https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/tank-equipment-reviews/automatic-feeders/)
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Thanks for all the suggestions!
Unfortunately I don't have anyone who could come around and add/remove vegetables to the tank. However growing algae on rocks is something I could try (I do have some smooth aquarium pebbles somewhere), and Snail Stixx. With algae wafers, my danios would swim off with them in their mouths and other fish would chase them until they dropped it!
I try to avoid condensation on the FishMate by making sure it is high above the water level by putting something underneath it, and leaving the lid up. However it does have it limitations with only 14 feeding slots (so can't be used for more than 2 weeks), and food going in gradually over a couple of hours, meaning greedy fish will spend all day swimming under the Fishmate and get the food first! How does the other feeder attach to a tank?
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My BNs love algae grown on stones or wood.
I also use the Repashy foods to coat pieces of wood prior to setting, which are also very popular.
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The fish feeder I gave the link for just sits on top of the tank lid near the opening. Oase bought Eden a couple of years back so this video is of the same feeder to demonstrate...
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@Littlefish I will give those a go (I have some driftwood I could coat in Morning Wood), although I suspect my pleco might eat everything in a day or 2!
@Matt The feeder does look good, and it would be nice to not worry about condensation, my only concern would be the amount of food it distributes in a feed. I can't seem to find much info on the quantity of food it distributes per feed. Does it distribute food in small amounts?
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The amount of food is adjustable :) you can both adjust the hole size for the amount that drops through and the number of rotations ie the number of times it dispenses.
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I got some feeders very similar to the ones Matt has mentioned. I got the Eheim ones for while I was working away from home before the big relocation. I've found them very useful, and as Matt has said, adjustable for amount dispensed, and can set it to feed several times a day.
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Thanks @Matt and @Littlefish, I have just ordered an autofeeder now! I went for the Eheim one in the end as I prefer battery operated.