Frozen food feeder - what food breaks down quickly?

[hllb]

I have a feeder similar to this one. I want to use it when I'm on vacation so my neighbor can just drop a chunk of pre-portioned frozen food into the feeder. However, in my trials of this, most of the food stays together in cube form even after it's thawed. I've tried to set it up directly in front of the return hoping water flow would do it, but no luck. I use Ocean Nutrition brand food and it must have some kind of gel to keep it together. I don't want to pre-thaw food for my neighbor as I wouldn't want it sitting around more than a couple of days.

Does anyone have a feeder like this and have a different food that breaks down better when thawed, so it actually releases into the tank?

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[James_O]

I know that mysis cubes release pretty quickly. You can test it out a couple of days before you leave, just to make sure it works.

 

[hllb]

I know that mysis cubes release pretty quickly. You can test it out a couple of days before you leave, just to make sure it works.

That reminded me that I have some mysis cubes in there. My fish much prefer the other food so I don't feed it often. I'll try it!

 

[Jekyl]

Don't think I'd try to use an auto feeder for frozen. There will be left overs that will stick to it and rot.

 

[littlebeard]

I find that getting the cube spinning is key to getting the frozen food to distribute quickly. Adjust the location of the top hole(s) (I use the Innovate Marine one which has 2 holes on the top and 2 on the bottom.) I also suggest putting it in an area with high flow to increase the movement of the cube.

I actually really love mine and use it all the time now. The fish all gather underneath it.

When I went away, I used the silicone ice cube trays and filled it with whatever I wanted and it distributed just fine.

 

[hllb]

Don't think I'd try to use an auto feeder for frozen. There will be left overs that will stick to it and rot.

It's not an auto feeder. It's just a ring that you drop the food into. When I feed, I turn the return pump off for 10 minutes, but my neighbor won't know how to do that. So I'm just looking for something to keep most of the food from being pulled into the return in the first minute of feeding. I've used this for a week or so when testing out various foods and nothing sticks to it.

 

[hllb]

I find that getting the cube spinning is key to getting the frozen food to distribute quickly. Adjust the location of the top hole(s) (I use the Innovate Marine one which has 2 holes on the top and 2 on the bottom.) I also suggest putting it in an area with high flow to increase the movement of the cube.

I actually really love mine and use it all the time now. The fish all gather underneath it.

When I went away, I used the silicone ice cube trays and filled it with whatever I wanted and it distributed just fine.

That's the one I have too (I couldn't remember the brand LOL). I did try to adjust the holes and set it up on the front of the tank in front of my return, but it still didn't break up the food.

 

[elorablue]

PE Mysis and Hikari spirulina brine both break up nicely ime

 

[hllb]

PE Mysis and Hikari spirulina brine both break up nicely ime

I'm going to try the mysis right now and see!

 

[hllb]

Yes, the PE Mysis works much better. My fish just don't seem to like it as well, but they do eat it, so that should work pretty well for vacations. I wanted a good way to do frozen because last time we were gone, we fed pellets and my flameback angel then developed a taste for my trachy. So clearly, he did not consider pellets being 'well fed' LOL.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

I drop frozen Brine and Mysis from Hikari in my return section and it floats until it breaks apart and gets fed to the tank via the return pumps. It works really well. I do have a small power head in the return chamber to keep any food from settling to the bottom.

 

[davidcalgary29]

I keep returns and powerheads on and let the food fly all over my tanks. The fish (especially the angels and the trigger) seem to enjoy that.