Automatic feeder or 7-day cubes for vacation

[Capslock]

Hello,

I have a clown fish as well as two corals, a candy cane and a brain worm.

I feed my clown fish twice a day with frozen brine shrimp and I am not at the point where I will be on a one week vacation for the holidays.

I have seen at the LFS small cubes that supposedly have a natural time delay to feed fish for a given number of days (7,day, 14 day, etc).

What would you recommend, an auto feeder device or one of these food cubes? Is there any warnings that I should be aware of on a user experience for either of these techniques?

Most of my trips are 7 to 12 days.

I already made up a auto-top off, it just needs to be expanded to hold more water.

 

[b33]

I would chose the auto feeder. It has been my experence that the time release feeders make the water cloudy. I am not sure that when I used the time release ones that my fish even ate any of it. They sure did appear to be very hungry when I arrived back at home.

 

[Anonymous]

Time release food feed the tank water, not the fish. Auto feeder is a better choice if the clownfish eat the food dispense from it.

 

[cindre2000]

Is this the 46 bow, and are the clownfish the only fish? Since I would just not feed them. But the autofeeder is the better choice.

 

[Capslock]

it is the 46 bow, and there is only a single clownfish in the tank - i feed him twice per day.

There are also have two stars, a couple hermits and snails as well as two corals

 

[mr_X]

can you get someone to stop by and look in on the tank every 3-4 days or so? if you can, i'd rather go that route. the clown will be more than fine with skipping a few meals. what will you put in that auto feeder anyway? most likely stuff you wouldn't ordinarily feed your fish.

 

[Nemo2007]

I've used both though I have not used the time-released stuff in some time. The auto feeder is the best option of the two. You have to have excellent filtration fir the former choice.

When considering an autofeeder, I have a preference for those that can handle pellets and other alternatives to flakes. Why? The discharge is more uniform.

In general, I agree with Mr. X but if you ask someone to stop by, they may overfeed your fish. I don't know if people just get excited when they see fish eat or what? To avoid this you can set out pre-measured amounts of food with strict instructions.