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Fishmate Automatic Fish Feeder
by broxi3781
I have 4 tropical fish tanks. I quite like my fish and have had some for many years. My Parrot fish have been with us 7 years now and grown from 1 1/2" ugly grey things which I paid £1.35 for to beautiful large fish with a lovely colouration which everyone swears is from artificial dyes, but as I have had them from fry I know it is ... natural. To replace them now could cost up to £60 each. I can't really afford to lose any fish - and the fact is - they may not be what most people would think of as companions, but I am quite attached to them. A week without food will usually not kill your fish - but it may encourage aggressive species to attack each other. Beyond that - I can't imagine the fish like going hungry when we are away so we have tried various means of holiday feeding.
The fishmate is a very handy automatic feeder which can be set to last for 2 weeks with one feeding a day or 1 week with two feedings. There is also an option to set this for feedings a day but then you only get 3.5 days. I have only ever used this for one week so can not comment on using it for longer periods. I set this for 2 feeds a day, but even so it is not really enough food for the very large fish in my 4' tank. They are all destructive plant eaters though - to the point that we can not keep anything growing in this tank. But when we are going to be away I buy a very large batch of plants knowing this will supplement their diet while we are gone, give them a good feed of bloodworms and then use this. The average small tropical fish tank would be very well fed with two feedings a day from this, and most would do fine with one.
This has 14 compartments which are each roughly 1 3/4 centimeters square and 1 cm high. This is attached to a battery operated timer which is quite easily set to feed the fish at the same time each day. You will of course want to be certain to use a new battery - if the battery dies - your fish will not be fed. The device is roughly 14 cm x 11 cm and 4 cm high. There is also an opening to attach an air hose, which would require a separate pump and is meant to keep the food dry. It is quite easy to set - you just poke a small plastic pin in the right time slot.
I like this feeder, but there are issues with it, which I was aware of before purchasing. The first is that it does not dump the food in all at once, but slowly over a period of ten minutes or more on each feeding. This means the most aggressive fish get the most food - but it also means they are less likely to eat their neighbours. Many reviewers have mentioned problems with the dry food clumping up - and I have noticed that dry food will be slightly soggy if I leave the lid off overnight so I can only imagine that in two weeks over the humidity a heated aquarium it would turn to goo. For this reason I have never used flake food. My fish are used to a variety of food so I use pellets in this with a bit of dry bloodworms on the top. This has worked quite well for us - but I have never tried it for the full two weeks.
The next major issue is how to place this in your tank. As mentioned, I have 4 tanks. I can use this on two, but there is no chance of using this with the biorb . The manufacture recommends sitting this on your lid and cutting a hole through the lid for the food to drop through. I suggest you look at what a new lid will cost you before attempting this as many lids would be irrevocably damaged. I was able to place this inside the tank - but this will increase moisture problems. With my youngest sons tank it would be impossible to make a hole in the lid without destroying the whole tank. It would be possible to set this up on a ledge, but require leaving the lid open and placing a glass or plexiglass pane over part of the tank. It must lay flat. There are suction cups which will attach very nicely to a plexiglass square, and I used this in place of my usual vapour guard when on holiday. You must have a flat surface inside the tank to attach this to, and I have serious concerns about leaving this on a rippled vapour guard in case my large fish were able to knock the whole thing in. With smaller fish this will not be an issue. You might be able to set this on something outside the tank with the opening hanging over and the lid off or a sheet of plexiglass across the tank - but this presents issues as well - such as the fact that the fish might jump out and be rotten on the floor when you get home. My tank still had plenty of room for the lid to close - but you may want to leave a slight gap in the lid to allow more airflow.
I really do believe flake food would be a gooey slimy bacteria ridden mess if this is placed inside the tank, and would not recommend using it. Instead I would get the fish used to occasional feedings of pelleted food well before going. I think most fish enjoy the variety anyway - but some will not know what to do with a totally new food. I will also point out that I did not use the airline, although I have plenty of pumps. My reason for this has been my experience that things attached to air pumps walk - or vibrate loose and end up moving. I did not want the feeder in my tank - but this could be pure speculation. If you intend to use the air pump try it for a week at home before you leave. I really can't imagine not doing a trial run to make sure everything is working before you go away anyway. You also need to see exactly how much food this is dumping. Remember - too much food is worse than not enough - especially when you are away and can not clean the filter. Give your fish the same amount they will receive when you are away - and if it isn't eaten up in 5 minutes - reduce the amount.
I also like to have a back up plan - so a good selection of edible plants will leave most vegetarian or omnivore fish with something to graze on. Pure carnivores are usually adapted to going longer without food after a good meal anyway, but very few tropical fish fit this definition.
Overall I do think this is a good product, but I am taking one star off because I do not feel that manufacturer makes clear that this will simply not work with many types of tanks. If you can set up a feeding hole or a ledge in may work quite well - but if not it is a complete waste of money.
Note: please ignore prices on Amazon Marketplace ad above - you can buy this for £15.95 direct from amazon with free postage.
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JBL Ceramic Cave
by pmcds
There are a ridiculous number of accessories that you can buy for your fish tank, and it really depends on the size of the tank and which fish you have. We have relatively small fish and a small tank as well, so when we buy these slightly larger and clunkier accessories, we tend to only have one or two of them in the tank at a time, ... rotating the ones we have.
Every one brings something new and different, and this is one is just over 10cm in diameter. The ceramic design helps it to not gather too much in the way of growth once it has been in there a while, whilst being heavy enough to sustain being next to the water pump if you need. Our fish swim happily in and out of a small entrance hole on the side of the cave, 3cm or so in width that would allows for slightly larger fish as well as the small ones we have.
The hollow nature of it also allows for easy movement, and while we don't tend to move things very often, we have lost a few fish inside features before, and so we're always a little bit paranoid. With this one, it's easy to just tilt it to make sure that there aren't any fish hiding out underneath it. Apparently, it's pretty good for fish who need somewhere quiet and shaded to lay their eggs, although our particular fish don't lay any eggs. We've acquired 6 in total, and although some fish use this feature quite well, it's not really the most popular, if that's even possible. There's no visual quality so spice up your tank from our point of view, and this is actually quite simple and standard.
The £8 price tag that you may find on this is somewhat steep. We were given it as a gift, and so it hasn't dented our funds, but it's not something we'd buy ourselves. The main point of it is as a feature that provides a sort of haven for fish laying eggs, and while this isn't relevant to us, I can see the appeal. That having been said, there are cheaper features that are more visually appealing. I guess this is more of a practical one. I must say that it doesn't seem to gather growth as much as the other features sometimes do.
It's a popular feature for fish to hide, and it's easy to clean, but ultimately it's nothing special for us and isn't cheap considering it's so bland. The ceramic makes it ideal for spawning, but this is not relevant to us. Not a great feature.
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Sydeco Small Jungle Plant
by broxi3781
I would never have bought this ornament myself. I feel £7.99 is ridiculous for a small plastic plant. My MIL is not such a skin flint though, and purchased this when setting up her Bio- orb tank. When she grew tired of the tank, she was kind enough to give it, along with all the decorations to my son. The tank was quite heavily ... decorated, and since my son is keeping a pair of cichlids in the tank, we needed some rocky caves, so I took a few of the decorations for other tanks. This is currently in our beta tank.
I wouldn't normally review a plastic plant. It isn't the most exciting of products and in the past I have never found one brand to really be any different from the next. I have always gone for the cheapest ones, and when they eventually get covered in algae - I have binned them as they are usually a nightmare to clean. If they don't get covered in algae, they usually end up with pieces breaking off eventually and floating about my tank and again - I end up throwing them out. I don't think I've ever kept a plastic plant for over a year. I have now had this plant for roughly two years, and my MIL had it two years before giving it to us.
I really do not know why this plant has never really ended up covered in algae or slime like other plastic plants. I have given it quick wipe with a cloth a few times, but I've never spent much time cleaning it. I have noticed though, you can really tug at this plant without damaging it at all, so I can wrap this with a bit of cloth and pull the cloth over it a few times and it's clean again. I have never pulled any bits off, and this plant looks just like it did the day my MIL first set her tank up.
Our plant is a nice green colour but you can buy this is yellow, orange and purple. I don't want to pull it out of the tank all dripping wet - so I've taken the measurements from Pets at Home :H 15 x W 6 x D 6cm. The plant has a heavy white plastic base that is textured to look like gravel, but we always keep this buried with real gravel. It is a good weight though and never gets knocked loose in the tank - but I have this in with a single Beta. I would expect a large cichlid to be able to knock it about.
I like this plant because it isn't too big. My Beta tank is fairly small and this sits unobtrusively in a corner. I feel this plant best suits smaller tanks, but it could go nicely toward the front of a larger tank. I would prefer a real plant, but I have do not have the proper lighting on this tank for live plants. While the fish will hid behind this at times, he does does not swim into the plant in the same way a beta would with a living plant. Additionally live plants add oxygen to water, remove waste and provide a tasty and healthy snack for some fish. So if I can get proper lighting - I will most likely remove this at some point.
When my MIL purchased this, Pets at Home had several other plants by the same company of different sizes. We did end up with a nice collection of these, but as they are all basically the same except for size I will not be reviewing any more. I will say that all of the Sydeco plants have been easy to clean, stayed where placed in the tank without problems, and still look as good as new. Amazon sells this exact plant for £5.98 but I do not believe you can choose which colour you get. They also have a wide range of these plants in other sizes and a couple of other shapes. If tis size and shape does not suit your tank, I do recommend any plant by this company.
I would never have paid this much for a fake plant, but after having owned this so long - if I ever needed to buy another aquarium plant I would not hesitate to choose this brand. I do however have a number of extra plants in my fish box, so I may well have a lifetime supply of these courtesy of my MIL. I have to admit - she does by the more expensive items, but once again her purchases have worked out more economical in the long run than buying cheap and buying twice or more.
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