How to feed when away on vacation?

[Neptune 555]

looking for some ideas... I am going away on vacation in a few months and wondering how to care for my fish?

I have mandarins... and hopefully by then blue striped pipefish. Currently I feed worms frozen and bbs that I hatch. I do have a fish helper BUT he is not a real fish person... I typically have him feeed flake and frozen only. I will be gone 8 nights 9 days. If I dump a bottle of pods in before I leave will they be fine w flake and frozen? Ideas?

Neptune

 

[Paul B]

I designed a feeder for that very purpose. I don't have a link on here but it is basically almost the same as my mandarin feeder only a lot bigger. On the tube that goes up there is a funnel just above the water. Over that is a flake food feeder which I fill with brine shrimp eggs. I adjust the feeder to add just a little eggs twice a day to the funnel. The funnel also has a very little water being pumped into it to push the eggs down.
The eggs go into the feeder and hatch every 12 hours or so. The pipefish and mandarins sit on the thing and eat all day long. I have used this many times with no problem. After the week, I carefully remove it and rump out the egg shells.
Here is a video of the thing.

http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/2014-07-30100431_zpscad01dd8.mp4.html?sort=3&o=300

 

[Rob Lion]

What a brilliant solution!

Paul can you please share more details on this.... like what's in the box, size of mesh on top etc, do you bubble air into it? success rate of eggs hatching? do you feed the shrimp once hatched?

 

[eleet]

That is awesome.

 

[Rob Lion]

yay, I found the article Paul.

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/diy-brine-shrimp-hatchery-shell-separator-2842/

gives me so many ideas

 

[Paul B]

That's my hatchery in the link you posted and is for my regular feeder that I use every day. The auto vacation feeder is that white box with the funnel over the water.
I put all those things in my book so I didn't have to look for the pictures all the time.
The eggs go into that box, which is any box. That one is a piece of PVC fence post with an end cap on it but any plastic box will do. The eggs go into that thing a couple of times a day and continuously hatch so the fish have food all week. Eventually you need to clean out the egg shells.
Video

 

[Rob Lion]

i'm guessing that would work with decapsulated eggs too... to save on the egg shells and maybe have cleaner eggs as well?

what if we added a little food down the pipe with the eggs, say some phyto or spirilina powder, would the naupilli get to eat it within the box before they leave to make the grow a little, or not enough time?

 

[redfishbluefish]

I use Eheim Every Day Feeder.....works great. Note that since I couldn't turn off my pumps to feed, I also include a feeding ring that I simply DIY'ed out of some tubing.

 

[wowkingjames]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Paul B]

You can use de capsular end eggs. I would not put any food in there because new born shrimp do not eat. They will all be eaten before they absorb their yolk sac

 

[Rob Lion]

ok thanks paul, how about if the tank box was infact 3 boxes, like your black box/ clear box design, eggs go into black box, hatch... they follow the light threw a small tube into the larger box that is clear on one end to let light in, where we dose some phyto, then have just a small tube exit that to the round feeder with the mesh on top?

I guess what I am trying to do is get the naupilli to grow for a day to make them bigger before the fish get them.

 

[Paul B]

Sounds a lot more complicated and remember the eggs need circulation to get a good hatch. The method I use, there is a small amount of water pumped into the box, not enough to wash the eggs out but enough to keep them fresh. They hatch and head toward the light at the top where the fish are waiting

 

[Rob Lion]

adding a bubbler wouldn't be an issue, but yes more complicated with food dosing, but maybe worth it for bigger BBS.
or putting the feeder system down in the sump/refugium, but not sure how many BBS would survive the return pump.
I'm not looking for masses of BBS, just a steady flow for 12 hrs a day without contaminants, I love the idea of using an automatic feeder to drop eggs into a box to turn into live food for fish, have a pump purge that pipe to keep it clean ready for the next day.

I've seen these online too, but i'd like to make my own custom one.

 

[Paul B]

That one you pictured will expel the new born brine shrimp into the tank where they will be lost to filtration or they will head to the surface and be forgotten about. Mine keeps the shrimp at the bottom where mandarins and pipefish eat.

 

[Rob Lion]

yep, that's why I don't like their design, but i'm think that rather than the outlet going to the tank for fish to feed upon them, they enter some type of holding/maturing tank, where they can be feed for a day or 2 before being ejected out with a water pump/ overflow.

 

[Paul B]

You want to have the fish eat the new born shrimp as soon as they are born because as they age (during a day) they become less nutritious as they absorb their yolk sack