Making a Discus Feeding Station????

[Mxx]

Has anyone had any experience in making a 'feeding station', to keep mostly frozen food concentrated in one place instead of having it spread out and make a big mess in the tank, especially for a very large tank with gravel and heavy planting?

What I was thinking of doing was making something that is essentially like a shelf or even a box-like trough. So that at feeding time I could hang that along the front, dump in a load of frozen food, and then remove it along with any uneaten food afterwards.

To feed eight adult discus it could be say an acrylic box which is 12" tall, 12" wide, and 18" long, with one side open but a 2" tall rim along the open side of the bottom shelf bit? Perhaps I should even have a 'gate' along the open side so that I could toss in the frozen food and let it thaw and sink to the bottom of the shelf before lifting the gate to let in the fish.

A 'box-trough wouldn't be the easiest thing to take in and out and store though, while a shallow shelf could just fold up and wouldn't require a large hood opening to remove. So it could just be a shelf with a 2" rim all the way around it, though I'm not sure that would contain the food effectively enough or give it proper chance to thaw.

I've done a similar thing in a smaller tank, where I'd let the frozen food thaw in a big plastic cup and then lay the cup on its side in the tank, so the fish would enter or hover outside it to eat their fill instead of having the food blow all over the tank and getting sucked into the filters.

I'd likely make the feeding station out of tinted acrylic, but I am also a little worried about the danger of the corners so I was wondering whether I'd need to bother with the trouble of making rounded corners for it.

[two utes]

Have you tried using one of these? If you only feed little amounts at a time your fish will eat it up as it escapes through.

66785

[Mxx]

I'd been reviewing the experiences with feeding cones that other members had reported just prior to posting this thread. And the reviews sounded decidedly mixed. I've used one myself some time back when I experimented with feeding live tubifex worms, but I never tried it with frozen food. The concerns generally seem to be that the dominant fish get much more food than the less dominant ones, so I was looking for a way to be able to simultaneously supply large amounts of food to all the fish, while not having to worry about uneaten food being lost in the planting. Nor do I want a barebottom tank or to have to siphon after each feeding. So basically looking to still achieve the best of both worlds though.

[Hsunami]

if your using a canister filter point the outtake to force the food into one side of the tank. Thats what it does with mine and all my food is always concentrated on the left side in a nice little mound for me. You just have to play with it

[discolicious]

I have sponges over my intake tubes on two filters. Some of the food invariably gets pulled onto the sponge's surface. My discus hang around the sponge picking the pieces off until it's all gone. I have thought of making plastic, floating "baskets" that would release the food as they pecked at it. My putting more than one, they would probably all get their fill.

[Mxx]

The floating baskets are I think a good idea that might very well work. I suppose that would accomplish much of what I'd have been aiming for, though the potential downside would be that there wouldn't be a way to remove any uneaten food and you'd still be relying upon trying to balance the food thawing and falling out at the same rate that the fish would be eating it. What would be the best way to construct such a thing? A floating acrylic tray with bottom plate which has a grid of 1/2" holes to achieve about 50% free area?

[discolicious]

I think I would try a fine mesh (like the plastic sold at hobby shops for needle point), cut a semi circle and wrap it into a cone. Put a cork ring around the top from a coaster or use styrofoam... Probably have to drop a stone in it to weight it a bit. Whether you use worms, flakes or shrimp, most of it would not fall out until they pecked at it, and I'm sure they would quickly learn to suck it through the grid. If I try one, I'll let you know how it works.

[Northstr31]

Grab yourself a 1 gallon bowl for a goldfish, fill it with tank water, drop the food in it...place on bottom of tank...retrieve it when they empty it. It makes your discus a lot less shy of your hands being in there also...
Anthony

[Vee]

My fish leave a terrible mess at the end of the day and my sponge filters are left completely covered in food bits. I bought some long media bags to enclose my sponges so that they stay clean while they eat their beefheart. I'll let you know if it works.

[Astolfo]

I use 2 nets and they love it, one at each side of the tank so they don;t fight as much. as a matter of fact they do not eat if the food is floating around...

[Mxx]

So no complaints with using nets for feeding? And what sort of netting were you using?

My other concern with using nets or feeder cones was that depending upon what you're feeding, the food might get relatively broken up before they're able to suck it through the barrier and therefore it would make a bigger mess, which is potentially more an issue with the prepared blended mixes. While with a trough or goldfish bowl for instance would allow the fish to perhaps more effectively consume more of the food without losing lots of little bits of it everywhere.

[Astolfo]

my question about the fishbowl is how do you keep the food down? my frozen food floats

[Skip]

my fish seem to devour my beefheart.. maybe cause they are larger and take bigger bites :) but they very rarely leave any mess, thank goodness :)

[Northstr31]

I use the fishbowl technique with blackworms and home-made discus food....anything that sinks will work well. I have used bloodworms in the past, some sink some doesn't. If you thaw it first you should be able to get the majority to sink, then pour it in. They usually nail whatever floats first anyway.
Anthony

[Rex82]

I just throw the food in. they scour the bottom until there aint nothing left to find. never really have much problem about them leaving any behind unless there is a couple chunks in the beefheart.