Feeding Stations

[Paul B]

All fish in the sea know how to find their food and in a tank it is even easier for them. The problem is that in the sea Mother Nature supplies food all day, every day. We as humans have other lives and usually don't want to feed our fish continousely. At least I don't. Also some fish are just designed to eat a tiny bit all day because that is just the way their digestive systems were designed. Fish like pipefish and seahorses don't even have a real stomach, just a short tube that acts like a stomach and intestine. These types of fish can not store food as other fish can. Other fish with similar digestive systems are mandarins and any other fish that normally lives on tiny food such as pods. These fish can not even eat a large meal if it were offered to them which is also the reason for their tiny mouths.
For this reason I am a big advocate of feeding stations.
My tank is old and loaded with pods so I really don't have to do this but sometimes a certain fish needs a little help even if the tank is full of pods.
I recently aquired a baby female that is very skinny. I am hoping she matures to mate with my large male.
I hatch and feed live baby brine shrimp to my tank every day and most of the fish eat them, even the larger gobies but this food disappears in a few minutes. Some of it gets skimmed off or caught in powerheads and the rest migrate to the surface because baby brine shrimp are attracted to light.
Most fish that would eat pods, live on the bottom so that food is lost to them.
This feeding station is designed for baby brine shrimp. It is just a plactic container with a mesh over it that barely passes baby brine.
It also has a tube running to the surface so I can fill it with shrimp.
I fill it in the morning and fish just hang around it all day sucking out shrimp.
Many shrimp also escape to be caught by the corals.
About 15 years ago I designed and patented this type of feeding station for adult brine shrimp.
http://www.breedersregistry.org/Articles/v4_i3_paul_b/paul_b.htm (I do not sell these)
I have also used a different type of feeding station to feed moorish Idols.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Another interesting contraption Paul. What did you use, an old fish net screen or something?

 

[Paul B]

Yes, an old fish net. I tested a few to see if the baby brine shrimp could get through and I found one. I have nets all over the place.

 

[Paul B]

I love this stuff. I modified it a little by adding a better funnel on the top so I can just pour in the baby brine and I added a tiny hole at the bend at the bottom of the acrylic so the air comes out of the tube before it goes in the feeder container.
I also sealed a couple of lead weights in it just for the heck of it.

 

[malulu]

thank you for the great idea...
i may make something similar when i got a chance later.

 

[Paul B]

I replaced that small funnel with this. It was a small plastic container of ink for a printer

 

[TanksNStuff]

I hope you cleaned it really good first.

 

[Paul B]

I hope you cleaned it really good first.

No, I left some ink in there because I want some magenta colored fish

 

[malulu]

i am more thinking of: A + B ==> C

A

B

 

[Paul B]

OK, but then what is C?

 

[malulu]

OK, but then what is C?

i said "thinking"...


if couldn't figured out what material that you used for the B yet...
if i ever made one, i will be sure to share here...

 

[TanksNStuff]

What's the ID on the tubing you used Paul?

 

[Paul B]

if couldn't figured out what material that you used for the B yet...

The "B" in my above picture is plastic window screen available everyplace, but that was for adult brine shrimp.

What's the ID on the tubing you used Paul?​

It could be anything, this one looks like 3/16" but it does not matter. I used rigid tubing so I can just lift the thing out to clean. If I leave it in there permanently, it would get covered in growth.

I don't get too crazy about this stuff. I have been living in this house for 33 years so I acumulated a lot of junk, I mean good stuff. I have enough "stuff" laying around to build a space shuttle and I just look through the stuff to see if I have the proper materials to do what I want to do.
Thats why I am not sure of the mesh size or tube size, it is just "stuff" that is laying around.


This is my indoor workshop. I have a larger one in the garage where I can store good "Stuff"

 

[TanksNStuff]

Understandable. I was just wondering what minimum diameter would be needed for the brine to fit through and make it to the feeding station.

 

[malulu]

Understandable. I was just wondering what minimum diameter would be needed for the brine to fit through and make it to the feeding station.

i am thinking may be something big enough to pour them all in the mesh chamber...?? with a long tube with some curves like these below?

The "B" in my above picture is plastic window screen available everyplace, but that was for adult brine shrimp.

but from the pics from you seems a bit harder material and in bright color(all the window screen seems in dark black/green color).

 

[Paul B]

Don't get the window screen confused with the baby brine shrimp feeder. Window screen is only used for adult brine shrimp. For the babies, I used a fish net.
I also used acryllic tubing to get shrimp into the thing. Flexable air tubing will work but then you have to put your hand in the tank to position it and it would be hard to pour baby brine into it.

 

[malulu]

Would this work?

- we can use the SAME window screen made brine shrimp feeder for normal use
- and add a fish-net bag on to it for babies, and can take it off when needed.
- filling step as below picture shown ( no wet hands )

 

[TanksNStuff]

Fix your pic link David!

 

[malulu]

???

you can't see it?
I can.

----------------

i tried with my coworker's pc, he can not see it, I must be reading from my local cachethanks,
i fixed it. (by re-upload again)
thx!!!

 

[Paul B]

That should work.