TetraVacation Feeder

I did a 5-day test; I removed the foil, dropped the tray of food in the tank; the fish all instantly attacked it in a feeding frenzy (I hadn't fed them yet). Went out the first day, came back, noted that the fish were satiated, were only pecking at it occasionally. By this time, the agar had swelled a little, making a film of white on the food block. This might be what some reviews (here and for TetraVacation) are calling "mold". It's not mold, it's agar; inert as far as the fish and tank water are concerned.

Then I re-read the reviews, and realized that an extra comma in the instructions made me miss the fact that I was actually supposed to remove the tray from the food as well. Took the tray with food out of the tank, flipped it over, and the food block fell right out -soaking in water had loosened it. (The only reason I can see to remove the tray is to prevent it from being flipped over by a bottom feeder; that would make the food inaccessible, as one reviewer noted.)

As of this writing, it's 5 days into the test. Most of the food block is left, I still see the fish eating it now and then, their bellies look full, they're pooping as usual, and they're acting normal. The tank water has never been better; ph 7.0, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all zero. I haven't been feeding them anything else during this time.

So, it looks like this thing works. Reading these reviews got me so paranoid that I was afraid to try it. But as far as I can tell, many of the reviews are misleading -either they didn't remove the tray, don't know what agar is, don't test or maintain their tank water quality, or maybe overfeed their fish in the first place. I'll reserve the possibility that maybe only guppies like this stuff, and other fish don't -no way for me to test for that.

10 Gal tank of about 10 guppies, ranging in age from fry to adult, hang-on-tank filter pulling through undergravel filter (using the undergravel as a prefilter and biomass). Heater set at around 77 deg F.

Recommendations for the folks who make Tetra: You've got a good product here, and I'd like to keep using it. It would be a shame to see it not sell well; as far as I can tell, it's much better than the plaster blocks. Here's what I'd do:

(1) Rewrite the sentence "Remove foil seal, and tray, drop...". It's too easy to misread that. Try instead something like: "Remove foil seal, remove feeding block from tray, then drop..." Maybe add a hint about soaking the tray in water if it's difficult to remove.

(2) Add a sentence about the agar, so people know what to expect in appearance.

(3) Add a whole paragraph about water quality and temperature. I think some of your critics might be getting poor results because they're trying to leave their fish untended in an unfiltered bowl, or in a tank that is poorly maintained.

The first (AND LAST!) time I tried this was on a 9 day vacation. Since I hadn't used this particular type before I had a family member who lives next door keep tabs on the fish every day that I was gone and feed them as needed. Good thing because my fish did not like this stuff at all.

I researched reviews further and found that a lot of people had the same results.

Note: I read the instructions carefully and did in fact remove the food block (more like a puck) from the tin-like tray.

On my previous vacation, if I recall correctly, I used the feeder pyramids from API. Those worked great.

TIP:

Before using any type of vacation feeders, test them out prior to needing them to ensure your fish will be okay. Or have a trusted friend or relative check on your fish to make sure they're doing okay.

Buy TetraVacation Feeder Now

I tried two of these gel feeders in two different tanks when I was gone for a week. When I returned both feeders were untouched. The fish survived but I won't try these again. I'm going back to conventional feeder blocks.

Other Tetra products have worked well for me.

Read Best Reviews of TetraVacation Feeder Here

"Yeah, I should have known better

To take a chance on ever losing you"

(Jim Diamond)

This sticky, nasty ugly food

I dropped into my tank

I came back 10 days later and

My house was smelling rank

The block was sitting there untouched

The fish were glassy eyed

They'd rather die than have to eat

The food I'd placed inside

The moral of this story is

Beware this feeding block

Use only if you plan to thin

Your current fishy stock.

In all seriousness, don't use this product. My tropical fish starved themselves to death rather than eat a bite of this nasty-textured gel feeder. I've used the white ones that look like shells and starfish with no problems, so I'm extremely disappointed in this one, and the fish even more so.

Amanda Richards, August 21, 2010

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I was really hoping that this would work for my goldfish. My goldfish have voracious appetites, and at first I thought that they might eat it all up and get really sick if I put the whole feedder in the tank. I decided to try it out before I went on vacation. After leaving the feeder in for two days, they hardly touched the food. The product has been in my tank for 4 days and it has not clouded the water, but my fish are not eating it.