Fish Mate F14 Aquarium Fish Feeder

I was very hesitant to buy an auto feeder. I’ve read enough horror stories with regard to malfunctions, but needed to start looking into options while preparing for a 2 week honeymoon. My fish are good to skip a day, even two of feeding, but 2 weeks will be too long. This is far from perfect, but it does what you need it to do!It’s a little tedious to set up since you do it day by day, but once you get the hang of it it’s very easy to refill. I filled it and had it empty into a cup for a few days on my counter before putting it over the tank just to be super sure that it was functioning properly. You’ll have to play around with the timing but it’s easy to set once you understand. I have a community tank so I use a few different types of food including different size pellets, flakes, and blood worms. This auto feeder has no issue accommodating anything you put in because it’s basically just pushing each slot of food over a hole at whatever interval you set. I don’t feel like it’s all that sturdy hanging above the tank, and it definitely looks pretty slanted sitting up there, but it is what it is. You can hear time ticking in it sort of like a clock, but it’s not too loud.This definitely has its quirks, but I trust it a whole lot more than a drum auto feeder or a family member/friend who thinks the fish need to be fed more than what you leave out for them..! Overall 5 stars because while it’s a little cheap feeling, it does do exactly what it advertises!

Any review of this product needs to start with how it works which may not be readily apparent from the photos and description. The feeder is composed of a plastic ring divided into 14 equally sized compartments; the sections partition the food into the 14 different feedings. The timer in the middle moves one revolution in 24 hours and has spots to place 4 pegs; as these pegs near the top (12 o'clock) position, they engage with inside of the ring and over the course of about 2 hours push the ring around 1/14th of a revolution. This in turn pushes the compartment at 6 o clock over the opening and any food will fall into the water below. This is a rather simple mechanism but leads to some quirks that are the focus of this review.The first issue with this design is that the ring simply lays inside the feeder and isn't held very tightly. which means that the ring can rotate out of position easily. The design also means that if there is any food under the ring, it can lift it up and it will "miss" food; this practically means that you must put it down empty and then fill the compartments; if you need to pick the ring up for any reason you basically have to start over filling it. The documentation also states that it feeds over the course of two hours; while it might take two hours for the compartment to fully move over the hole, in practice the food gets piled up against the left wall of the compartment as it is pushed around in its path and ends up basically getting mostly dumped in at the end of the two hours. I am using Hikari micro pellets and loach wafers, and I would say if I have it set to feed at 6, most of the food will get dropped into the tank between about 7:30 and 8. It will also get pushed in, I haven't experienced where the food doesn't get dropped in, it just isn't as spread out in time as the paperwork would make it seem. Also, if you don't line the compartments up perfectly with the whole, you may get where it doesn't drop all of the food at say your 6am feeding; it will however push the remaining food in at the next set time.The other issue I have is that the times you can select are fairly inflexible; IIRC there are 6 possible feeding times; if you don't like then those are you can simply set the time on the feeder to compensate (for instance, if you don't want it to start at 6 but instead 7, set the time on the device an hour ahead). However, you cannot make the feedings closer together or spread out than what it is designed for. This isn't a huge huge issue but I would have liked more time options or one where I could set it any time I wanted.All of this being said, the feeder hasn't had problems with moisture which was my biggest fear; the pellets have stayed dry and I am not using the air tube option that the feeder has. It is fairly easy to load and to take on and off its mounting brackets, and when empty I can wipe it down to clean it. I also like that I can change what I am feeding the fish from day to day unlike other feeders; some days I include algae wafers for the snails and in others I put in some other foods that I don't give but a few times a week. I appreciate that I can load it on Sundays when I do water changes and don't have to worry about it; I do check it periodically just because that is how I am, but I really haven't needed to mess with it. I haven't had it long enough to check the battery life claim but I see no reason that it wouldn't last a long time; it is basically a wall clock mechanism and those seem to last a while.Overall I would recommend this feeder over the kind that rotate and dispense all the food; while it is a little fussy, I think that the more analog way this works is more reliable and I like the flexibility in food I can use. Overall it has been a good device and I'm glad we have it.

I’m a teacher and my classroom tank needed to be low maintenance so this thing came to the rescue. Although a bit delicate to fill without making a mess and making sure fish food disc is in right place this thing is great. I have it set on top of my light above glass lid so I don’t have too much moisture issues. I love being able to set reminder on phone for every 14 days and then just check it every once in a while to make sure it’s running. Same battery for over a year so far and it’s still going strong!I love being able to do whatever food I want in there since I have bottom feeders, shrimp and surface feeders so I load each bin with 3 different foods. Can’t do that with those barrel feeders. Works great!Bought a second one for my home tank for vacations!